Hearing about The Reunion: Miles, Bird and Trane, a play now running at the 45th Street Theater in NYC, the description caught our eye. “The play details a fantasy reunion concert where these jazz icons explore the nature of their creativity as they confront their own and each other’s demons.” The premise is an interesting one, if a bit contrived. Despite their early association during the birth of bebop, these three giants in jazz died decades apart, with Parker going first in nearly apocryphal fashion in Nica’s apartment in 1955, Coltrane dying of liver disease in 1967 and Miles succumbing to pneumonia in 1991.
This isn’t some sort of jazz heaven play, is it? “No, no, but it’s not exactly clear when they’re meeting,” explained the playwright, Jim Marentic. “If you’re looking for a coherent time line, you won’t find it. But you’ll find lots of factual things in there about the musicians and their music.”
