Alice Coltrane
b. Alice McLeod, 27 August 1937, Detroit, Michigan, USA. Alice came from a musical family (bassist Ernie Farrow is her brother), and studied piano in Detroit, where she worked in a trio and with vibes-player Terry Pollard, before going to Europe and coming under the influence of Bud Powell's playing. She worked with Terry Gibbs on her return to the USA and it was during her stint with Gibbs (1962-63) that she first met John Coltrane. After his divorce from Naima, Alice married him in 1966 and they had three children together. At the end of 1965 she had replaced McCoy Tyner in Coltrane's band, and while she is not the pianist Tyner was, her tentative, gently probing style fitted the requirements of Trane's music at that point. After Coltrane's death in 1967 she carried on promoting his music, issuing through Impulse! Records a number of sessions which might not otherwise have seen the light of day. On some sessions she added her own harp playing and strings arranged by Ornette Coleman, an extremely controversial move. In an interview with writer Pauline Rivelli, she said ‘I am really not concerned with results, my only concern is the work, the effort put forth …if I give you a leaf or a pearl that you trample in the dust I'm sorry. It's my gift, or offering to you. You do with it as you wish’. Playing mostly piano and organ, she subsequently led her own groups which have featured Frank Lowe, Archie Shepp, Jimmy Garrison, Clifford Jarvis and Jack DeJohnette. From the mid-70s she was less active in music, instead pursuing the spiritual and mystical interests that had already led to her adopting the name Turiya Aparana. But in 1987, to mark the 20th anniversary of her husband's death, she toured with the Coltrane Legacy band, featuring sons Oran and Ravi on saxophones, Reggie Workman on bass and Rashied Ali on drums.