A Love Supreme, Richard Howell plays the legendary John Coltrane

***

Richard Howell´s roots are deeply imbedded in jazz music, the entire Howell household had no other choice then to listen to the wonderful recordings of Count Basie, and the radio was always tuned to the jazz stations. Richard’s father purchased hundreds of jazz records and would expose his children to the proud accomplishments of what his father referred to as “the music of Africans of North America”. Whatever his father wanted to label it, Richard lived and breathed Jazz daily. One day Mr. Howell Sr. came home with the music of John Coltrane and handed it to Richard along with his exclusive permission to use the stereo, triggering a long-time love affair … Enter the music of Duke Pearson, Dexter Gordan, Stanley Turrentine, Roy Haynes, Jazz Crusaders, Charles Toliver, Jackie McClean, Cannonball Adderley, Sony Stitt, Gene Amonds, Gerald Wilson, Roland Kirk, Freddie Hubbard, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Horace Silver, Charles Lloyd, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Doug and Jean Carn – all mixed with the God Father of Soul James Brown. John Coltrane remained a staple for Richard and musical inspiration for many saxophonist worldwide. Richard Howell Latest album “Coming Of Age-MANGAKU’ released on the IYOUWE label by famed drummer Lenny White is receiving critical acclaim nationally and internationally. In August of this year Richard collaborated with award winning choreographer Gregory Dawson of Dawsondancesf to present the world premiere of MANGAKU  with music composed by Richard Howell based on the album and spirited classical ballet amazingly created by Gregory Dawson yielded full houses for two nights at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts theater in San Francisco, California.

Despite a relatively brief career (he first came to notice as a sideman at age 29 in 1955, formally launched a solo career at 33 in 1960, and was dead at 40 in 1967), saxophonist John Coltrane was among the most important, and most controversial, figures in jazz. It seems amazing that his period of greatest activity was so short, not only because he recorded prolifically, but also because, taking advantage of his fame, the record companies that recorded him as a sideman in the 1950s frequently reissued those recordings under his name and there has been a wealth of posthumously released material as well. Since Coltrane was a protean player who changed his style radically over the course of his career, this has made for much confusion in his discography and in appreciations of his playing. There remains a critical divide between the adherents of his earlier, more conventional (if still highly imaginative) work and his later, more experimental work. No one, however, questions Coltrane’s almost religious commitment to jazz or doubts his significance in the history of the music.