It is a bit of a head-trip to think that Miles Davis and John Coltrane would have both hit the century mark this year. They were born just months apart in 1926, Miles in May and Trane in September. They both became giants on their own, but the moment everyone keeps coming back to is 1959, when they ended up at Columbia’s 30th Street Studio recording Kind of Blue. That record still remains a high-water mark in jazz to this day. It’s the best-selling jazz album ever, and probably the first place a lot of people hear either of them. 

Seattle’s got two big tributes on the calendar this month to celebrate the centennial of these jazz greats. One looks at Miles Davis and John Coltrane together, the other zeroes in on Coltrane alone.

Running April 16 through 19, Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley hosts “Emmet Cohen Presents: Miles and Coltrane at 100.” This run at Jazz Alley brings together both legacies in one sitting (not to mention the top-shelf talent on stage). As the bill suggests, Emmet Cohen is the one bringing the group together. At 35, he brings some serious cred along with him. In 2019 he won the American Pianists Awards and he was a finalist in the 2011 Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition.

Cohen stays busy in the New York club circuit but has gained a global following through his streaming sessions “Live from Emmet’s Place.” With over 125 sessions logged, it’s the best place to see him working alongside some of the best in the biz in a living-room setting. The band he’s put together for this stand is tight too: Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, Tivon Pennicott on tenor, Ruben Rogers on bass, and Joe Farnsworth on drums.

I had the chance to interview Jeremy Pelt the last time he swung by Jazz Alley. He touched on his evolution as a player now that he’s a seasoned veteran. You get the sense that he knows what he wants to say and sticks with it. In his own words, “Nowadays, I’m almost 50 years old and have amassed experiences which no one can take away, so I play what the hell I want to play and am not the least bit bothered.”  

You can’t pay tribute to Miles without a little bit of that ‘play what I want’ grit. Pelt has it, and it’s why he’s the natural choice for this run. Bonus: Check out the “Live from Emmet’s Place” session with Pelt here.

The other big show takes place a couple of days earlier at the Moore Theatre on April 14. This one is flying under the official “Coltrane 100: Both Directions at Once” banner, a tour that zig-zags from the East Coast to the West Coast. The lineup in Seattle has Joe Lovano and Melissa Aldana on saxophones. Nduduzo Makhathini is on piano, Linda May Han Oh is on bass, and Jeff “Tain” Watts is the drummer. Given who’s on the bandstand, especially a seeker like Makhathini on piano, you can bet they’re going dive into some of the deep, spiritual weight of Coltrane’s later years. 

If you’re in Seattle, this is worth a couple nights out. The Moore for the Coltrane focus and then Jazz Alley for that Miles and Trane chemistry. For those looking to dig deeper into these two, plus Bill Evans, I highly recommend the new book by James Kaplan called 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans and the Lost Empire of Cool. It’s a great deep dive into their world and hits on a lot of the same themes you’ll hear played out at the Moore and Jazz Alley.