Author: Dan DeLuca

The Fire, the Northern Liberties music venue that played host to an illustrious list of Philadelphia and national touring acts in the 2000s and 2010s, will shut its doors this week.

Karen Lauria Saillant, the owner of the club at 412 W. Girard Ave. that is housed within the Philadelphia Bar & Grille, announced in a Facebook post that the music venue and the bar will close permanently on Wednesday.

“I am not able to continue after the death of my beloved son, Christian Bygott, who was our manager & our backbone,” she wrote, citing the reason for closure.

Bygott, who had been the club’s talent buyer and was also, like his mother, an opera singer, died in 2024 at age 41.

Saillant, who has long touted the Fire as Philly’s only fully woman-owned music venue, purchased the Philadelphia Bar & Grille with her husband, Bernie Bygott, in 1988.

In Jonathan Demme’s 1993 AIDS drama Philadelphia, starring Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, the exterior of the bar is shown in an opening credit sequence while Bruce Springsteen’s “Streets of Philadelphia” plays.

After her husband became severely incapacitated in 1999, Saillant founded the Fire. In the decades that followed, many rising stars played there, particularly in the years between 2003 and 2017 when Philly music manager and talent buyer Derek Dorsey ran the venue.

Acts that played at the Fire and went on to big things, include John Legend, Rilo Kiley, My Chemical Romance, Amos Lee, Maroon 5, Kurt Vile, Alex G, Jason Mraz, Modern Baseball, Hop Along, Damien Rice, Santigold, Iron & Wine, Cold War Kids, and more.

In 2022, Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance — who played the Fire in 2002 — gave the venue a shout-out in a show at the Wells Fargo Center.

In 2023, a Mural Arts mural of Legend, painted by Philadelphia artist and clothing designer Alloyius Mcilwaine was added to the building. The mural also includes a depiction of Japanese singer Yasko Fujiì, who starred in several operas produced by Saillant’s International Opera Theater of Philadelphia company, which was headquartered upstairs at the Fire. The opera company has productions in the works through the end of the year, but its office will no longer be in the Fire building.

On Wednesday, the final show at the Fire is scheduled to be Philly hip-hop and R&B artist Deek Westside, celebrating his new album, Everything Is Different. It’s billed as “a Fire celebration for a fire artist.”

Saillant wasn’t immediately available for comment.

On “Garden Song” from her 2020 album Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers sang: “When I grow up, I’m gonna look up from my phone and see my life.”

When she sang that lyric on Monday in South Philly, she didn’t have to take her eyes away from her mobile device because, of course, she was on stage and didn’t have it with her.

But what was different about The Lost Tour — the concert trek that brought Bridgers to the Xfinity Mobile Arena along with her nine-piece band and her opening act, Havertown’s own Alex G — was that none of the other 20,000 or so people in the room had their cell phones with them either.

Or rather, most had them in their possession, but the phones were locked away in Yondr pouches attached to lanyards around their necks, and thus inaccessible for the combined three-hour duration of Bridgers’ 26-song headlining set and Alex G’s 19-tune opener.

So: No photos, no videos, and no Instagram until after the show was over. What a concept: Does an actual shared experience even happen if it can’t be immediately shared virtually?

And perhaps more importantly, how are you supposed to know the Eagles score if you can’t constantly check your phone? Though that turned out to be a blessing, considering the Birds’ abysmal Monday Night Football performance.

Bridgers’ performance, on the contrary — as well as the impressive and imaginative staging of the singer-songwriter’s inaugural arena tour — was exemplary.

The show drew from her grief-stricken, joyous, emotionally complex, darkly funny, and musically varied new album, Lost Weekend, as well as Punisher and her 2017 debut, Stranger in the Alps.

It also looked really cool. This summer, in the run-up to the release of Lost Weekend, Bridgers stoked the ardor of her fan base first with a series of no phones pop-up shows around the country, and then Lost Weekend listening parties staged in planetariums.

The Lost Tour recreates that sparkly star-filled aesthetic in an arena setting. Bridgers began with the main stage covered by a dome that looked like a giant cloche — one of those plate covers that a server lifts to reveal a dinner plate at a fancy restaurant.

The first song “Outside,” also the opening track on Lost Weekend, was played by musicians not yet visible under the dome. In its first verse, Bridgers’ heavily processed voice cracked a macabre joke about the funeral of her father, who died in 2022: “Crying in a suit and tie, but you should see the other guy / One more time for old time’s sake, I’ll watch him get carried away.”

Then the dome slowly lifted to reveal the dressed-in-black band. The ensemble, which excelled at folk-pop but also moved into more electronic and noisy textures, included a four-person string section, plus multi-instrumentalist Melina Duterte, who performs under the stage name Jay Som.

As it hung overhead, the dome then tilted back to reveal outer space imagery — the surface of the moon, or what looked like Jupiter — in its circular core while sky-high back and white visions of Bridgers were projected on curtains on either side of the stage.

The action began with Bridgers’ “Motion Sickness,” about an abusive relationship (“I hate you for what you did, and I miss you like a little kid”) and kicked into gear with the new album’s earworm “Lost Boys,” about men behaving badly, again.

Bridgers rose to popularity as an unstinting and artful chronicler of her interior life not only with her solo work, but also with Better Oblivion Community Center with Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and especially boygenius, with bandmates Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker.

The trio broke through to mainstream popularity in 2023, when it sold out the Mann Center in Fairmount Park. That fan base of teenage and older women singing along to every word was in force on Monday, when the merch line was even longer than the queue for the men’s room at Willie Nelson and Neil Young’s show at the Mann last week.

Boygenius reunited at Bridgers’ shows in Brooklyn this month, but her bandmates didn’t make the trip down the Jersey Turnpike to Dacus’ former hometown. Not to worry, though: Bridgers had a special guest at the ready in her opening act.

In her own set, she brought out “my friend Alex G.”

The singer whose last name is Giannascoli cowrote two songs and co-produced 11 on Lost Weekend. It’s no surprise he and Bridgers are simpatico, as his music bears the influence of Elliott Smith, one of Bridgers’ songwriting heroes.

Many of Bridgers’ songs — catchy as they are, and sung in a sweet upper register — can be heavy going, even when she makes not really light-hearted jokes like in “Governor’s Waltz,” about “hiding in the bathroom, like Shelley Duvall” in The Shining.

But her music also rocks out with ecstatic release. As it did on Monday with “Bobby,” a euphoric tune about her partner, comedian Bo Burnham, who cowrote it.

She then brought out Alex G and his band, including violinist Molly Germer, for a duet on his song called “Bobby,” a country lament from 2017.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for a decade,” Bridgers said.

Much of the most memorable action happened on the second, satellite stage. Bridgers played a six-song set there, at some points solo and others accompanied by her string players.

She sang the devastating “Funeral,” and thanked fans for putting phones away, as part of a trend that’s also seen artists like Jill Scott go the Yondr route to create a more present, in the moment experience.

Some fans in other cities had cut the pouches open with knives, Bridgers said, but joked “they have to live with who they are.” Creating a phone-free experience, she said, “is actually no more thought out than it’s really nice.” Which it was.

Before “Still Standing,” a song about domestic violence, Bridgers, 32, talked about her complicated relationship with her father, and how satisfying it’s been to talk to fans and friends who’ve had similar experiences.

“I used to think that artists had traumatic lives,” she said. “Now I realize it’s just that artists sing about it. Really, it’s everyone. Everybody deserves their own documentary.”

Alex G played his entire set from the second stage, which was lit by light saberlike sticks that made it appear that he and his band were performing from inside of a light bulb.

The prolific musician who has moved into film scoring, most recently stretching out as a composer with his work on Jane Schoenbrun’s horror rom-com Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, was in fine form.

His economical set courted Bridgers’ fans early on with melodic nuggets like “Gretel” and the grabby “Runner” before moving into more gnarly territory.

Coming on stage as a recording of “Here Come the Sixers” played, he let his subtly appealing music do the talking, but also charmed with awkward, blurted out stage patter.

“It’s good to be back in the greatest city in the world,” he said, adding “I can’t think of anything else to say. Is everybody excited about LeBron James?”

And after thanking everyone involved in the show, from Bridgers to his driver, he ended with the words that all Philadelphians understand but which did no good on this particular evening: “Go Birds!”

Willie Nelson and Neil Young are old buddies who get together once a year to play Farm Aid, the annual benefit concert that takes place in Virginia Beach this Saturday.

But the two giants of North American song, who between them, have released over 150 albums, have never actually toured together.

Until this week, that is.

In the run-up to Farm Aid, which this year will include John Mellencamp, Margo Price, Sierra Ferrell, and Jesse Welles, Nelson and Young added a two-show warm-up trek.

They played one date in Bridgeport, Conn., before the two proudly unpolished songwriters pulled up to the TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann in Fairmount Park on Thursday.

Teenage Texas country and blues songwriter Ty Meyers opened, followed by a clip of Nelson performing his welcoming, immigrant-friendly patriotic song “Living in the Promised Land,” singing of an America “where there’s room for everyone, livin’ in the promised land.”

Then the lights went up and there was a 93-year-old Nelson, seated and wearing a down jacket on a chilly September evening.

Along with him was his band Family, which in this iteration included his son Micah on guitar and vocals, longtime compadre Mickey Raphael on harmonica and accordion, and Waylon Payne, the son of Nelson’s late longtime band member Jody Payne, also on guitar and vocals.

Nelson is a marvel. For regular attendees of his Outlaw Music Festival — which cut back on its schedule and did not stop in Philly this year — his 70-minute set was familiar.

With his trusty, impossibly beat-up guitar, Trigger, on his lap, he opened as always with Johnny Bush’s “Whiskey River,” before segueing into a taste of western swing with Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys’ “Stay a Little Longer,” and then his own Zen masterpiece “Still Is Still Moving to Me.”

Early on, his spoken-sung vocals were a little rough and clotted, but he loosened up as the set progressed and by the time he got to “Georgia (On My Mind),” his singing was notable not only for his uncanny, conversational phrasing, but he also sounded relatively robust, even frisky.

He got a little help from his bandmates, easing his vocal burden.

Micah Nelson got plenty of chuckles with his songs “Die When I’m High (Halfway to Heaven),” which is written from the perspective of his famously weed-loving father, and “Everything Is [Expletive]” in which both Nelsons took a look at the world around them and found not much to recommend.

Payne, meanwhile, added gravitas with covers of Merle Haggard’s “Workingman’s Blues” and Kris Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make It Through the Night.” To the lyric, “And it’s sad to be alone,” he added, “but it isn’t, because we’re up here singing with Willie Nelson!”

Then there were two special treats. Young came out and sang with Willie on a ragged but right “Are There Any More Real Cowboys?” from his 1985 album Old Ways, into which he dropped a new lyric expressing contempt for A.I. data centers.

The set closed in the traditional Willie way, with the country gospel medley of “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” and “I’ll Fly Away,” with a surprise guest joining in on the sing-along.

Who was that skinny dude with his hair tucked into a trucker’s cap? But of course, it was Philly’s own alt-rock star Kurt Vile, who guested with centenarian Marshall Allen earlier this year and now can add an appearance with nonagenarian Nelson to his resumé.

Before Young took the stage with his band the Chrome Hearts, which includes the hard-working Micah Nelson along with illustrious Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section keyboard player Spooner Oldham, the video screens issued a three-word written reminder to Americans: “Keep Freedom Free.”

The loose-limbed set that followed leaned toward the acoustic early on. Young, 80, ambled through the warm and wistful sentiments of “Long May You Run” and “Comes a Time,” and later rang out with the one-two punch of “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” bringing the packed house to its feet, where they stayed standing thereafter.

Young has just released Second Song, a collection that contemplates aging and mortality. It’s his 50th album and one of his better efforts this century. With a backdrop that read “LOVE EARTH,” he performed two songs from the album, including the sweet heartbreak tune, “Casting Me Away From You,” which he said, “I wrote in 1963 or ’64, but it was never released. That makes it a new song, right?”

The title is a sly reference to his remark “It’s all one song!” from his 1997 live album Year of the Horse, referring to the unifying, liberating squall he tends to lean into when turning the amplification all the way up.

On Thursday, Young revisited that idea: “You guys realize this all one song, don’t you?” He also poked fun at President Donald Trump by making repeated references to Lake Ontario — which the president has renamed “Lake America.”

And at one point, while wandering over to the piano where he would sit and play the environmental anthem “After the Gold Rush,” Young took a sip from a green bottle of beer that appeared to be a Molson and said: “How’d that get here? That’s Canadian!”

The show grew raucous down the stretch.

Two days earlier in Connecticut, Young had ended his pre-encore set with “Gold Rush.” In Philly, he apparently felt the need to rock out.

The packed house got the catharsis it had been hoping for with a ripping “Powderfinger,” which delivered classic 1970s Rust Never Sleeps-era power chord crunch in one of the most satisfying salvos from Young’s peak period.

And that was followed by “Roll Another Number (For the Road),” a song simpatico with Nelson if there ever was one, pulled from 1975’s Tonight’s the Night, the third album in his illustrious “Ditch Trilogy,” when the maverick songwriter decided he was spending too much time in the middle of the road “so I headed for the ditch.”

Young and the Chrome Hearts returned with “Living With War,” a song written in protest of the U.S.’ war with Iraq in 2006, now presented in opposition to the war on Iran.

The simultaneously combative and sorrowful thrust of the song hit home, timeless, but it’s lumbering in comparison to Young’s more unstoppable, on-target epic rockers.

No matter, it wasn’t a long wait for one of those. The inevitable closer was “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World,” still managing to deliver big rock show defiance 37 years after it was first recorded.

Fists were pumped, a one-of-a-kind night with two legends came to an emphatic conclusion, and the Canadian American rocker left the crowd with one last exhortation: “Keep America Free!”

This week in Philly music ushers in fall with some of the last outdoor shows of the year, with Willie Nelson and Neil Young at the Highmark Mann, Mt. Joy and Gorillaz in Camden, and AC/DC in South Philly. Slayyyter, the Sex Pistols, and Phoebe Bridgers are also in town, and the Bob Dylan musical returns for a monthlong run in Old City.

Thursday Sept. 24

Willie Nelson & Neil Young

Willie Nelson’s Outlaw Music Festival skipped Philly this summer, but then this double legend show arrived as a sweet surprise. In the run-up to Saturday’s Farm Aid concert in Virginia, Nelson & Family — including sons Micah and Lukas, plus longtime harmonica player Mickey Raphael — will be joined by Young, always a brilliant live performer. He has just released his 50th album, the terrific Second Song, that considers the rages of time while looking death in the eye. Young is playing with the Chrome Hearts, which includes Micah Nelson and Muscle Shoals keyboard player Spooner Oldham. 7 p.m., TD Pavilion at the Highmark Mann Center, highmarkmann.org.

Slayyyter

Catherine Grace Garner — aka Slayyyter — refers to herself as The Worst Girl in America in the title to her third album. The follow-up to her 2023 LP, whose title cannot be published here, however, is a grimy, energized, and fairly addictive playtter of hyper-pop that when, all is said and done, is likely to stand out as one of the best records of the year. Pearly Drops open. 8 p.m., Fillmore Philly, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.

Purling Hiss

Philly guitarist Mike Polizze has mainly been playing shows under his own name, but this show is a proper full-band Purling Hiss gig. The Polizze-fronted power trio that debuted in 2009 was most recently heard from with the heavy rock of 2023’s excellent Drag on Girard. Marathon ’77 and Emily Robb round out the all-Philly bill. 6 p.m., Spruce Street Harbor Park, 301 S. Columbus Blvd, delawareriverwaterfront.com.

‘Girl From the North Country’

Irish playwright Conor McPherson’s Girl From the North Country is set in a boarding house during the Great Depression in Duluth, Minn., where Bob Dylan lived the first six years of his life. The show, which came to the Forrest Theatre in 2024, begins a monthlong run at the Arden. What sets it apart from typical jukebox musicals is the quality of the writing — McPherson’s and Dylan’s — and the song selection, which includes some of Dylan’s best-known compositions, but also less familiar choices, such as “Sign on the Window,” “Lay Down Your Weary Tune,” and “Pressing On.” 7 p.m. or 2 p.m., Tuesdays-Sundays through Oct. 25, Arden Theatre Co., 40 N. Second St., ardentheatre.org.

Friday Sept. 25

Sex Pistols feat. Frank Carter

Can we really pretend it’s the Sex Pistols without John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten? The band’s former frontman — who is playing with Public Image Ltd at Union Transfer on Oct. 2 — has said Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, and Paul Cook playing with new singer Frank Carter is “karaoke.” Fans who might be tired of Lydon’s antics, however, will find in Carter a punk veteran who throws himself entirely into the performance of songs they dearly love. 8:30 p.m., Fillmore Philly, 29 E. Allen St., thefillmorephilly.com.

Mt. Joy

The onset of autumn is Mt. Joy back home in Philly time. In recent years, the “Astrovan” band founded by Conestoga High School graduates Matt Quinn and Sam Cooper, has played the Mann Center in Fairmount Park at the tail end of the outdoor music season.

This year, the quintet is touring behind its 2025 album, Hope We Have Fun, and is crossing the river to Camden on its “10 Years of Mt. Joy” tour. Snacktime opens. Conshohocken band Mid Sentence, winners of this ’s Local Noise Philadelphia battle of the bands at Brooklyn Bowl, was awarded an opening slot on the Pavilion’s Plaza Stage. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, freedommortgagepavilion.com.

Tom Jones

Does Tom Jones often come to Atlantic City to play casino show rooms? It’s not unusual. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.) Now 86 years old, the Welsh Elvis, who has had hits with “What’s New, Pussycat?” and “It’s Not Unusual,” remains a powerful showman. Check out the clip of him singing Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song” on The Voice UK. 8 p.m., Borgata Event Center, 1 Borgata Way, Atlantic City, borgata.mgmresorts.com.

Saturday Sept. 26

Haverford Music Festival

The Haverford Music Festival is actually in Havertown, on the grounds of the Oakmont School. This year’s acts on two stages include New York singer-songwriter Shannon McNally, New Jersey bluegrass and country outfit Demolition String Band, and Philly vocalist Abby Lee. Philadelphia Englishman Wesley Stace, whose new album One Last Heist marries jazz and soul grooves with narratively sophisticated songwriting, is a late add to the bill. Free. Noon, Eagle and Haverford Roads, Havertown, haverfordmusicfestival.org.

David Uosikkinen’s In The Pocket

The annual Ardmore gig for Hooters drummer Uosikkinen’s all-star Philly band will honor Pierre Robert, the late DJ who was a regular at ITP shows. The band’s new single is a cover of the Spinners’ “I’ll Be Around,” a Thom Bell-Phil Hurtt composition sung in a new rendition by John Faye. Along with local luminaries, such as recent Philly Music Walk of Fame inductee Pablo Batista, Tommy Conwell, and Richard Bush of the A’s, expect original E Street Band drummer Vini “Mad Dog” Lopez. 8 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ArdmoreMusicHall.com.

Sunday Sept. 27

Gorillaz

On The Mountain, Damon Albarn augments his virtual band with many guests, including Anoushka Shankar, Black Thought, Asha Puthli, and Johnny Marr. The death-haunted album also features collaborations from Dennis Hopper and Bobby Womack, who recorded with Gorillaz before their own deaths. 8 p.m., Freedom Mortgage Pavilion, 1 Harbour Blvd, freedomortgagepavilion.com.

Katie Pruitt

Georgia-raised songwriter Katie Pruitt has distinguished herself as a folk-country artist of the first order since her 2020 debut Expectations through to the new Fools for the Fleeting. As a writer, she always comes off as honest and intelligent in her efforts to make sense of modern life, as well as being unafraid to tackle touchy subjects, such as on “White Lies, White Jesus and You” from 2023’s Mantras. Next of Kin opens. 7 p.m., Ardmore Music Hall, 23 E. Lancaster Ave., Ardmore, ArdmoreMusicHall.com.

Monday Sept. 28

Phoebe Bridgers

Phoebe Bridgers has laid low since selling out the Mann Center with boygenius in 2023, but now she’s back in a big way. She stoked the ardor of her fan base with pop-up shows around the U.S. before releasing the moody, compelling, and intensely personal Lost Weekend, whose many guests include Havertown’s own Alex G. She also has a costarring role alongside Robert Pattinson in the upcoming Primetime, for which she’s written the song “On Video.” 8 p.m., Xfinity Mobile Arena, 3601 S. Broad St. xfinitymobilarena.com.

Tuesday Sept. 29

AC / DC

The Australian hard rock band’s “Power Up Tour” will be powering down after this show at the Linc, the final date after two and a half years on the road. Could this be the last time ever in Philadelphia for the band whose 1980’s Back in Black trails only Michael Jackson’s Thriller as the second-best-selling album of all time. Taylor Momsen’s the Pretty Reckless opens. 7 p.m., Lincoln Financial Field, 1020 Pattison Avenue, lincolnfinancialfield.com.

John Coltrane, the fearlessly adventurous saxophonist whose music continues to transport and inspire spiritually seeking artists and audiences in jazz and beyond nearly six decades after his death, would have turned 100 tomorrow.

The Coltrane centenary is being celebrated around the U.S. and the world, and especially in Philadelphia, his adopted hometown. Here, a Coltrane 100 celebration that has been ongoing all year has picked up steam this month and kicks into high gear this week with concerts, movies screenings, and various events.

Coltrane moved to Philadelphia from High Point, N.C., in 1943, following his mother north. After a stint in the Navy, he bought the house at 1511 N. 33rd St. in Strawberry Mansion, where he would later famously kick his heroin addiction and develop the groundbreaking “sheets of sound” method of playing on his landmark 1960 album Giant Steps.

“John Coltrane learned his craft in Philadelphia,” says Ravi Coltrane, his saxophonist son, speaking to The Inquirer this week from California, where he was set to play in Los Angeles on the night of the 100th anniversary of his father’s birth.

“He played countless gigs there, and he became a saxophonist like no other in that town, where he bought his first home, where he lived with his first wife, Naima. He lived there with his mother, my grandmother, and that home still exists as a kind of symbol of John and his legacy.”

“Everything he was able to do, he did in the city of Philadelphia, and I’m grateful that the town is recognizing him more and more.”

Celebrations for a Philly master

The surge of Philadelphia pride in Coltrane’s deep connections to the city are evident. City Council has declared Sept. 23 John Coltrane Day. Temple University’s WRTI-FM (90.1) will play nothing but ‘Trane, all day long, and the radio station is also presenting a free A Love Supreme concert with Jaleel Shaw, Alexander Claffy, and Jeff “Tain” Watts in LOVE Park.

Ars Nova Workshop’s Coltrane 100 five-day concert series at the Mandell Theater at Drexel University kicks off Wednesday with Sun Ra Arkestra and includes performances through the weekend by Terri Lyne Carrington, Marilyn Crispell, Tyshawn Sorey, and the Immanuel Wilkins Quartet, among others.

On Wednesday at noon, the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz will present a free screening of the 2016 documentary Chasing Trane. On Friday, Chicago sax player Isaiah Collier will perform in a free concert at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

From Friday through Sunday, Scribe Video Center will present North Philadelphia History Festival: The John Coltrane Edition, a multisite series of film screening, video exhibitions, and performances.

And on Sunday, you can ride the Chasing Trane: A Tour of John Coltrane’s North Philadelphia bus with All That Philly Jazz historian Faye Anderson. All these events and more are compiled at jazzphiladelphia.org/coltrane.

Ravi Coltrane has no memories of his father, who died of liver cancer at 40 in 1967, when his son was 2 years old. As an adult, Ravi has forged his own identity as a musician while also honoring his mother, Alice Coltrane, and his father, whose music he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Highmark Mann in July.

Alice Coltrane’s music will be celebrated on Saturday as part of the Ars Nova concert headlined by Wilkins and include a performance by Ravi’s stepsister, Sita Michelle Coltrane.

The renovation of the Strawberry Mansion home

As executor and steward of the Coltrane Estate, Ravi Coltrane has overseen the restoration of the Coltrane house, where Mary Alexander, his father’s cousin who is immortalized as “Cousin Mary” on Giant Steps, lived until a few years before her death in 2019.

With a working group that includes Ars Nova’s Mark Christman and Anthony Tidd, and many local partners, Ravi and the Coltrane Estate have overseen the restoration of the facade of the house, which had fallen into serious disrepair.

“The whole building was crumbling,” Coltrane says. “We’ve done everything we can to shore up the foundation. But we really wanted the facade to be restored first to show the city that this landmark is a vibrant part of this town.”

He hopes the house, which he frequently visited as a child, can become “a cultural center” and “a place that can inspire young people as a symbol of what’s creatively possible.”

Coltrane history is Philadelphia history

Among the many projects released in conjunction with the centenary is Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend, a gorgeous photo book of images by photographers Chuck Stewart, Francis Wolff, and others, that includes essays by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Carlos Santana, and Patti Smith.

In Ravi Coltrane’s foreword, he writes of a lucid dream he had of hoping to see his father perform at Mitten Hall at Temple University in November 1966, just 8 months before his death. An album, Offering: Live at Temple University, was issued in 2014.

In the dream, Ravi Coltrane woke before getting to see his father play.

“To Talk With God,” Smith’s essay in the Coltrane book, tells of trying to see the sax player at the Showboat, the basement venue on Lombard Street, as a teenager in 1963 but being refused admission because she was underage.

“I have a vague memory of descending half-lit stairs, strains of McCoy Tyner, a glimpse of Coltrane … before being escorted back into the night. I left not disappointed but ecstatic, for those precious moments were the closest I ever came to seeing Coltrane live.”

Coltrane’s appearances at the long-gone Showboat in the early 1960s as well as performances at the Jazz Gallery in New York are included in The Tiberi Tapes, a holy grail set of recordings by musician Frank Tiberi, due to be released Nov. 6 on the Impulse! label.

Christman, who founded Ars Nova in 2000, says Coltrane history is Philadelphia history.

“He buys a house in Strawberry Mansion, thanks to the G.I. Bill. Philadelphia at this point is the workshop of the world, and he gets a job in manufacturing at a sugar refinery plant. He joins a union, Local 274, one of the first African American musicians’ unions.”

Telling that story around Coltrane 100, “there is a unified force in Philadelphia right now that I have not experienced in 26 years of presenting and being part of the jazz ecosystem,” Christman says.

“There’s a sense of unity about sharing the message that Coltrane and Philadelphia are talked about together for a very long time.”

‘Just the first taste’

Along with Coltrane 100 concerts, Ars Nova is hosting talks in West Philly. On Thursday, “Remembering the Man and His Music” will feature Reggie Workman, Andrew Cyrille, and Odean Pope with Coltrane biographer Ashley Kahn at the Study at University City. The trio will then perform on a bill with Irreversible Entanglements that night.

Christman also promises programming that illuminates Coltrane’s Philadelphia legacy will continue, thanks to Ars Nova — whose home base is Solar Myth in South Philly — for the next six months to a year, with Ravi Coltrane due back in town for multiple performances.

“This is just the first taste,” he says.

‘He’s the North Star’

Before he performs with his quartet on Saturday (with guests Will Parker and Jeff “Tain” Watts), Wilkins, who was raised in Upper Darby, will participate in an “Impressions of Coltrane” conversation with Carrington and Angelika Beener on Wednesday at the Study.

Wilkins, the saxophonist who records for Blue Note Records and released three volumes of live recordings from the Village Vanguard this year, says “I feel like I’ve always known [Coltrane’s] music ever since I’ve known anything about the saxophone.”

“Even though Trane wasn’t from Philadelphia,” he says, speaking this week from Brooklyn, where he splits his time with the Cobbs Creek neighborhood in West Philly. “I think his time in Philadelphia really has a profound impact on the city.

“His ethos and how he conceptually approached his process of playing. What that means materially is people at jam sessions playing these long, like 30-minute modal compositions. Whereas if you go to New York, you’re hearing something from the Great American Songbook.”

Coltrane, Wilkins says, “shows you that more work actually gets us closer to the divine. He’s the North Star, for sure.”

“The thing that is really spectacular about John Coltrane is that though he takes these solos that are so long. Like 20-minute solos, that could read as egregious. But there’s this interiority that’s so profound. The music is imbued with humility. It doesn’t sound selfish at all.”

Coltrane 100 continues this week, with many events throughout the fall. More information at jazzphiladelphia.org.