Sangeeta Michael Berardi: Calling Coltrane
Yes, John Coltrane left us a trove of compositions and recordings. But perhaps more importantly, he left us something that is harder to contain or explain– a spiritual approach to sound-making. That is what this record concerns itself with. Imitation may be flattery, but it’s not very interesting to listen to, and it often traps us in the past.
Sangeeta Michael Berardi tells his own story through a skilled re-envisioning of the great jazz ancestor’s spirit. Calling Coltrane is a testament that jazz is not a museum piece, as some would have us believe, but a living, breathing music. A sound that is alive and kicking!
Only “Wise One” is straight from the Coltrane songbook. On the head, Sangeeta is both Trane and McCoy Tyner, sax and piano, with command of the lulling rubato melody and also the accompanying chords. Sangeeta’s playful guitar tone sounds like the phrases are spun through the ripples in a lake; rolling reverberations in concentric circles. It’s a duet with drummer, Peter O’Brien, and the pair never leave us wanting a fuller band. They’re not afraid to use space to their benefit, or conversely, to fill it with enormous sound.
On first listen, the textures on the record stand out. There’s something almost alien or science-fictional about Sangeeta’s electric guitar sounds in the midst of a Coltrane-esque sonic space. One can imagine what may have happened if Trane had been on this planet a bit longer and decided to go electric like Miles.
The whole album is ripe with duets, and laid out with an internal rhythm. Listening all the way through, it takes on a suite-like form, where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Full-band compositions by John Esposito are intro and outro. In the center is Sangeeta’s composition, “Six for Rashied,” in a rollicking 3/4 time. Bassist Hilliard Greene holds a loose bass ostinato and drummer, O’Brien joins him in freely holding the time, while soloists contribute elongated phrases with a more open-improvisation sensibility consistent with the rest of the record. Surrounding this middle, pivot-point track, are a series of duets between Sangeeta and various band mates.
Yes, these sounds are alive, present, now. Interesting then, that it was recorded 15 years ago. This record is the second release of a 1996 session. (The first release, Earthship, is also available on Sunjump Records.) So here’s where it may be instructive to know part of Sangeeta’s story. Four years after this was recorded, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s, or “Mr. P” as Sangeeta calls it, and its accompanying hand tremors, render him unable to play the guitar today as we hear it on this record. We could mourn the loss of a talent, but remarkably, Sangeeta is still playing, singing, writing and drawing.
Hindsight is a strange thing. We didn’t know we’d lose Trane at age 40, just as surely Sangeeta didn’t know “Mr. P” would visit four years after this recording was made. Yet there’s a prescient urgency in this recording, and we are lucky listeners.
– Emma Alabaster October 2011