WU alum acts,writes play about jazz greats

By Alison Angel

angela@thejohnsonian.com

Photo courtesy of Boyd Jones The stories of legendary jazz musicians Miles Davis and John Coltrane will come to life in the new DiGiorgio Center.

The original play, “Miles and Coltrane” was written by Winthrop alumnus Quentin Talley.  

Talley, who also stars in the play, graduated from Winthrop in 2003 as a theater major.  

After graduation, he moved to Charlotte and joined a group of artists called Concrete Generation. 

The group performs nationally and helped Talley write the play. Talley started his own production company called On Key productions.  

He also competes as a poet and won a national poetry slam competition with the Concrete Jungle.

After college Talley was burned out on theater, but his passion couldn’t keep him away forever.

“I started getting back into theater after a while because I missed it,” Talley said. “The play ‘Miles & Coltrane’ came about around 2007.”

The show is not meant to be an homage to Miles and Coltrane, Talley said.

“We took it from an artist’s aspect,” Talley said.  “I would say 80 percent of the show is fact and 20 percent is fictional to give it a little spice.”

Talley is playing the character of John Coltrane.  

He said the more research he did into Coltrane’s life, the more he was able to identify with him.  

“I’ve always been a fan of him,” Talley said. “Once I started getting in depth with the research on where he came from, I saw a lot of parallels to my life.”

Coltrane grew up in North Carolina with a church family and moved to a big city.  Talley said this mirrors his own life, especially moving to spread his wings.

Talley and his writers chose to center the play on Miles and Coltrane because the two musicians are still influential on music today.  

Both artists’ music is still used in movies and television, and they are considered to be icons in jazz music.  

“They’re probably two of the most influential musicians, period,” Talley said. “They stand the test of rock and jazz; they have influence on pretty much every genre of music you can think of.”

“Miles & Coltrane” will be at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 28, in the Dina’s Place Theater in the DiGiorgio Center. Admission is $5 with I.D., $10 without and free with a DSU fall pass.