The tale of Alice Coltrane and The Carnegie Hall Concert
It’s near impossible now to hear the words ‘spiritual jazz’ uttered and not have Alice Coltrane mentioned in the same sentence. Throughout the past 20 years, contemporary artists far and wide have brought light to her significance – Solange credited the pianist and harpist for inspiring her work on 2016’s A Seat at the Table and 2019’s When I Get Home while André 3000 made notable mention of Coltrane in interviews surrounding the release of his debut solo album, a flute-filled opus titled New Blue Sun. Even Radiohead noted her influence, and her nephew Flying Lotus contributed to liner notes in a 2017 compilation, World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda.
For decades, however, Alice Coltrane was cast into the shadow of her late husband and saxophonist John Coltrane. Now, it seems the admiration she began receiving in the early 2000s has culminated in the historic release of The Carnegie Hall Concert (Live). Thanks to the recovery of lost tapes that had recorded Coltrane’s 1971 set at New York City’s revered venue and the subsequent release of these recordings on March 22nd, 2024, the legacy of this most paramount jazz artist can now experience its true and deserved fulfilment.
So, what happened on the evening of February 21st, 1971, that deserves such acknowledgement? Jazz enthusiasts shuffled into the sacred Carnegie Hall, likely expecting excerpts from Coltrane’s first three albums, A Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery, and Ptah, the El Daoud. What a majority of this crowd were probably unaware of, however, was the musician’s recent five-week trip to India and Sri Lanka months before, accompanied by Hindu spiritual leader Swami Satchidananda Saraswati.
The guru was a great support for Coltrane after her husband, John Coltrane, died in 1967. She was left a 29-year-old widow with four small children. She later explained that the Hindu tradition was the one that best adapted to the search for a universalist spirituality that also defined her last years with John Coltrane. During this trip, she swam in the Ganges, visited monasteries in the Himalayas, and made a pilgrimage to the Taj Mahal.
The event at Carnegie Hall – part of an all-star benefit for the Integral Yoga Institute founded by Satchidananda – followed the release of Coltrane’s fourth and most expansive recording, Journey in Satchidananda, dedicated to her travelling partner.
To bring the music of this album – as well as two compositions from her husband’s repertoire – to fruition, the bandleader enrolled an all-star cast: saxophonists Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, double bassists Jimmy Garrison and Cecil McBee, drummers Ed Blackwell and Clifford Jarvis, tambura payer Kumar Kramer and harmonium player Tulsi Reynolds.
The audience witnessed the inaugural performance of this transcendental, near–mind-altering music that night—an experience many might describe as Renaissance-like. It’s a treasure for musicians, artists, and music lovers, no matter your preferred genre, to have this music available to listen, digest, and enjoy over five decades on.
