Urban Bush Women  (UBW) will perform the evening-length work Walking With ‘Trane, inspired by legendary jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. Esteemed UB Department of Music instructor and jazz pianist, George Caldwell, is co-composer of the music, and will accompany UBW live on stage. Walking With “Trane offers two unique experiences, SIDE A and SIDE B, inspired by the musical life and spiritual journey of Coltrane, a composer at the fore front of 1950s and ’60s jazz innovation. Informed by the unpredictability of the bandstand, the “Band State,” is the scary, risky place that potentially expands into “transcendence.” The work is an ethereal investigation within the layers of Coltrane’s music, life, and spirituality.

Founded in 1984by choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar, Urban Bush Women has toured five continents and performed at venues including: Brooklyn Academy of Music, Lincoln Center, and The Kennedy Center. The group brings the untold and under-told histories and stories of disenfranchised people to light through dance from a female-centered perspective and as members of the African Diaspora community in order to create a more equitable balance of power in the dance world and beyond.

The public performance and residency are made possible by generous funding from the Morris Visiting Artist Fund and The UB Creative Arts Initiative.