Coltrane 100
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Thursday 11th June 2026
Doors: 6pm / Gig: 8-11pm
Happy Hour: 6-7.30pm
Free Entry
For bookings of 9+ guests, or if you’d prefer a phone reservation, call 0161 273 5495 (10am-5pm Mon-Fri) / 0161 831 7002 (5-11pm Mon-Sat). Booking a table is recommended, but you can just turn up if you’re happy standing.
Saxophonist Dan Forshaw brings Coltrane @100 to Matt & Phreds, in a concert that is as much a homecoming as it is a tribute.
Originally from the North West, Forshaw returns to Manchester as part of a year-long project marking the centenary of John Coltrane. Rather than presenting Coltrane’s music as a fixed legacy, this performance asks why it still matters now — as a living, demanding art form that continues to speak with urgency and truth.
The programme traces Coltrane’s full creative arc, from the drive and precision of Blue Train and Giant Steps, through the modal openness of Impressions, to the spiritual force of A Love Supreme. The music is not treated as repertoire to be preserved, but as material to be tested, questioned and renewed in the moment.
This Manchester date carries particular weight. Forshaw is reunited with musicians who shaped his early career, reconnecting with a shared musical language forged two decades ago. That history brings depth and risk to the performance — a long conversation resumed, not rehearsed.
Forshaw approaches Coltrane’s work as a study in truth, discipline and transformation. Coltrane’s legacy, for him, lies not only in innovation, but in the courage to use sound to express belief, struggle and purpose.
In the close, listening-focused setting of Matt & Phreds, this promises to be an intense and deeply human night — searching, alive, and rooted in return.