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The Stop
Alice Coltrane (1937-2007) was an American jazz musician and composer who’s journey through life led her to become a Hindu swamini1 with the adopted Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda.2 Born in Detroit, Michigan, Coltrane was the fifth of six children in a household filled with music. By nine she was playing organ during church services, at 16 was accompanying several local choirs and gospel groups, and in the early 1960s began playing jazz as a professional. An accomplished pianist, organist and harpist - one of very few in the history of jazz - her deep interest in gospel, classical and jazz led her to create a uniquely innovative style.3
Coltrane played in various clubs around Detroit until moving to Paris with her husband, jazz vocalist Kenny ‘Pancho’ Hargood, in the late 1950s. Determined to study both classical and jazz music, she worked as the intermission pianist in the famous Blue Note Jazz Club, performed at venues around the capital, and was involved in televised jazz broadcasts. In 1960, she gave birth to a daughter, Michelle, but her husband’s heroin habit meant a return to Detroit and a divorce soon afterwards.
In 1962, she saw John Coltrane4 perform in Detroit and a year later was opening for him in New York with the Terry Gibbs Ensemble.5 She and Coltrane became a couple in 1963 and married in 1965. They had three sons in quick succession6 and during the next years they decided to move their music ‘beyond the framework of their traditional Christian upbringings.’ Together the Coltranes explored Hinduism, Zen Buddhism and Hare Krishna practices and teachings in a ‘search for something sublime and higher,’ with John Coltrane’s masterpiece A Love Supreme7 the musical result.
In 1967, John Coltrane died of liver cancer and Alice fell into a deep depression. She went without food and sleep for days and suffered from hallucinations. Her spiritual interests pushed her towards the Vaishnavism branch of Vedic religion8 and she met the spiritual master Swami Satchidananda. Through his teachings, she discovered a sense of ‘connection between the individual and the infinite’ and began to come to terms with her husband’s death. During this period she learned to play the harp and continued to record and perform, and in 1970 travelled to India with Swami Satchidananda on a five-week pilgrimage. Upon her return home she decided to open an ashram9 - the Vedantic Center - in California.
For the remainder of her life, Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda continued to experiment with music that created an ‘instant sense of collapsed dimensionality and crushingly tight space.’ Coltrane became a ‘master of offering space through music, particularly prayer space and cosmological expansion.’ After a 25 year break from public performance, she returned to the stage in the fall of 2006 - in time to celebrate what would have been her husband’s 80th birthday - and continued to make music until her death from respiratory failure at the age of 69 in 2007.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is ‘The sound that connects Stravinsky to Bruno Mars’ (9:25) - an entertaining and engrossing history of the ‘orchestra hit’ sound. First appearing in Stravinsky’s The Firebird Suite (1910), the ‘hit’ became ubiquitous throughout pop music in the 1980s and 1990s - largely due to the invention of the Fairlight CMI digital synthesiser/workstation/sampler. Interesting throughout, if only for the nostalgic value.
The sound that connects Stravinsky to Bruno Mars
The Recommendation
Today’s recommendation is a novel by Richard Powers, The Time of Our Singing (2003). Probably my favourite of his books,10 it is a complex story of an idealistic mixed-race family struggling with the reality of race and civil rights in mid-20th century America. I found it utterly absorbing.
From the back: On Easter Day, 1939, at Marian Anderson’s epochal concert on the Washington Mall, David Strom, a German Jewish émigré scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Philadelphia Negro studying to be a singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together, and - against all odds and better judgment - they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time, beyond identity, steeped only in song.
Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up, however, during the Civil Rights era, coming of age in the violent 1960s, and living out adulthood in the racially entrenched late century. Jonah, the eldest, ‘whose voice could make heads of state repent,’ follows a life in his parents’ beloved classical music. Ruth, the youngest, devotes herself to community activism and repudiates the white culture her brother represents. Joseph, the middle child and the narrator of this generation-bridging tale, struggles to find himself and remain connected to them both.
Remember: You can buy The Time of Our Singing at Amazon, but you can also get it from your local new or used bookstore - or check it out from the library. And those options are better for everyone.
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is a compilation of five Alice Coltrane tracks which have ended up in my playlist over the last few weeks: ‘Something About John Coltrane’ (1971), ‘Atomic Peace’ (1968), ‘Turiya and Ramakrishna’ (1970), ‘Blue Nile’ (1970) and a cover of ‘My Favourite Things’ (1972). Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from the Roman Senator and Stoic philosopher Cato the Younger (95 BCE - 46 CE):11
‘I begin to speak only when I’m certain what I’ll say isn’t better left unsaid.’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next stop …
‘Swamini’ is the feminine version of the masculine ‘swami’. Given to a woman who has either chosen the path of renunciation or has joined a religious order, it roughly translates as ‘one who knows and is master of oneself.’
The name means ‘the Transcendental Lord’s highest song of Bliss.’
Though I think I might have heard of her, it wasn’t until a few weeks ago that I’d listened to her music - and immediately added her to my playlist. She’s a fascinating person and - as is often the case - a Bus Stop can only cover so much, I’d encourage you to dig a bit deeper. Sources for today’s Stop include Alice Coltrane, Alice Coltrane - Devotional Music, Alice Coltrane Back Catalog (The Guardian) and Alice Coltrane (NPR).
John Coltrane was one of the most influential and important composers and musicians in the history of jazz and 20th century music. For more information, see: John Coltrane.
For more about the vibraphonist Terry Gibbs, see: Terry Gibbs.
John Jr. (b.1964, a saxophonist who died in a car accident at 18), Ravi (b. 1965, a bassist), and Oran (b. 1967, a DJ).
This album is often cited as the first example of spiritual jazz. A sub-genre of jazz which emerged in the 1960s, it is characterised by ‘approximations of ethnic styles, religious music of non-Christian traditions, and the ecstatic, transcendental aspects of Free Jazz.’ For more information and representative albums, see: Spiritual Jazz.
Also known as Vishnuism, this major form of Hinduism is characterised by devotion to the god Vishnu and his various avatars or incarnations. For more information, see: Vaishnavism (Britannica).
A place where people go to experience spiritual or religious retreats or to meditate and learn about spiritual or artistic matters.
I really like Powers and have read most of his books. Though I recommended Generosity: An Enhancement in The Bus: Eudaemonia (Vol. 1; Issue 34), it’s probably my least favourite of his works. Powers is certainly worth checking out - I once read an interview in which he was referred to as a ‘science-fiction writer’ - but in the way that he writes fiction about science (physics plays a big part in today’s book); there’s not an alien or spaceship anywhere near his work. Though they might be future recommendations, you should really check out Gain and Galatea 2.0 - they’re amazing.
For more information on Cato, see: Cato (Britannica).
Well, if there’s a better Richard Power’s book than Overstory, I’ve got to read it ... off to the library again!