One of the greatest and beloved artist in our current time was Alice Coltrane. She had many admirable qualities. She was a brilliant pianist and organist. Harpist, composer, author of several books and of course the wife of John Coltrane.
Even prior to meeting John , Alice had already embarked upon an ever expanding musical career with many of the great musicians from Detroit , Michigan. The town she was from.
The work that Alice and John Coltrane did together was truly monumental. After the passing of John Coltrane, Alice continued on in her own career and continued to emphasis the spiritual nature of music and the practices of devotion and meditation. Alice Coltrane reached a point in her life that could be called a semi – retirement from music scene of concerts and tours.
At this point in her life she began to focus more on the growing spiritual community of devotees and seekers that were forming around her.
She very seriously took on the role of spiritual guide to this growing community. She was also gifted with the name Swamini Turiya Aparna Sangitananda. This was also a time in her life of great penance and spiritual unveiling. She was an female African American artist, spiritual master who was gifted with an extraordinary ability and capacity to bring upliftment, renewal and regeneration to all those who crossed her path and listened to her music.
She was a guiding light for many musician’s older than her and those younger. Her impact upon the many dimensions of the music scene is still being felt and depth of feeling will continue through the many years to come.
“I was 16 when I met Alice Coltrane at a concert in Ravinia Park, outside of Chicago. We exchanged addresses and wrote to each other afterwards.
Her creativity impacted a host of musicians and listeners. For myself it was and still is very powerful. She gifted me with a spiritual and aesthetic openness that I continually cherish. This project is my way of honoring the great being that enabled the teenager to continue on the path of discovery, wonderment and finding one’s own voice”
Hamid Drake says a also about AC, “a great medium that placed music on a more cosmic level”, “Her creativity spread to the musicians around her, and the impact on me was powerful. She bequeathed to me a spiritual and aesthetic openness, and this concert is my way of honoring a personality who allowed me to become an adult from a teenager”.
Listening to her for so many years, we can measure the scope of such remarks in the man who had Don Cherry as another music teacher. Like the latter, he has continued to open up horizons as he incorporates all types of drums and rhythms into his drums. Irreducible to a category, Hamid Drake is above all a citizen of the world who intends to play “universalist” music. As proof, Hamid Drake pays homage to Alice Coltrane’s music with a group of top-notch international musicians. the cast that accompanies him in this tribute: an Italian vibraphonist, a French saxophonist, a Norwegian electronics engineer, Americans and so on…
