On Saturday night, Nov. 29 (two days after Thanksgiving), the 2025-26 season of the San Diego Symphony’s “Jazz @ The Jacobs” concert series opens with trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos at the head of a stacked sextet interpreting John Coltrane’s one and only recording for Blue Note Records, 1957’s iconic Blue Train.
Joining Castellanos are A-list musicians from both coasts: Brian Levy, the director of SDSU’s jazz studies program, plays tenor sax; Mike Gurrola (Eric Reed, Benny Green, Terry Gibbs, Benny Golson) plays bass; Ivan Malespin (Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra) plays trombone; Grammy nominee Victor Gould (Jeremy Pelt, Jazzmeia Horn, Black Art Jazz Collective, Wallace Roney) plays piano; and rhythmic royalty in the form of Joe Farnsworth (Eric Alexander, Harold Mabern, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson) plays drums.
Together they’ll revisit the period during which John Coltrane went from promising to pre-eminent.