Alice Coltrane | Artist
Alice Coltrane aka Turiyasangitananda was an American jazz musician and composer born 1937 in Detroit, Michigan. Alice McLeod married jazz supremo John Coltrane in 1965 and she influenced several of his great works, such as A Love Supreme. An accomplished pianist and one of the few harpists in the history of jazz, Coltrane recorded many albums as a bandleader, beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s for Impulse! and other record labels. Coltrane grew up in a musical household; her mother was a member of the church choir, her half-brother became a jazz drummer and her younger sister became a songwriter at Motown. As a teenager she started to perform in various clubs around Detroit, until moving to Paris in the late 1950s. She studied classical music, and also jazz with Bud Powell in Paris, where she worked as the intermission pianist at the Blue Note Jazz Club in 1960. After returning to the US, she continued playing jazz as a professional in Detroit, with her own trio and as a duo with vibraphonist Terry Pollard. In 1962–63, she played with Terry Gibbs' quartet, during which time she met John Coltrane. In January 1966, Alice Coltrane replaced McCoy Tyner as pianist with John Coltrane's group. She subsequently recorded with him and continued playing with the band until John's death on July 17, 1967. In 1968 Alice released the album Cosmic Music which was a duo recorded with John. The same year Alice released her debut solo album A Monastic Trio. The artist went on to release a series of superb albums of avant-garde and new Age Jazz works through the 1970's and 80's, drawing inspiration from her Indian spiritualism. Outstanding albums include Ptah the El Daoud (1970), Journey in Satchidananda (1971), Universal Consciousness (1971), World Galaxy (1972), Turiya Sings (1982), and Divide Songs (1987). During the 1980s and 1990s, she recorded several albums of Hindu devotional songs before returning to spiritual jazz in the 2000s and releasing her final album Translinear Light in 2004. Coltrane's career slowed from the mid 1970s as she became more dedicated to her religious education. She founded the Vedantic Center in 1975 and the Shanti Anantam ashram in California in 1983, where she served as spiritual director. Alice and John's growing involvement in spirituality influenced some of John's greatest compositions, such as "A Love Supreme". One day, soon after her husband's unexpected death, when she was struggling with her health and caring for her young family of four children, there was a knock at the door and to her immense surprise a full-sized Lyon and Healy concert harp was delivered, having been ordered for her by John before he passed away. Present day artists as diverse as Radiohead, Paul Weller, Flying Lotus, Sunn O))), and Laura Veirs, have all acknowledged the influence of Alice Coltrane on their own work.
Artist Website: alicecoltrane.com
Featured Albums: Alice Coltrane
Related Artists: John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders
Collections: Women of Note
