The Coltrane Suite portrays Coltrane’s spiritual awakening in 1957, a turning point that changed his life for the remaining ten years before his untimely demise and inspired his commitment to dedicate his music to promote spiritual values in human beings.

The suite is an imaginary journey into the mindstream of the artist, starting with Mother Africa as a background of his legacy, and then continuing with the various stages of his invocation of freedom from suffering, his reawakening, his preaching through his horn, his ascent to a serene dimension, and the holiness of his musical being.

I started to write these compositions around 2013 for my Akashmani Ensemble, and at first I had only one song, called Saint John, which later became Preach on my Horn. Then I had the idea of assembling more compositions and writing new music to prepare a suite dedicated to Coltrane’s spiritual reawakening.

The last piece, All Praise, was written a few weeks before the recording session. As for the main Coltrane character, I was looking for a voice that could carry the whole tradition of the jazz saxophone and that had a big, vibrating sound.

During the spring of 2021, in the last stage of the lockdown, I heard that the great tenor sax legend David Murray was traveling in
Italy with his wife Francesca, and when I contacted him to propose our collaboration he immediately responded positively. The way he interpreted my music and the profound levels of expression he reached through his horn are nothing short of marvelous.

Hamid Drake is a great drummer who can genuinely convey the polyrhythmic features of African drumming. I had thought of him as the right musician for this project from the outset. David Murray and Hamid Drake are two exceptional musicians that I really admire for
what they contributed to the recording. I am grateful to both of them.

The rest of the musicians are all skilled Italian jazz performers, and as in the case of the CD Mingus Suite, the organization of the band was mostly thanks to the leadership of Marco Guidolotti.

The second CD, Other Impressions, contains various compositions inspired by other events and circumstances. Most of them
date back to a decade ago, except Havanera, Afghan Child, and Frenzy Clouds, which were written a few days before the recording session.

After the recording session in Rome in September 2021, I started to work on editing of material  together with Piero Lanza, and then I decided to enrich the musical textures by inviting new musicians and overdubbing other parts to the original recording.
 

I played many instruments myself, including my beloved Venezuelan harp, for the same purpose. Three songs were performed a cappella on the alto sax.