Deadline for applications is Tuesday 18 February to attend our free art-writing course, in collaboration with Bergen Kunsthall and Office for Contemporary Art Norway.
No other artist has had a greater impact on my creative or personal life than Alice Coltrane. For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to believe in God or a greater power. Music was the portal that enabled me to focus those energies toward some divine energy. I was 18 when I discovered Alice Coltrane — in , to be precise. In those days, I could only buy records from the bargain bin and, rooting around one day, I came across a vinyl gatefold copy of her album World Galaxy I figured she must be related to John Coltrane.
It was at the same time that I collided with Igor Stravinsky. Hearing that album changed my life. I became a disciple of Alice Coltrane and will remain one until I am dust: her ability to stay on a groove; to create string arrangements that sound like she has upturned a piano and written out the notes; those slashing stabs of synthesizer; her harp-playing; her singing; those beautiful pop songs of devotion to Krishna; her effortless spirituality; and her ability to be so free and so grounded — something most of her contemporaries could never achieve.
I will remain a disciple of Alice Coltrane until I am dust. Warren Ellis. I believe her final ashram recordings, collected on The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda , show an artist at the peak of her creative powers.
Just the wildest music I have ever heard. My life would never be the same after that. She arrived on stage with her grandchildren and they sat on the organ bench with her while she played. People have said to me that there should be a church built in her honor. But whenever we listen to her music we congregate in her church. She opens our hearts. He lives in Paris, France. Alice Coltrane, Photo: Chuck Stewart. The energies in the room were palpable, a wave of bhajan chants and tones that poured into me.
