Catch Alice Coltrane on NPR's Morning Edition
Translinear Light is Alice Coltrane’s first recording in 26 years, since she
withdrew from active performing and recording in the late ’70s to open
an ashram and devote herself primarily to spiritual pursuits. If she had
never made another recording, she still would have a lofty place in the
jazz pantheon, as a gifted pianist and organist, as the pianist in her
husband John Coltrane’s final band and last recordings, as a pioneer on
the harp in jazz, and for her own legacy of penetrating albums that
continued the lineage of musical/spiritual exploration that John Coltrane
began in his later recordings.
Although Alice Coltrane retired from her career in music, she never
stopped playing, and her music was an integral part of the services at
the ashram and a major influence on the young Ravi, who was not quite
2 years old when his famous father died. Ravi, with his mother’s
encouragement, started playing the saxophone in his early 20s and
undertook a patient, diligent apprenticeship as a sideman that has led to
a mastery of the instrument that is all his own, as well as critical
recognition as one of the leading saxophonists of his generation
In 1998, Alice Coltrane came out of retirement to perform in a special
concert with her son at New York’s Town Hall in 1998. This concert
marked Ravi’s coming of age as a musical force in his own right and
showed Alice still at the peak of her formidable powers. Four years
later, they performed together at Joe’s Pub to celebrate the release of
Ashley Kahn’s book on the making of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme
and were again garlanded with critical encomiums. Translinear Light is
the realization of Ravi Coltrane’s dream to record with his mother and to
bring her art back to public recognition.
.
withdrew from active performing and recording in the late ’70s to open
an ashram and devote herself primarily to spiritual pursuits. If she had
never made another recording, she still would have a lofty place in the
jazz pantheon, as a gifted pianist and organist, as the pianist in her
husband John Coltrane’s final band and last recordings, as a pioneer on
the harp in jazz, and for her own legacy of penetrating albums that
continued the lineage of musical/spiritual exploration that John Coltrane
began in his later recordings.
Although Alice Coltrane retired from her career in music, she never
stopped playing, and her music was an integral part of the services at
the ashram and a major influence on the young Ravi, who was not quite
2 years old when his famous father died. Ravi, with his mother’s
encouragement, started playing the saxophone in his early 20s and
undertook a patient, diligent apprenticeship as a sideman that has led to
a mastery of the instrument that is all his own, as well as critical
recognition as one of the leading saxophonists of his generation
In 1998, Alice Coltrane came out of retirement to perform in a special
concert with her son at New York’s Town Hall in 1998. This concert
marked Ravi’s coming of age as a musical force in his own right and
showed Alice still at the peak of her formidable powers. Four years
later, they performed together at Joe’s Pub to celebrate the release of
Ashley Kahn’s book on the making of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme
and were again garlanded with critical encomiums. Translinear Light is
the realization of Ravi Coltrane’s dream to record with his mother and to
bring her art back to public recognition.
.
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