Alice Lucille Coltrane (nee McLeod, born August 27, 1937, died January 12, 2007) also known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda, or simply Turiya, was an American Jazz musician, composer, band leader, and spiritual leader.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, she first started recording music in the 1960s. She was married to jazz legend John Coltrane in 1965 and performed with him until his death in 1967. She is one of the biggest and most influential figures in spiritual jazz, and also stands out as one of the few harpists in the history of jazz.
Coltrane was also a devoted Hindu, which greatly influenced her life and music, founding Hindu centers and ashrams in California in which she served as a spiritual director, as well as recording several albums of Hindu devotional music.
Coltrane died of respiratory failure at age 69 in 2007 in Los Angeles, California. She is buried alongside John Coltrane in Long Island.
Discography:
- A Monastic Trio (1968)
- Huntington Ashram Monastery (1969)
- Ptah, the El Daoud (1970)
- Journey in Satchidananda (1971)
- World Galaxy (1971)
- Universal Consciousness (1972)
- Lord Of Lords (1973)
- The Elements with Joe Henderson (1974)
- Illuminations with Carlos Santana (1974)
- Eternity (1976)
- Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana (1977)
- Trancendence (1977)
- Transfiguration (1978)
- Turiya Sings (1982)
- Divine Songs (1987)
- Infinite Chants (1990)
- Glorious Chants (1995)
- Translinear Lights (2004)
- Carnegie Hall '71 (2018)
Tropes:
- Bilingual Bonus: Maybe doubles as a religion bonus, since many of her songs are named after Hindu gods, philosophers, mythology, concepts, etc. all in Sanskrit.
- Cover Version: Common on most jazz albums, she's covered many standards, such as "My Favorite Things" and her husband's "A Love Supreme."
- Epic Rocking: It is jazz after all—her albums usually have very short tracklists on account of the songs being very lengthy.
- Face on the Cover: Most of her albums.
- Harp of Femininity: One of the biggest female jazz musicians of all time, and a harpist.
- I Have Many Names: Usually referred to as just Alice Coltrane, she also has the Sanskrit name Swamini Turiyasangitananda, usually shortened as Turiya.
- Instrumentals: Standard for spiritual jazz, there's rarely any vocals at all.
- Lesser Star: Alice tends to be overshadowed by her husband who is far more well-known in the world of jazz at large, but she is still very well respected as a musician, with some of her albums considered to be all-time classics.
- Live Album: Carnegie Hall '71, and Live at The Berkeley Community Theatre 1972.
- Miniscule Rocking: Downplayed, but "Stopover Bombay" is a considerably shorter composition (about three minutes) compared to the epic rockers on the rest of Journey in Satchidananda.
- One-Man Song: "Something About John Coltrane." Journey in Satchidananda was named after a spiritual advisor of hers.
- Self-Titled Album: Turiya Sings technically counts as one.
- Updated Re Release: Turiya Sings was re-released in 2021 as Kirtan: Turiya Sings after her son Ravi Coltrane discovered some alternate mixes of the album.
