Miles and Coltrane Blue[author-post-rating] (3/5)

Miles Davis and John Coltrane are names which tower above others. At the height of their powers, these two men shifted the musical landscape on an almost weekly basis, constantly trying to outdo one another and find new modes of expression. In Concrete Generation’s Miles & Coltrane Blue (.), we are given a glimpse into the lives of these two men in a production with a gorgeous jazz soundtrack. It’s a quietly contemplative piece of theatre, but often feels like it slips into repetitive patterns which would upset the freeform styles of their heroes.

The narrator (a wonderfully charismatic Mason ‘Quill’ Parker) introduces us to the two men, covering their background and their upbringing. Played by Sultan Omar El-Amin and Quentin Talley respectively, Davis and Coltrane sit downstage right and left, talking us through their feelings about change and their addictions to both drugs and jazz. It teaches us that art is a compulsion and that the music of this pair was created out of necessity more than desire. But after a while, Talley’s direction starts to become a little stilted, with actors slowly moving along straight lines at each scene change. There’s lots of unnecessary moving about which doesn’t quite fit with the rhythms of the sound being played.

The music is undoubtedly the strongest aspect of this production, played here by the Stephen Gordon Quartet, with a keyboard player and drummer on stage throughout, and a trumpet and saxophone entering into the mix during moments of intense passion. It rises to crescendos as the performance poetry spoken by the performers hits peaks of emotion, carrying the music along with it. As far as I can tell, it’s largely original music rather than that of the show’s two namesakes (I assume due to copyright issues) which allows it to flow in and out of the spoken word more freely.

Miles and Coltrane Blue (.) takes the mantle of two of the great creators of jazz and carries it into the twenty-first century, as Concrete Generation finds its own voice amongst the ‘Blue Train’s and ‘Kind of Blue’s of this world. It’s a jazzy jumble of a show, and though it sometimes feels a little weak structurally, the stories it tells leave an indelible mark.

Miles and Coltrane Blue (.) is at C Venues until 26 August. For more information and tickets visit the Edinburgh Fringe website.