Imani Winds
     Brandon Patrick George, flute
     Toyin Spellman-Diaz, oboe
     Mark Dover, clarinet
     Kevin Newton, horn
     Monica Ellis, bassoon

Harlem Quartet
     Ilmar Gavilán, violin
     Melissa White, violin
     Jaime Amador, viola
     Felix Umansky, cello

A.B. Spellman, orator
Alex Brown, piano
Edward Perez, bass
Neal Smith, drums

JEFF SCOTT
Passion for Bach and Coltrane

Aligned in promoting diversity in the arts, Imani Winds and Harlem Quartet are both committed to the commissioning, composing, and arranging of new works, particularly by African American and Latin composers. This powerhouse ensemble pairing, along with orator and poet A. B. Spellman, presents Jeff Scott’s Passion for Bach and Coltrane, the 2024 Grammy Award^® winner in the Classical Compendium category. Based on music by Johann Sebastian Bach and John Coltrane, the work is a Passion oratorio that combines classical and jazz music, interwoven with Spellman’s orated poems.

Toyin Spellman-Diaz

“Poet A.B. Spellman, my father, has had a lifelong passion for Bach and Coltrane. His enduring love for their music led him to write poetry about the two men ‘swapping infinite fours’ in heaven. When Jeff Scott, Imani Winds’ founding hornist, first experienced my father’s poetry, he felt the need to enhance the spirit of the words in music.

Don’t be tempted to think this is a mere redressing of these giants’ work. This is a piece of astonishing originality; and in today’s musical landscape, inspiration is an entirely underrated miracle.”