“I start in the middle of a sentence and move both directions at once.”    — John Coltrane

The John Coltrane International Jazz & Blues Festival celebrates its 15th anniversary next month, though it’s been 20 years since festival founder and organizer Joe Williams arranged for a statue of Coltrane to be erected at High Point City Hall. A Philadelphia transplant, Williams was shocked to discover the peerless saxophonist-composer was a Furniture Capital native and resolved to rectify that slight. “I just couldn’t believe that I didn’t see pictures and [announcements] all over the place saying ‘Home of John Coltrane.’ He’s a real big deal all around the world.”

The jazz world went cold after Coltrane left the station in 1967 at age 40. He didn’t just play an instrument — he inhabited that sax, imbued it with his essence, became one with it, transcended from this earthly realm when astride it. Words as a means of describing Coltrane’s seductive musicality are lacking; no alphabetic assemblage can ever soar to such heavenly heights, his albums being the shortest distance between that tentative first kiss and soon to be disheveled bedsheets.

Williams’ yearly music festival bearing Coltrane’s name has attracted a roster of rhythmic royalty: Stanley Clarke, Snarky Puppy, Kenny G, George Duke and Blood, Sweat & Tears come to mind. This year’s lineup over the first September weekend is no exception. Here are a few highlights:

Born two years before his father’s death, Ravi Coltrane picked up his dad’s mantle, and a saxophone, to carve a successful career for himself as a highly sought-after, Grammy-nominated recording and touring artist. He’ll grace the festival stage for the third time this year. Another sax savant, Mike Phillips is stylistically a mash-up of the traditional jazz masters he studied — Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins — and the hard-edged, rhythmic energy of ’90s hip-hop. He was the first musician signed by Michael Jordan to the Nike Jordan Brand, and the only musician (and soloist) who toured with Michael Jackson, Prince and Stevie Wonder.

Equal parts sayin’ and sass, French chanteuse Cyrille Aimée blends vibrant Caribbean rhythmic undertones with more traditional jazz notes. Her accomplished combo applies fresh polish on a pleasing playlist peppered with snappy show tunes and 20th-century gems such as “Young At Heart,” “It’s a Good Day” and “La Vie en rose.” Don’t miss this one!

Recently completing a European tour, Victor Wooten and the Wooten Brothers have sent audiences swinging and swaying to their funky bluegrass infused beats since the 1960s. “On Sunday, they will hold a masterclass following Saturday’s concert,” Williams points out. It’s a rare opportunity to get up close and personal with Victor Wooten, Béla Fleck’s sideman who Rolling Stone readers voted one of the Top 10 Bass Players of All Time in 2011. “Bringing in that level of talent to not only teach but talk with people that have a love of the industry, who are trying to accomplish something. Last year I had Snarky Puppy for the first Masterclass. This time Victor Wooten came to mind and, with his brothers, you get the whole family.”

This year’s high point, if you will, might be singer-songwriter Ledisi, whose 2025 soulfully silky 12th album, The Crown, caresses the ear like those occasional dreamy LPs from the 1970s. Carefully crafted by way of unadorned arrangements focusing on that silky soulful voice, what emerges is a symphonious intimacy in the tradition of Janis Ian, Melissa Manchester, Roberta Flack, Nancy Wilson, Dorothy Moore and Marvin Gaye, minus that era’s de rigueur vocal histrionics. With the exception of Moore and Gaye, those artists never produced a flawless, pitch-perfect album on par with this one.

Ledisi’s first release on Verve Forecast in 2007 (“Lost and Found”), and subsequent saucy Newport Jazz Festival performance that same year, established this New Orleans-born crooner as a powerhouse entertainer who continues to blossom in unexpected directions within every lush garden she cultivates. Inspired by immortal song stylists that came before her, in 2021 Ledisi released a collection of songs made famous by Nina Simone (Ledisi Sings Nina), then, just last October, devoted an entire album (For Dinah) to the Queen of the Blues, Dinah Washington. Vocally, she more than equates herself with a sultry rendition of “What a Difference a Day Makes” and an exuberantly bubbly duet with Gregory Porter on “You’ve Got What it Takes.”

An aside: I once asked blues legend Johnny Otis (“Hand Jive”) about Dinah Washington since they were close. He told me about Ms. Washington taking Little Eva (“The Loco-motion”), a freshly-minted, 19-year-old pop star from coastal North Carolina, on a shopping excursion in Los Angeles. Washington was a notorious hard-partier, Otis told me, so he was reticent to allow innocent Eva to possibly be led astray but figured, what the heck, it’s just a couple of hours. When the two chart-toppers returned, Eva’s face, he said, was painted up like a hooker, decked out like a $2-tramp. As for Washington, she was laughing hysterically at Otis’ dismay.

With any luck, Ledisi might slip into Dinah Washington’s extensive songbook when she rarifies our air with melodic ardor on Sunday, September 6, at Oak Hollow Festival Park.

This is a prestige event for our sister city. “Not just for High Point, but for North Carolina,” Williams insists. “With audiences traveling from all over, from 25 different states, tons of people coming in from Charlotte, Raleigh, the mountain areas of North Carolina.” With five or six truly remarkable performances by seminal artists each day, “we try to keep the price very reasonable compared to what you get.”

Plus, a portion of festival proceeds goes to purchasing instruments for musically inclined youngsters who can’t afford them. The lucky recipients are selected based on written essay submissions. “Being in the music entertainment business and seeing young people from all walks of life, it’s their ticket, their way out,” Williams says. “If a child never gets an instrument, they can never go any further. That’s their starting point.” Williams often uses his industry connections to acquire otherwise prohibitively expensive or custom-made instruments for worthy budding musicians, and who knows? “Hopefully, they will develop into the next Coltrane.” Explore more at ColtraneJazzFest.com.

While I have you here . . .

Acclaimed theater and screen actor Shannon Cochran, Page High School Class of ’76 grad, is making her Broadway debut this month in Paranormal Activity, a suspenseful drama the L.A. Times calls “The year’s best staged production.” She’s no stranger to the horror genre, having already terrified moviegoers as Anna Morgan’s sinister spirit in The Ring and its creepy sequel. You may recall reading about Cochran in my April 2023 Wandering Billy column. But you knew that, dintcha?

“The response to this play is unlike anything I’ve ever done,” Ms. Cochran (she’s a Broadway star now!) told me before embarking for The Great White Way. “People just want to gather together in the dark, scream at what they know isn’t real but seems to be magic, laugh at each other for screaming, then clutch their date for dear life.” Enjoying boffo box office this year in four major cities, she reveals that Paranormal Activity consistently attracts masses that aren’t normally playgoers. “And that’s worth everything!” Could a Broadway run lead to Tony Awards next summer? Stay tuned . . .  OH

Billy Ingram contributes weekly to O.Hey, an email newsletter companion to O.Henry magazine, and can be reached at: tvparty@bellsouth.net. And you can subscribe to O.Hey by visiting ohenrymag.com and clicking on the light blue box.