Leading Ladies

Five Things You Must Know About Alice Coltrane

1. Alice pursued music and started performing in various clubs around her home town in Detroit until moving to Paris in the late 50s. She studied classical music and jazz while in Paris, working as an intermission pianist in clubs around the city.

2. After her divorce to with Pancho Hagood, she moved back to Detroit and continued to pursue playing Jazz as a professional and met her her future husband John Coltrane.

3. After John’s death, she became more spiritual, changed her name, open the Vedantic Center in Malibu and performed for devotional Vedic ceremonies. The Ashram was eventually destroyed in the Woolsey Fire last year.

4. After a 25 year break from major public performance she returned to the stage for a few US appearances and performed for the San Francisco Jazz Festival with her son.

5. Haven’t listened to any of her music, I suggest starting with Journey in Satchidananda, it’s beyond words incredible.

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