Category: Jazz

John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme”, covered and funkifized


John Medeski, Skerik & Adam Deitch – A Love Supreme (John Coltrane cover)
August 13, 2011 Stratton, VT @ Royal Family Affair

To celebrate John Coltrane’s 85th birthday, I bring you two funkifized covers of Coltrane’s seminal recording with his “Classic Quartet”: “A Love Supreme.”

The first cover is a recent performance of a once-only band: John Medeski (of Medeski, Martin & Wood), Skerik (of Garage A Trois & The Dead Kenny Gs) and Adam Deitch (of Lettuce, Break Science & Eric Krasno’s Chapter 2). This one starts out very spacey until Deitch drops his hip-hop inflected beats, creating a wicked groove. The full recording of the show can downloaded at etree.

The second cover is from a 2002 performance by “Mike Clark & Friends.” Mike Clark is, of course, the legendary jazz-funk drummer that started out with Herbie Hancock & The Headhunters. Mike Clark’s “friends” on this occassion were Jessica Lurie (of Living Daylights) on sax and flute, as well as the core of Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey: Brian Haas on fender rhodes and Reed Matthis on bass.

This one is quite a journey. Of special note is the middle section (about 7.5 minutes in) in which Haas takes over the bass lines on the rhodes and Matthis begins to play the lead with his bass running through an octave pedal. They definitely take this piece to a place it’s never been before (or since).


Mike Clark & Friends – A Love Supreme (John Coltrane cover)
July 20, 2002 Oxford, OH @ Camp Buzz 9

Special thanks to Mike Wren for the use of his photos and Rob Clarke for the audio!

The New Mastersounds – From Leeds To Louisville (VIDEO)

If you’re not aware, The New Mastersounds are a hard working, non-stop touring, (mostly) instrumental funk machine from Leeds, England. On May 31, 2011, their tour swung through the Bluegrass State. Attendance was somewhat sparce due to the My Morning Jacket album release show occurring at the Louisville Palace the same night (a show that featured Erykah Badu as a special guest and was webcasted live to youtube by VEVO & American Express).

Nonetheless, The New Mastersounds gave all of their energy, playing over 2 hours without a set break. They even went off the written setlist for an impromptu cover of James Brown’s Get On The Good Foot. It was clear that they were having a great time, even if it was a Tuesday night and the crowd contained barely 100 people.

I shot about 30 minutes of stage-side video, which has been upgraded with my friend’s on-stage audio recording. This video contains 5 songs: Run the Gauntlet, You Got It All > Mark’s Red Guitar, Six Underground & Get On The Good Foot (James Brown cover):

If you’re in the Bluegrass State, The New Mastersounds will be back this Wednesday, September 7th, at Cosmic Charlies in Lexington, Kentucky.

Return To Forever covers Freddie Hubbard’s Red Clay (AUDIO)

Return To Forever IV – Romantic Warrior (inc. Red Clay at 14min15sec)
June 21, 2011 Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theatre

When Return To Forever played the Murat Theatre on their 2008 reunion tour, Lenny White remarked about his time playing with Freddie Hubbard (who was from Indianapolis). Then, during his 13 minute drum solo (in the middle of a 39 minute Romantic Warrior), White proceeded to tease Hubbard’s seminal composition, Red Clay, but only for 2 bars.

Fast forward to Return To Forever’s 2011 tour, same town, same theatre, and the entire band locks into the Red Clay groove for about 3 minutes in the middle of a 20 minute rendition of Romantic Warrior.

Fortuitously, I was recording the audio of said 20 minute Romantic Warrior on my iPhone4 with the Blue FiRe app. The audio is mono, but the quality is close to excellent. I also recorded the next tune, Spain. Go ahead, press play.

Return To Forever IV – Spain
June 21, 2011 Indianapolis @ Murat Theatre

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