A performer has obligations to her audience, of course, but jazz singer Tierney Sutton believes that the audience also has obligations to the performer: to be alert, to be present, to listen acutely. “And if I can’t be in that state,” she says, “I don’t go.” For her, music is a spiritual act, an expression of her Baha’i faith. Happily, she also welcomes rock-ribbed secular listeners like me.

•  PERSON: John Coltrane
•  PLACE: the Lobero Theatre
•  THING: D minor
•  RANDY’S PLACE: the Rajah Theater