A few months ago, we told you about ongoing efforts to renovate the former home of jazz legend John Coltrane, located on 33rd Street in Strawberry Mansion. At that time, we told you that the John Coltrane House nonprofit had successfully raised over $50K to begin the process of fixing up the property, but would need many more donations to successfully restore the building and establish it as a museum to all things Coltrane.
The Coltrane House
With an eye toward raising money in creative ways, The Coltrane House is partnering with Brewerytown Living and the Philadelphia Jazz Project to put on an event on Girard Avenue. The John Coltrane tribute and benefit concert will take place on Thursday, July 18th, from 6pm – 8pm, at Veteran’s Memorial Park at 31st & Girard. Not only will this event feature live jazz, but it will also include food from Shifty’s Tacos and Rybread, and tasty beers from Saint Benjamin Brewing Company.
The park
Kind of cool that two of the vendors for this event are businesses that have yet to open on Girard Avenue, but are coming very soon. Saint Benjamin’s likewise hasn’t yet opened their doors at their Kensington location, but they’re shooting to open up by the end of the year. You may remember, we’ve told you about all of these places over the last several months. And according to Michael Klein, Rybread should be opening just a few days after the concert.
We have to say, we’re wild about this concert idea and hope they have success in building new awareness of and raising lots of money for the Coltrane House. In a city that has plenty of history that dates back to before the Revolutionary War, we generally do a pretty decent job looking after important sites that connect us to the past (at least in recent decades). As far as more modern historic landmarks, however, we’ve had some mixed results. Hopefully, the Coltrane House will live on for generations to come, sharing the wonder of records like Blue Train and A Love Supreme long after we’ve all faded away. Music, after all, is forever, right?