For the Coltrane centenary, the record nobody copies

In 1963 Impulse released "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman": a saxophone, a baritone voice, six songs and no hurry. It has always sat oddly in the catalogue. Anniversaries tend to be celebrated with speed, and tribute albums are built out of it. Marsalis says he wanted the road less travelled.

Finding the singer took no time. "When I woke up the first thing I said was, ‘Dianne Reeves’," he says. Then comes the explanation, which sounds like a password inside a trade: there is a sound within the sound, musicians call it "the thing", and Reeves has it. She has heard a lot of people, he adds, and that is what draws him.

Reeves puts her own craft more precisely. Listening to the great singers coming up, she learned that they stood in the band rather than in front of it, and thought of themselves as co-creators. The whole design of the album is audible in that one sentence.

The record takes the six standards from 1963 — "Autumn Serenade", "Dedicated To You", "You Are Too Beautiful", "Lush Life", "My One and Only Love", "They Say It’s Wonderful" — and adds instrumentals from Coltrane’s own book: "Big Nick", "26-2", "Central Park West". The quartet is Joey Calderazzo on piano, Eric Revis on bass, Justin Faulkner on drums.

"Dedicated to You" arrives on Blue Note on 18 September, led by "They Say It’s Wonderful". The touring starts on 5 September in Willemstad, Curaçao, and runs into next year. A centenary marked with ballads is the most awkward kind of tribute: anyone can copy the speed, and almost nobody copies the patience.