Alice Coltrane, avant garde jazz pianist, organist and harpist has died on Friday, Jan. 12th in Los Angeles at age 69 of respiratory failure. Perhaps best known for being the wife of John Coltrane and mother to musician Ravi Coltrane, Alice was a talented, innovative and respected player in her own right whose spirtuality led her away from commercial music and deep into the study of the Hindu, Buddhist and Islamic religions.
Born in Detroit, Alice McLeod was raised in a musical family; her half brother was the bassist Ernie Farrow. One early influence was jazz harpist Dorothy Ashby, whose sound she later tried to incorprate into her piano playing. She lived in Paris in the 20's - where she studied piano with Bud Powell, and was briefly married to Kenny Hagood, with whom she had a daughter, Michelle.
In 1963, she was in New York City and met John Coltrane, whom she married in 1965. They had three children together: John Jr. (deceased), Ravi ( a saxophonist of some note himself), and Oran. In 1965, she replaced McCoy Tyner as pianist in her husband's fabled group.
After her husband's death in 1967, she recorded some influential avant garde releases under her own name in the early 70's. Her deepening interest in spirituality led her to take a vow of celibacy and adopt the name Swami Turiyasangitananda (highest song of God). She did not perform live for nearly two decades and only then sporadically with her son Ravi, instead focusing on administering her late husband's catalog while leading an ashram in Agoura Hills in the Wodland Hills of the Los Angeles area. During this time, she only issued one jazz recording - 2004's "Translinear Light" - preferring instead to record meditative music for use in religious services.
For more info on Alice Coltrane's life
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