This Sigmund Romberg standard opens the Coltrane tribute set, a fitting choice given John Coltrane's famous 1961 recording at the Village Vanguard that transformed the show tune into one of jazz's most intense vehicles. The quartet takes it at a brisk 194 BPM with a swing feel in C minor, and the 32-bar AABA form supports two extended solos. Lefkowitz-Brown delivers six choruses on tenor saxophone, followed by Feifke's five-chorus piano statement that pushes the tempo slightly to 202 BPM. The eleven-minute performance establishes the concert's approach — long-form improvisation over familiar Coltrane-associated repertoire. Originally written for the 1928 Broadway operetta The New Moon, the tune took on a completely different life in jazz after Coltrane's treatment, and this quartet version follows that hard-driving tradition rather than the song's theatrical origins. The set continues with Tadd Dameron's Good Bait, shifting from minor-key intensity to a more relaxed swing.
