On Meeting Trane: Bartz was 14 when he met Trane, who, along with Benny Golson, was working in Bull Moose Jackson’s band in Baltimore. On Bull Moose — he was so ugly, but the women loved him, Bartz said, with a big laugh. He said Trane heard him play and was very encouraging, even though Bartz was young and not really playing anything too substantial yet. But he saw something in the young player and encouraged him and told him to look him up when he got to New York.

On Eric Dolphy: Bartz said he used to practice once a week with Eric Dolphy, which he said was a real treat. On the new album he plays a little bass clarinet, which he said he loved and which, of course, he acknowledged Dolphy’s influence.

On Sonny Rollins: Bartz said whenever Sonny would do a gig, he would try to get down to see him whenever he could. The only other musician he treated with that kind of reverence was John Coltrane.

On Coltrane: He called Trane a “music warrior” and said he never stopped yearning to learn and practiced and played night and day. There were times he would be with Coltrane at his home and Coltrane would invite him to play or practice, but Bartz said he never did because he just wanted to listen and observe.

At the end there was a brief Q&A and I asked Bartz if he had any particular favorite Coltrane records. He thought for a few seconds and smiled and looked at me and the first record to come to mind was “Ballads” and I smiled back because I could relate and, even though it is not one of Trane’s tour-de-force albums, “Ballads” is just a perfect record in so many ways and the timing of when it was released, in the midst of all the experimentations on Impulse, has always made it even that much more special for me. And then Bartz thought some more and smiled again and mentioned the Miles era, and the Impulse era, and at one point he mentioned “I Want to Talk About You,” from the Prestige era, and he basically said there were so many periods to Coltrane’s work and they were all great. And, again, I smiled back, because it is just so true and it’s something we can all love and appreciate as fans, from a collector/amateur musician like me to a true great like Gary Bartz.

Overall, not bad. The concert wasn’t exactly as I expected. The first set there were no strings and only a little bit of McPherson. It was mostly a sextet under the direction of Vincent Gardner, a trombone player affiliated with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. They played a set of bop tunes associated with Bird, although the sensibility was more post-bop than bop, which was fine by me. The highlight for me was the alto player Wess Anderson. McPherson joined for the end of the first set and he was in okay form, nothing great.

The second set brought out the string section, with a lot more McPherson and also some more Anderson. This set was definitely more interesting to me. What was most compelling was watching the alto players playing with the string section and how much they enjoyed the interaction – then thinking about Bird, back in the early 1950s, and how much he would have valued this kind of background as well: Where he was the featured soloist in a far more highbrow type of setting and all of the other musicians, classically trained, were there to support him. It was actually enlightening from that perspective, and the music was nice as well.

As for the venue . . . can’t really complain. The acoustics were fine, everyone could see from all seats. The prices were quite high – I paid more than $80 a seat and sat upstairs – and the hall was small enough as halls go, so it’s definitely a nice setting for jazz, although there was nothing in either the music or venue that made me feel like, “Oh yeah, I have to come back here.”  Having said that, I’ll have no problem going back if there’s another concert that strikes my fancy.