Alice Coltrane

Alice Coltrane has left this terrestrial plane, a place she was always so lightly tethered to.... She was a wonderful musician and composer whose music was most uplifting.

Alice Coltrane was a young jazz pianist from Detroit when she married John Coltrane and later joined his band, replacing McCoy Tyner. After John Coltrane's death in 1967, Alice Coltrane released several critically acclaimed free jazz albums and then left music to start an ashram and become a guru.

In 2004 she returned to jazz, releasing Translinear Light, a profound album featuring her son Ravi Coltrane. Pure. Beautiful. Light. I highly recommend it.

Essence interview (September 2006)