Jazz at Progress | Coltrane and Hartman on Impulse! | Tickets on sale soon
Friday 19 February 2027 | Progress Theatre, Reading | 7: 30pm | £21.68, £19.51 concessions, £10.84 under 16 inclusive of all fees.
Mark Lockheart sax | Marvin Muoneké vocals | Gary Crosby bass
Alex Webb piano | Alfonso Vital drums
Revisiting the famous Impulse album on which John Coltrane teamed up with vocalist Johnny Hartman to explore their favourite romantic standards, tenor sax virtuoso Mark Lockheart is joined by the extraordinary vocalist Marvin Muoneké (‘a singing superstar in the making’ Jazzwise) and a top-flight rhythm section.
As well as the songs from the 1963 Impulse album, the group explores other standards that Coltrane liked to play, including All Or Nothing At All, Out Of This World, Say It Again and vocal versions of Moment’s Notice and After The Rain. The original album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2013, 50 years after its release.
‘Tenor saxist Mark Lockheart and vocalist Marvin Muoneké brought a fabulous 1963 album to life and did so much more than simply pay tribute to the classic ‘John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman’.’
‘Where this evening became particularly interesting was in the adaptation of Coltrane instrumentals that used lyrics created by pianist and composer Alex Webb’.
From: On Impulse: Live at The Pump House Watford
Alex Webb has appeared a number of times for us at Progress – unforgettably, with his Portrait of Cannonball project in 2019. He is an accomplished composer of songs adopted by Lianne Carrol, China Moses and Mina Aggosi, to name but a few. He has devised many projects celebrating the jazz greats. For example, this one for Charlie Parker in 2013 . So, you can guarantee that the Coltrane Hartman project will be of equally high quality.
Mark Lockheart has again appeared for us with his “Days on Earth” composition band at the Wilde Theatre, Bracknell 2019 and more recently with Rory Ingham’s “Wakey Blakey” in 2022. From his days as founding member of the ground-breaking “Loose Tubes”, “Perfect Houseplants” and “Polar Bear,” his achievements in jazz and music in general are more than notable. A fine player to re-interpret music played by Coltrane.
Gary Crosby OBE. Well, what an honour it is to have him for us Progress, his first appearance. Not just because he is a fine bass player, but also for what he has done to develop young jazz musicians over the years; creating the Jazz Warriors and Dune Music organisations with his partner Janine Irons and forming Jazz Jamaica, Jazz Jamaica All stars and Nu Troop. In 2018 he was the first jazz musician to be awarded “The Queens Medal for Music”. A warm welcome is called for.
Marvin Muoneké has been dubbed ‘The Young Man with The Old Soul’ and once you hear his voice, you’ll understand why – his sound has been likened to Nat ‘King’ Cole, Johnny Hartman and Billy Eckstine. He has toured with the award-winning swing band, Down For The Count and sung with the Vince Dunn Orchestra and NYJO. He is also a gifted songwriter, arranger and trumpet player. In 2026 Marvin was nominated in both the Jazz FM Awards and The Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
Alfonso Vitale, from Messina, Sicily, is a top-drawer jazz and classical percussionist and one of the most in-demand drummers in London today.
