Performance

Facing East

1 upcoming performance in New York

At the Blue Note Jazz Club, *Facing East* is presented as a set-length meditation on John Coltrane’s book of compositions, led by vocalist José James with saxophonist Braxton Cook and the enduring presence of Coltrane’s repertoire. The title nods to another “Facing East,” Daniel K. Richter’s reframing of early American history from Native perspectives, and this program similarly shifts vantage point: tribute as interpretation rather than reenactment. In a city where Coltrane’s working life unfolded on bandstands, the evening reads as local cultural continuity. It treats canon as living material, which is its quiet argument.