BLUE TRAIN: A Coltrane Centenary Celebration
Schedule
Wed May 06 2026 at 09:00 am to 11:00 am
UTC+10:00Location
Smith's Alternative | Canberra, CT
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$30/20One of the greatest albums in jazz, performed live and in full
Geoff’s Jazz at Smith’s presents:
ALEX RAUPACH trumpet
JOHN MACKEY tenor saxophone
RHYS MOORE trombone
HUGH BARRETT piano
MAX ALDUCA bass
MARK SUTTON drums
Performing Coltrane’s Blue Train.
The five notes that open Blue Train are as indelible to the sound of jazz as the opening of Beethoven's Fifth is to the symphony. Those five notes ushered in the rapturous, virtuosic summit of the hard-bop era, and have reached out and imprinted themselves on the imaginations of every generation of fledgling jazz musicians that has followed.
2026 marks 100 years since the birth of John Coltrane, who took the artistry of the jazz soloist to new virtuosic heights and new spiritual depths. In 1957, his star already ascendant, and already setting the standard of mid-century jazz as a member of Miles Davis's 'First Great Quintet', Coltrane was still hard at work as an artist – sculpting the contours of a new sound of his own, and assembling a star cast to document it for the label of the moment, Blue Note Records. Alongside a sextet of fellow giants that included trumpeter Lee Morgan and trombonist Curtis Fuller, he laid down BLUE TRAIN, an album that contains both a definitive account of the 1950s style and the harmonic seeds of his great creative flowerings to come in albums like Giant Steps and A Love Supreme.
For the Coltrane centenary, trumpeter Alex Raupach has assembled a star Australian cast to celebrate with a performance of Blue Train live in its entirety. Featuring the post-Coltrane mastery of John Mackey, a firecracker rhythm section, and a rising star in trombonist Rhys Moore, who at just 19 is turning heads around Australia and overseas with an astounding melodic fluency, the evening promises a joyful tribute to one of the greatest albums in the history of jazz.
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Where is it happening?
Smith's Alternative, 76 Alinga Street,Canberra,ACT,AustraliaEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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