Suzanne Pittson - Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane (1999)

Countless instrumentalists have paid tribute to John Coltrane, but rarely have jazz vocalists provided Coltrane tributes. Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane is a rare example of a singer paying homage to the seminal saxophonist. Hard-swinging but melodic, Suzanne Pittson thinks like a post-bop saxophonist -- her appreciation of saxmen like Trane, Wayne Shorter, and Michael Brecker comes through whether she's embracing lyrics or scatting. So she was a logical person to record this fairly ambitious project, which ranges from interpretations of the Coltrane classics "Resolution," "Liberia," and "Pursuance" (all of which the Bay Area singer and/or her husband, pianist Jeff Pittson, wrote lyrics for) to various standards that Coltrane recorded. "You Don't Know What Love Is" and "I Wish I Knew" recall Trane's versions from Ballads, while "My One and Only Love" fondly remembers his historic 1963 encounter with Johnny Hartman. But through it all, Pittson's own personality never becomes obscured. Resolution is one jazz vocal CD that can hardly be called generic.~Resolution: A Remembrance of John Coltrane Review by Alex Henderson

Alex Murzyn - saxophone; Jeff Pittson - piano; Suzanne Pittson - vocals; Wally Schnalle - drums; Glenn Richman, bass