A Weekend on the 'Trane

When John Coltrane introduced "Chasin' the Trane" 45 years ago at The Village Vanguard, he immediately split the jazz world in two. It was perhaps the most extreme, avant-garde piece of jazz ever heard. Although "Chasin'" has come to be regarded as one of Coltrane's masterpieces, the piece continues to have a polarizing effect on listeners: Either you're for it or against it.

Jazz at Lincoln Center prominently featured "Chasin' the Trane" at both of the concerts in its celebration of Coltrane's 80th birthday this weekend. On Friday, it was played in the original trio format (with just bass and drums) by tenor saxophonist Todd Williams; then on Saturday, it was arranged for the JLC Orchestra by musical director Wynton Marsalis. In both cases, it was a considerably defanged version. The tune was stripped of its shrieks and squawks and its power to shock. Yet even shorn of those more controversial aspects, "Chasin' the Trane" continues to hold up as a fundamental, earthy blues, and it still sounds very good, even if it may no longer be what Coltrane intended when he spontaneously composed it at the Vanguard.

Mr. Marsalis's approach to the compositions of the major post-modernists has been to align their music in a very tangible way with the older jazz tradition. At times, he seems to orchestrate and recompose these melodies as if they had been written by Duke Ellington or Billy Strayhorn. While some purists will object to Mr. Marsalis's failure to address the avant-garde side of Coltrane's music, his interpretations are very personal and no less valid.

The big-tent event of the two-ring Coltrane celebration was the full JLC orchestra playing new treatments of Coltrane classics, arranged by Mr. Marsalis along with orchestra members Victor Goines, Ted Nash, Vincent Gardner, and Rich DeRosa. The closest thing to "outside" playing in the program was the 1959 "Harmonique," in which Coltrane contrasted an old-fashioned waltz time signature with a modern demonstration of his split-tone technique, essentially hitting two notes at once on the tenor.

Mr. Marsalis may draw his inspiration from earlier jazz, but his treatments were in no way predictable, as on the opener, "Giant Steps." Coltrane played it faster than humanly possible, but Mr. Marsalis kicked it off in a dance tempo. When it came time for the tenor saxist Walter Blandings to solo, he doubled and quadrupled the time, using Coltrane's vertical, sheets-of-sound technique, but without imitating his tenor timbre.

Thirty years ago, the concept of repertory jazz was essentially introduced when George Wein's New York Jazz Repertory Company played Louis Armstrong's "West End Blues" with four trumpets. The Lincoln Centurians did the same for Coltrane in expanding his most popular piece, "My Favorite Things," for orchestra: The brass section began by playing the pianist McCoy Tyner's modal vamp, and the meat of the chart saw all five reed players phrase the melody on unison sopranos.

As with Coltrane, the improvisations started after the opening 16 bars — each of the five got to solo — and the B section of Richard Rodgers's waltz was not heard until the end, more as a coda than a bridge. The second-half closer was a mini-suite assembled from three of Coltrane's blues-based tunes ("Chasin' the Trane," "Grand Central," and "The Sleeper") and one of his few works for large ensemble, "Africa."

The smaller but no less successful concert was titled "Coltrane/Hartman," and it co-starred the singer Kevin Mahogany and the tenorist Todd Williams, with my favorite Marsalis rhythm section: Eric Reed on piano, Reginald Veal on bass, and Herlin Riley on drums. The intention was not only to sing the praises of the beloved "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman" album recorded in 1963 with the great vocalist, but to celebrate Coltrane's "Classic Quartet" of the early 1960s.

Here, Mr. Williams came blindfold-test close to replicating Coltrane's tenor timbre of the period, while Mr. Mahogany, though deeply influenced by Hartman, showed that he has a somewhat higher voice and more of a gospel influence than the late Hartman.The two stars were both true to their source material as well as to themselves, so much so that no one would mistake this show, any more than the big band concert, as the audio equivalent of a wax museum.