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Alice Coltrane

March 2026

  • Jazz pianist Alice Coltrane performing at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1987

    ‘She sounded like the cosmos breathing’: David Byrne, Flying Lotus and more on the greatness of Alice Coltrane

    The radical work of the musician and composer was dismissed by sexist critics and overshadowed by the legacy of her late husband John. But today, musical stars from Doja Cat to David Byrne all champion her experimental sound

February 2026

  • Flying Lotus, with long dreadlocks, lit from below while playing a keyboard

    Film & Music reader interview
    Musician and film-maker Flying Lotus: ‘The whole lo-fi beats thing has become like Starbucks music’

    Ahead of a new EP, the creative polymath answers your questions on Thom Yorke, Kendrick Lamar and how a sci-fi epic ate up his whole life

April 2025

  • portrait of Alice Coltrane holding her palms together

    ‘Tragedy to transcendence’: Alice Coltrane exhibit honors jazz legend’s sonic and spiritual legacy

    Monument Eternal at Los Angeles’s Hammer Museum showcases the life, music and writing of the groundbreaking artist also known as Turiya

October 2024

  • He sits on some stone steps among greenery

    Contemporary album of the month
    Surya Botofasina: Ashram Sun review – Alice Coltrane-inspired expression of nature’s glory

    Sat between jazz, ambient and devotional music, the California artist evokes a pastoral wonderland – but disrupts it with surprising, volatile bursts of sound

September 2022

  • ‘Listneing to your voice is like trying to tickle yourself – it doesn’t really work’ … Bill Callahan.

    Discovery channels
    Bill Callahan’s listening diary: ‘My daughter makes me listen to Harry Styles 20 times in a row’

    The US songwriter guides us through a few days in sounds, from his son’s love of the Hamster Dance to Texas’s local Mexican radio stations and Traxman

June 2021

  • Arushi Jain.

    Global album of the month
    Arushi Jain: Under the Lilac Sky review – ragas for beautiful sunsets

    The composer blends classical Indian vocals and modular synth drones into harmonic textures full of warming solace

March 2020

  • ‘Transcendental sounds’ ... Alice Coltrane.

    Listener's digest
    Alice Coltrane: where to start in her back catalogue

  • Alice Coltrane, Brian Eno and Sam Cooke.

    Soothing songs for self-isolation: readers' picks

November 2017

  • the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers perform the music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda at LSO St Luke’s, London.

    Musical bliss: the London jazz festival pays tribute to Alice and John Coltrane

  • ‘So much about truth, and about love’ ... Alice Coltrane.

    'It’s like you’re on top of the Alps': Alice Coltrane's spiritual jazz rediscovered

May 2017

  • alice coltrane

    Alice Coltrane: The Ecstatic Music of Turiyasangitananda review – spiritually uplifting

    (Luaka Bop)
  • Alice Coltrane

    Higher state of consciousness: how Alice Coltrane finally got her dues

    A reissue of her rarest work is helping to shine a light on one of jazz’s most overlooked figures, who is rightfully emerging from the shadow of her husband
  • Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda

    The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitanada review – numinous energy

July 2014

  • King Britt

    Afrofuturism takes flight: from Sun Ra to Janelle Monáe

    Lanre Bakare: A new generation of artists are exploring afrofuturism – Outkast and Janelle Monáe take the philosophy to the mainstream, while Flying Lotus and Shabazz Palaces push jazz and hip-hop to their extremes

August 2010

  • Flying Lotus

    Flying Lotus

    Hip-hop auteur Flying Lotus's jazz odyssey proves a little too frantic for Kitty Empire

January 2007

  • Alice Coltrane

    Obituary: Skilful modern jazz pianist who developed her own musical spirituality from her husband's legacy.

January 2002

  • The heat is on

    In this week's jazz releases, John Fordham finds the fiery side of Alice Coltrane - and a man who could save the clarinet