In 1961, John Coltrane walked into a recording studio with 21 musicians and made history. Africa/Brass, his first album for Impulse!, captured the spirit of a continent in the midst of revolution, blending soaring saxophone lines, lush brass arrangements, and hypnotic modal passages that would influence artists from Terry Riley to Steve Reich. Sixty-four years later, Tenderlonious set out to honour that landmark recording while pushing it forward with Coltrane-like ambition.
He briefly considered A Love Supreme but chose Africa/Brass instead, drawn to its modal language and spirit of exploration. For Tenderlonious, modal jazz is about remaining within a single scale and discovering endless possibilities inside it. “I just want to sit on a scale for ten minutes,” he says, “and find something there.”
That search shaped his performance at the Melbourne International Jazz Festival in October 2025 as part of Pique-nique’s Take Two series. Each event pairs a full playback of a classic album with a live reinterpretation that gives musicians complete artistic freedom. For the performance, Tenderlonious was joined by longtime drummer Tim Carnegie, bassist Horatio Luna, and pianist On-Ly. The original melodies served as a starting point before the quartet ventured into fearless improvisation.
That spirit defines this record. As Tenderlonious puts it, one beautiful note means more than a thousand. Coltrane knew it, and on a Monday night in Melbourne, they proved it.
