Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda was born on Aug. 27, 1937 — 89 years ago this week, a little over a decade after her husband, John. There’s a lot happening on the Coltrane 100 front in the days and weeks ahead, but for now, let’s focus on Alice, who blazed her own trail as a keyboardist, harpist, composer and spiritual seeker, while raising a family and a broader community.
This year brought us Cosmic Music: The Life, Art, and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane, an illuminating biography by Andy Beta. Last month, his extended book tour brought him to Solar Myth in Philadelphia, for a ticketed event that also featured a solo concert by keyboardist and composer Surya Botofasina. The room was packed, the spirit was present, and the discourse was engaging and astute.
Andy, who also runs Beta’s Substack (check it out), brought musical clips, which you’ll hear at a few points in the talk. Surya, who sat silent for the bulk of the interview, waited until the right moment to speak — and then dropped some seriously deep insights, drawing on his upbringing at Swamini Turiyasangitananda’s ashram, where she served as his musical and spiritual mentor. The performance that followed our talk was not unlike what he conjured on the 2024 album Ashram Sun.
I think you’ll really enjoy this conversation, which was recorded by Beau Gordon and produced by Ars Nova Workshop; thanks to both, as well as to Andy and Surya. Now I’ll give the last word here to the author, who notes in his prologue the remarkably wide embrace of the Swamini’s musical legacy over the last decade or so. “Yet I’m reluctant to classify Alice Coltrane as an example of a beloved artist going from obscurity to belated discovery,” he clarifies. “The stars are always above us, but the conditions on Earth must be right to fully glimpse their splendor.”
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