“Oxman breathes a warm, coaxing fire that he moulds into each composition with flair and imagination.”—All About Jazz
“I can’t really put into words why I absolutely love the music of John Coltrane,” Denver-based tenor saxophonist Keith Oxman once said in an interview. “There’s just something about it that’s so real. It has such a great balance of heart and mind.” Oxman’s playing has drawn comparisons with the late jazz icon John Coltrane, as his own shows have the fire, passion, and inventiveness than fans associate with the late great icon, whose 100th birthday we celebrate this year.
Oxman’s Classic Quartet has been exploring Trane’s music on tour for years, and this show will include A Love Supreme Suite, plus other classic Trane repertoire performed and recorded by his “Classic Quartet” of McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones from the early ’60s Impulse! era.
Oxman has toured or recorded with a veritable Who’s Who of jazz, including top artists such as Buddy Rich, Charles McPherson, Art Blakey, Sonny Stitt, Red Holloway, Pete Christlieb, Jack McDuff, Phil Woods, Dave Brubeck, Jon Hendricks, Louis Bellson, and Pearl Bailey, as well as classic R&B groups, The Temptations and The Fifth Dimension. Keith has eleven CDs on the Capri Records label, two of which were with John Coltrane’s trombonist Curtis Fuller. That’s a direct link to the music Keith will perform on this show with his Classic Quartet — an outstanding lineup beloved by Denverites to say the least.
PERSONNEL
Keith Oxman: tenor saxophone
Jeff Jenkins: piano
Gonzalo Teppa: bass
Todd Reid: drums
Ticket prices: $20 | $25 | $30
Gimme 5
Five questions with Keith Oxman
Don Lucoff: You have performed Coltrane’s music several times in the past including the Love Supreme Suite. But this time it’s in celebration of the 100th birthday. What will make this performance most memorable for the band and audience?
Keith Oxman: For me, each time performing Love Supreme has been a special thing. I swore I would never do that as it always felt like I would be walking on hallowed ground. We’ve now probably performed this close to a dozen times. After the first time, it became easier to do again but I also always felt strange trying to play this music as the Coltrane version is so other-worldly. For me, and I suspect the rest of us performing, this will be the first time this group has done this piece without Ken Walker on bass. It has always been Jeff Jenkins, Ken Walker, and Todd Reid in the rhythm section every time we have performed A Love Supreme. Gonzalo Teppa is an absolutely amazing bass player and we are lucky to have him but I know Gonzalo feels the same as the rest of us about the untimely passing of Ken Walker. That in and of itself will make this a special and memorable performance as we remember and honor our friend and bandmate.
DL: A Love Supreme is foundational for you and the band, can speak about its significance?
KO: I think that this recording was the culmination and crystallization of Coltrane’s middle period. The other great album, Cresent, also recorded in 1964 should be included. On A Love Supreme, I think we hear the classic quartet of McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones along with John Coltrane laying out their music as perfectly as I could ever imagine four musicians doing.
DL: What periods of Coltrane’s career are most influential on your musical sound and compositional approach?
KO: I think that his first two periods probably had the most effect on me even though I love his last period just as much. His sound from late 1957 to 1960 was just so beautiful and perfect. Coltrane speaks in his August 18, 1966 interview with Frank Kofsky about having his mouthpiece worked on and that it was ruined and he couldn’t get what he wanted from it anymore. He said he just dealt with it and that he never found a replacement for the so-called ruined mouthpiece. He also said that he lost his confidence in his sound and that that was during the period where he recorded the Ballads and album with Johnny Hartman. If that is on a ruined mouthpiece, I don’t get it. The sound on those is extraordinary.
DL: You have been recording for several years with Capri Records, talk about the label a bit and its importance on the Denver scene.
KO: The Capri Records label run by Tom Burns is such an amazing contribution to the art of jazz music. I think it has been in existence for around 45 years. Some of the greatest and most legendary musicians have recorded on that label including Pete Christlieb, Phil Wilson, Ray Brown, Red Mitchell, Ron Miles, Scott Hamilton, Spike Robinson, Terell Stafford, The Clayton Brothers, Gary Smulyan, Grachan Moncur III, Jeff Hamilton, Jimmy Rowles, Ken Peplowski, Al Grey, Louie Bellson, Joe Bonner, Charles McPherson, and Curtis Fuller to name just a few. The label has also documented Denver jazz for the past 45 years far more than any other label. It has been recognized with full-length articles in numerous prominent publications like DownBeat for its contribution. I am fairly certain it has had its share of Grammys too.
DL: What projects are you working on that you are most captivated by?
KO: Currently I have two projects that I am working on. The first has been recorded and it is with the world class bassoonist Frank Morelli. We started working on preparing the music for this recording in 2021. It was finally recorded in November of 2025. We are almost done mixing and mastering it and hope it will be released in the next few months. I’m also writing and arranging music for a quintet recording I hope to do either this summer or early fall.