Coltrane Day Festival Gears For Fourth Year

The fourth annual Coltrane Day music festival will be held this Saturday in Heckscher Park. (Long Islander News photo/archives)

By Joseph Marasciullo
info@longislandergroup.com

In 2005, the final home of legendary jazz musician John Coltrane and wife Alice Coltrane was saved from demolition by The Friends of the Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, a nonprofit dedicated to the preservation and eventual restoration of the Coltrane home.

Now, 13 years later, The Friends of the Coltrane Home in Dix Hills is set to hold its fourth annual Coltrane Day music festival in order to raise money and awareness for the home.

The festival will be held this Saturday, 12 noon-10:30 p.m. at Heckscher Park in Huntington.

The venue will host instrumental workshops, food vendors, craft beer and other refreshments, an artists village and live music all day long.

There will be performances by two Long Island rising stars, Jonathan Dely and Dudley Music. They will be followed by Dave Diamond and Jeff Matson of Zen Tricksters, a Grateful Dead cover band; local band Funk Filharmonik, and more.

There will also be community jams, in which young musicians and old musicians alike will come onstage to join in with the Coltrane House band and play their hearts out.

The final two performers will be Michelle Coltrane, the only daughter of John and Alice Coltrane, at 8 p.m.; and legendary jazz musician Joe Lovano’s Classic Quartet at 9 p.m. An interview block is scheduled to begin at 7:15 p.m.

Instrumental workshops will run from start through 2 p.m., and the artist village will remain open through 7:45 p.m.

Entry to the festival is completely free, although a VIP pass is available for purchase ($75) from Thecoltranehome.org. The VIP pass includes many benefits, such as free drinks and a meet and greet opportunity with performers.

Proceeds from the event will be used to preserve and restore the Coltrane Home, and turn it into a community center and recording studio.

When asked what Coltrane Day is all about, president of the Coltrane Foundation Rob Stein described it as “an event that’s all about building community through music.”

Editor's note: The Coltrane Day Festival is this Saturday, July 21.
The print version of this story that appears in the July 19,2018 edition of Huntington Weekly incorrectly states otherwise.