Yugen Rashad interviewed Ravi Coltrane. They talk about music, life and vibration.

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PDX Jazz, the presenting organization of the Portland Jazz Festival in partnership with Jimmy Mak's, announces saxophonist Ravi Coltrane as part of the continuing PDX Jazz @ Jimmy Mak's series on Wednesday, August 8th @ 7:00 & 9:00. Coltrane will lead a quartet with pianist David Virelles, bassist Dezron Douglas, and drummer E.J. Strickland in support of his Blue Note debut, Spirit Fiction.

Coltrane released Spirit Fiction on June 19th. The 11-track album features two different band lineups, each with a unique expressive urgency. Several tracks feature Coltrane's long-term quartet with pianist Luis Perdomo, bassist Drew Gress and drummer E.J. Strickland. Coltrane also enlisted a quintet including trumpeter Ralph Alessi, pianist Geri Allen, bassist James Genus and drummer Eric Harland - the personnel featured on his sophomore release From the Round Box.

Born on Long Island in 1965, Ravi Coltrane is the second son of John and Alice Coltrane. His father died when Coltrane was only two and Alice, a renowned composer and pianist, raised him on the West Coast and proved a strong role model in her own right. Ravi had the honor of producing and playing on Alice Coltrane's Translinear Light, released three years prior to her death in 2007.

A move back east to New York and pivotal stints with Elvin Jones, Wallace Roney and Steve Coleman led Coltrane to begin asserting himself as a leader in the mid 1990's, and he has since released five albums including Moving Pictures (1998), From The Round Box (2000), Mad 6 (2002), In Flux (2005), and Blending Times (2009). He has also continued appearing as a sideman with the likes of McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, and Flying Lotus, and as a co-leader of the Saxophone Summit with Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman.