Absolutely Live Entertainment announces a very special one-night-only evening of the music of Alice Coltrane, COSMIC MUSIC: The Celestial Songs of Alice Coltrane, on May 16th at 8 pm at Stern Auditorium/ Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.
This will be a historic evening of music, featuring world premiere orchestrations and performances by her son and saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, her grandnephew Flying Lotus (Steven Ellison), and her daughter, vocalist Michelle Coltrane, who will lead the singers of the Sai Anantam Devotional Ensemble. This concert marks the first time Ravi, Flying Lotus, and Michelle have appeared onstage together.
Harpist Brandee Younger, pianist David Virelles, drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts, and bassist Robert Hurst will also perform, sharing the stage with a chamber orchestra performing premiere arrangements of Alice Coltrane compositions. Younger will play Alice’s recently restored harp, originally a gift from John Coltrane in 1967 and later used to record groundbreaking works including “Journey In Satchidananda” and “A Monastic Trio.”
This concert will honor the breadth of the creative and spiritual life of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda, and as mentioned, include world premiere orchestral arrangements of Alice Coltrane compositions, capping a landmark year of celebrating the spiritual leader, musician, and composer’s enduring legacy, “The Year of Alice.” The title of the concert pays homage to Alice’s 1968 “Cosmic Music” performance at Carnegie Hall, one of seven times Alice performed at the legendary venue in her lifetime.
TICKETS
Tickets are on sale now – visit carnegiehall.org or in person at the Carnegie Hall Box Office (57th St. and Seventh Ave.), or by CarnegieCharge (212-247-7800). Tickets start at $30. A portion of proceeds will benefit The John & Alice Coltrane Home (thecoltranehome.org).
JOHN AND ALICE COLTRANE HOME
Started by the nonprofit The John and Alice Coltrane Home in 2024, the “Year of Alice” initiative encompasses a range of efforts that galvanize public understanding of the Detroit native’s life and work. Efforts have included the publication of her writings, a series of concerts, museum exhibits, and newly issued recordings, including a watershed album of music she recorded at Carnegie Hall in 1971, just released in its entirety for the first time on Impulse (“The Carnegie Hall Concert”). A new edition of Alice’s memoir and devotional text “Monument Eternal” has just been published by Akashic Books, and an Alice Coltrane-inspired Museum exhibit opened at UCLA’s Hammer Museum in Los Angeles on February 8th.
ALICE COLTRANE TURIYASATGITANANDA
Born in Detroit in 1937, Alice McLeod became interested in music at a young age when she began playing organ at the Mount Olive Baptist Church. By the early 1960s, she was a professional jazz musician playing with her own groups and also collaborating and performing with Charlie Haden, Ornette Coleman, Carlos Santana, and many others.
Alice married John Coltrane in 1965, and not long after that, she joined the John Coltrane quartet, replacing pianist McCoy Tyner. Together the Coltranes embarked on a deeply spiritual journey of musical exploration and created a new genre of musical expression. In 1975, after a trip to India, she founded and was the director of the Vedantic Center; she would later establish a spiritual community in the Santa Monica Mountains. She passed away in 2007.
Alice’s pioneering and trailblazing career has changed the course of history. She forged masterful creative works, created music that beams universal love and spirituality to anyone who is listening and laid the groundwork for musicians for years to come to do the same.
Alice was prolific in her creation, with iconic works that include “Journey In Satchidananda” (one of Rolling Stone’s 500 greatest albums), A Monastic Trio, Universal Consciousness, Ptah, the El Daoud, and continued creating music when she started her ashram in California – music from that time would later be released to critical acclaim.
Beyond her recorded output (elegantly explored in The New York Times’ Five Minutes That Will Make You Love Alice Coltrane), Alice was a beloved and wise spiritual leader, a pragmatic person with a keen eye for business, and a deeply giving human, who emphasized the importance of charitable giving, education, and spiritual guidance.
RAVI COLTRANE
Ravi Coltrane is a critically acclaimed Grammy™ nominated saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. In the course of a twenty-plus-year career, Mr. Coltrane has worked as a sideman to many, recorded noteworthy albums for himself and others, and founded a prominent independent record label, RKM.
Born in Long Island, the second son of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane, Ravi was named after Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar. He was raised in Los Angeles where his family moved after his father’s death in 1967. His mother, Alice, was a significant influence on Ravi and it was he who encouraged her to return to performance and the recording studio after a long absence. Subsequently, Ravi produced and played on her powerful “Translinear Light,” which was released in 2004.
Ravi lives in Brooklyn, New York, and maintains a fast-paced touring, recording, composing, and performance schedule. He leads the effort to restore the John Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, Long Island thecoltranehome.org, and presides over important reissues of his parent’s recordings.
FLYING LOTUS
It’s impossible to examine the music of the 2010s without considering Steven Ellison, aka Flying Lotus. A creative of many mediums, Ellison is just as likely to appear at Sundance with a film as he is to headline a music festival. His run of six studio albums, featuring collaborators like Thom Yorke, Erykah Badu, David Lynch, and longtime friend Thundercat, solidified him as one of the decade’s driving musical forces.
So renowned is his aptitude that everyone from Kendrick Lamar, who recruited Ellison for the landmark “To Pimp A Butterfly,” to Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim turns to him for inspiration. Pitchfork designated the LA-based artist an icon of the past 25 years, while the Recording Academy nominated him as Producer of the Year at the 63rd Grammy Awards.
BRANDEE YOUNGER
Brandee Younger is revolutionizing the harp’s role in modern music. In 2022, she became the first Black woman to be nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award and later, the winner of the 2024 NAACP Image Award in the category of Outstanding Jazz Album for her latest album “Brand New Life,” which builds on her already rich oeuvre, and cements the harp’s place in popular culture.
Ever-expanding as an artist, Brandee has worked with cultural icons including Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, Pharoah Sanders, and Christian McBride. Her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the Netflix concert documentary, “Beyoncé: Homecoming,” and in 2019, Brandee was selected to perform her original music as a featured performer for Quincy Jones and Steve McQueen’s “Soundtrack of America.”
Brandee is often noted for standing on the shoulders of the very women who ushered in the harp as a clear and distinct voice in jazz and popular styles, particularly Detroit natives Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane.
SAI ANANTAM DEVOTIONAL ENSEMBLE
The Sai Anantam Devotional Ensemble is a group of performers dedicated to the spiritual music of Alice Coltrane Swamini Turiyasangitananda. Many members of the ensemble are longtime students of Turiyasangitananda’s teachings and members of The Vedantic Center, established by Swamini in 1976.
This spirited ensemble is faithfully committed to sharing the music and teachings of Alice Coltrane Swamini Turiyasangitananda with audiences around the world. Recent performances include Ambient Church in Los Angeles, Le Guess Who? in Utrecht, Netherlands, and the Red Bull Music Academy Festival in New York City.
MICHELLE COLTRANE
Michelle Coltrane is a vocalist, composer, and Artistic Director of the John & Alice Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, New York. Born in Paris, France, her immersion in music began at an early age with violin, viola, and clarinet lessons as well as singing in an ensemble at the ashram founded by her mother Alice. Michelle began traveling the world in her mid-20s, living in Japan while performing, composing, and DJing.
Michelle has released several recordings as a leader including most recently, “Awakening,” her acclaimed 2017 release on the BluJazz label. As well as continuing her touring and recording career, Michelle furthers her family legacy through her leadership on Coltrane projects including The John & Alice Coltrane Home and the “Year of Alice” project celebrating her mother’s life and career.
A centerpiece of this series is an Oral History program led by Michelle and featuring Brandee Younger currently touring museums and universities. In addition, Michelle leads panel discussions devoted to the Coltrane legacy and continues to perform regularly at major venues across the country.
ABSOLUTELY LIVE/DANNY MELNICK
Danny Melnick has produced festivals, tours, concerts, and special events worldwide since 1989 and formed Absolutely Live Entertainment LLC in the autumn of 2007. Before forming ALE, Danny was the Artistic Director and a Senior Producer at George Wein’s company, Festival Productions, Inc. Melnick has helped to create and produce over 115 festivals and over 225 concerts at Carnegie Hall.
THE JOHN & ALICE COLTRANE HOME
The Coltrane Home seeks to inspire and educate by providing a tangible link to a period of deep creativity and transformation in the lives of two great African American artists: John and Alice Coltrane. The John & Alice Coltrane Home preserves and promotes the artistic and spiritual legacy of the Coltranes through the ongoing restoration of the Home and the creation of an educational workshop series serving all ages. Our mission lives in John Coltrane’s own words, “………to be a force for good.” For more information, visit thecoltranehome.org.
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