Review: reg e gaines & SAVION GLOVER Create a Sonata in Jazz With IF TRANE WUZ HERE at Joe's Pub

John Coltrane left a large shadow on the art of jazz before his death in 1967. He and Charlie Parker are perhaps the most influential sax players in the history of jazz. Coltrane was an innovator, exploring the use of musical modes in jazz, among other new concepts. He began as a proponent of bebop but later in his career, his work became much more free-form, taking on a decidedly spiritual aspect. His collaborations with Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk were revolutionary experiments in form.

It is not surprising that playwright and spoken-word artist Reg E Gaines and legendary tap dancer Savion Glover chose Coltrane to create a show around. Both gaines and Glover have pushed their art forms into brave new territory like Coltrane did. The writer and star of Bring in da Noise, Bring in da Funk have teamed up again for an evening inspired by Coltrane in If Trane Was Here, which I was lucky enough to see at Joe's Pub on Friday evening. Watching artists of this caliber experimenting is a rare treat.

The show, if indeed you can call it a show, is highly improvisational in nature. It consists of spoken word pieces by gaines, virtuoso tap from Glover, and the music of a saxophonist they introduced only as Jaylen. There are snatches of Coltrane's famous pieces, including a great deal of his take on "My Favorite Things." But we never hear the tunes in toto as Coltrane recorded them. They are fragmented into short modes that are dictated by Savion Glover's dance creations and punctuated by gaines' poems. it is presented in the manner of a classic jazz trio with all three men riffing off the work of each other. They are, in fact, a band.

The work is loosely structured into three large sections in a fast-slow-fast form that approximates a sonata in jazz. The central slow section made use of amplified taps with reverb effects. It was the most haunting of the three movements. gaines' poems riffed on themes of freedom. And despite the obvious technique of all three men, the artwork they created feels completely free and unconstrained. There were no introductions at the top of the evening. The three men just appeared onstage and worked at their craft. It felt much more like being a fly on the wall of a jam session than any sort of formalized show.

For Glover, it was a physical tour de force. He tapped for 65 straight minutes. And when he had finished tapping, he put on sneakers and played the drums for 10 more minutes. There is a lot of hyperbole in reporting artistic events, but it is not an exaggeration to say watching Savion Glover dance is to witness genius at work. gaines' poetry has jazz in its bones, it is entirely musical and given to soft and rhythmic cadences. The previously mentioned Jaylen showed a large range of moods from sultry to raucous making the saxophone more than musical accompaniment, he was a character in the story.

If Trane was Here is a captivating and hypnotic experience in free-form art that makes very little attempt to explain itself. Rather it presents an intriguing Rorschach for the audience to assign meaning to. It is an amazing thing for such world-class artists to place that much faith in their audience. The show is a celebration of a great innovator, told by great innovators. It was riveting from top to bottom.

For more about Reg E Gaines, go to tribes.org > staff> reggaineseal. Follow Savion Glover @TheSavionGlover on Twitter. For more great artists at Joe's Pub, visit publictheater.org