The Singular Genius of Alice Coltrane

An overview of this unique performer’s music and career

Alice Coltrane’s incredible music has often been overshadowed by the legacy of her husband, jazz deity John Coltrane.  

Thankfully, more is being written about Alice Coltrane’s journey and artistic genius. Since I launched this Substack I’ve wanted to join the appreciative voices, but my reverence for her work has made it a daunting task.

The first ever release of Coltrane’s live 1971 performance at Carnegie Hall was made available this week, and that was the push I needed to make it happen. 

Early Years With John

It’s important to understand Coltrane’s history to make sense of the extraordinary musical world she built during her long and varied career. Her story is one of persistence, progression and spirituality.

Coltrane grew up in Detroit with musical parents involved in their church choir. Alice’s musical talents were recognized early and her congregation raised funds to send her to a community music school. As a teenager she was in demand as a pianist and organist at various churches around town.

In her 20s, Alice took in the musical influences of Detroit and began playing a mix of gospel, jazz and rhythm & blues and performing in the local jazz scene. 

She began working as a touring musician and played for a band that opened for John Coltrane at Birdland in New York City in the summer of 1963. They married in 1965 and raised a family of four children. During this time Alice joined John’s band and they toured and recorded together. In 1967, just four years after meeting, John died of liver cancer and Alice spent the next couple of years providing for her children and doing her best to survive. 

Ptah, The El Daoud, 1970

Two years after John’s death, Alice released Ptah, The El Daoud, a heavily blues-influenced jazz record that was recorded in the family home, and is singularly focused on mourning the loss of her partner. This album first showcased Coltrane’s skills as a performer and arranger. Her piano playing is beautifully balanced by the horn playing of her sidemen Joe Henderson and Pharaoh Sanders. 

Upon its release Ptah, The El Daoud — named after an Egyptian God — didn't garner much attention, but today is appreciated as a classic. This is a common refrain for much of Coltrane’s discography.

Journey in Satchidananda, 1971

Only a year later, Coltrane released Journey in Satchidananda. 

Unlike her previous release, this album is more musically open and exploratory and features elements of drone. During this period in her life, Coltrane explored her interest in Eastern spirituality. After time spent in India, she began to incorporate elements of Hindu music into her recordings, seamlessly blending the sounds of India with her love of gospel, R&B, and jazz.

This album showed Coltrain in transition from piano and organ to the harp, which she had recently learned to play. John Coltrane had loved harps and had one handmade for Alice. It took more than a year for the harp to be delivered;  Alice received it after his death.

For all of the avant-garde and experimental aspects of this release, it's an incredibly accessible listen, and is often the gateway for Coltrane fans as it was in my case. 

The Carnegie Hall Concert, 1971 (2024)

Recorded just weeks after the release of Journey in Satchidananda, this album captures Coltrane at a pivotal time. The occasion was an all-star benefit for the Integral Yoga Institute, and Coltrane was one of a few musicians on the bill. The promoter figured most of the crowd in attendance was not there for Coltrane and she was told she should limit her set to 20 minutes at most. Once she got started, the promoter saw the positive crowd reaction and motioned for her to keep playing. She performed for a full 80 minutes. 

In the weeks that followed, her record label, Impulse!, decided they didn’t want to release the album. Both the label and the Coltrane family lost the only two copies of the master tapes, but a first generation tape was kept safe by the recording engineer. Thankfully Impulse! finally released it more than 50 years after the concert.

Universal Unconsciousness,1971

A scant six months after recording Journey in Satchidananda, Coltrane released Universal Unconsciousness, an album many consider to be her masterpiece. A more challenging listen than what had come before, the album is complex and full of tension. It’s also incredibly rewarding in its dense textures and musical interplay between Coltrane’s harp and organ playing. While this release is filed under “jazz” it transcends the genre.

While Journey in Satchidananda can be characterized as meandering and playful, this release is completely singular and focused. It is best listened to in its entirety as it takes the listener on a musical journey that celebrates Coltrane’s musical history, her spirituality and her late husband. 

Lord of Lords, 1972

Coltrane’s final release for Impulse records, Lord of Lords is cinematic in feel and ecstatic in tone. It features a 16-piece string orchestra that she arranged and conducted. Leaving jazz behind it incorporates classical music and elements of drone, including organ and chanting in a sustained and swirling musical style.

 What makes this album so powerful is how Coltrane continues to move into Hindu devotional territory without abandoning her gospel roots. This is best exemplified by the album’s closing song Going Home which is based on Dvorak’s Largo, which itself is an interpretation on a traditional gospel hymn Going Home, thereby making Contrane’s version a reclamation of the song.

Eternity, 1976

Eternity is a diverse and varied listen, which seemingly works through all elements of Coltrane’s musical lexicon. The album opens with the unaccompanied strains of Coltrane’s Wurlitzer organ, before she is joined by the swinging blues of a full orchestra. Appearing halfway into the album, Los Caballos has all the elements of classic Coltrane, this time with some serious Afro-Cuban grooves. The tracks Om Supreme and Morning Worship lean into devotional music. Finally, the album closes out with a classical piece, Stravinsky’s Spring Rounds From Rite of Spring.

Eternity finds Coltrane at a significant crossroads, not quite departing from the free jazz and gospel influences that she built her career on, while not fully embracing the purist devotional music that would define her next act. 

Turiya Sings, 1982

In the early 80s Coltrane (now going by the name Turiya or Turiyasangitananda) became the spiritual director at an Interfaith Vedantic Center in California. She left behind secular life and the music industry. But she did go on making music. 

In 1982 she made Turiya Sings and shared the cassette tape with her students and visitors to the Vedantic Center. That was it for distribution. 

The songs on this album are based on Hindu devotionals, and while a departure from her past releases, are just as powerful and mesmerising. Described by her son as “functional music” they are songs created to facilitate meditation and spiritual practice.

Bonus Fact: There are two versions of Turiya Sings. The version reissued by Impulse! in 2021 features Alice’s singing accompanied only by her Wurlitzer playing. A second version exists that includes synthesizers. This release has not been reissued as the Coltrane family cannot locate the masters. You can listen to a low resolution version of it floating around the Internet.

World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music Of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, 2017

Turiya Sings was only the start of Coltrane’s devotional music. In 1982, she founded her own ashram and subsequently put out a string of devotional releases on cassette that she recorded by herself exclusively for adherents to the ashram. The scarcity and quality of these recordings ensured that they went on to attain a mythical status. 

The posthumous release of World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music Of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda brought these songs and the music of Alice Coltrane to a much wider audience. Lovingly compiled by David Byrne’s Luaka Bop record label, this release features some of the best music from this devotional period.

Thanks for reading and listening. This was a special one for me.