Alice Coltrane

Alice Coltrane the pioneering female Jazz musician, with a cosmic sense of vision and a passionate interest in spirituality, who left a formidable musical legacy that more than stands on its own.

The Coltrane name is familiar to people who know little – or even nothing – of jazz. Saxophonist/composer John Coltrane was one of the genre’s key figures, and his talismanic name, iconic reputation, and stellar music has transcended the jazz idiom that bore him. But what the public at large probably don’t know is there are two significant Coltranes in the history of jazz. The other was John’s wife, Alice Coltrane, born on August 27, 1937.

Alice Coltrane’s career as a solo artist didn’t begin until her husband’s ended, when he died from cancer, aged 40, on July 17, 1967. Her first formal release came the following year, with the 1968 album Cosmic Music, on which she was jointly credited with her late husband and added overdubbed orchestral arrangements to some of his studio performances.

The album made clear that Alice – a classically-trained pianist originally from Detroit and who’d been in John’s band between 1965 and ’67 – vowed to carry on her husband’s mission of making music that was driven by an earnest quest to explore the intersection of human and divine love.

Go on and check out her beautiful music below.