Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane

A piano prodigy singing gospel tunes in her family’s Motor City church evolves into one of the jazz world’s most innovative (and misunderstood) composers in this thrilling debut reevaluation of Alice Coltrane’s career. Rewriting the record of an artist better known for her marriage to John Coltrane than her innovative compositions, music writer Beta traces how Alice’s musical style mixed her early mastery of gospel and classical music with the hard bop of the 1950s, and took on a world-music flair after she met John in 1963 and became the pianist in his quartet. The Coltranes’ marriage is described as a remarkably spiritual partnership, with their shared fascination with world religions spurring them to draw on ancient Indian and African instrumentation for a loose, atmospheric sound that set them apart from other jazz musicians. After John’s death in 1967, a grieving Alice put out record after record of ethereal compositions, including 1973’s Lord of Lords, and experienced a late-career spiritual metamorphosis, christening herself Swamini Turiyasangitananda and building an ashram outside of Los Angeles. The author scrupulously mines archival materials and interviews to probe the complex web of spiritual and religious influences that shaped Alice’s music, and vividly describes her ebullient live performances and ecstatic worship at her Agoura Hills ashram. It’s a music biography par excellence. (Mar.)