Detroit native, harpist Alice Coltrane to be honored Friday night at Jazz Fest
NOTE: The first night of the Detroit Jazz Festival – Friday, Aug. 30 – is now virtual-only, due to threat of extreme weather. Friday's acts can be live-streamed at detroitjazzfest.org.
One of Detroit’s most underrecognized music legends will receive major honors during Friday’s opening night of the 2024 Detroit Jazz Festival.
Late musician and composer Alice Coltrane, born in Detroit on Aug. 27, 1937, was at the forefront of the spiritual jazz movement in the 1960s and ‘70s, and was also an innovator of jazz harp. On Friday night, Ravi Coltrane – her son with saxophone titan John Coltrane – will present the world premiere of “Translinear Light: The Music of Alice Coltrane,” featuring harpist Brandee Younger, bassist Reggie Workman and the Detroit Jazz Festival Chamber Orchestra.
“We wanted to spread the word about Alice and her work,” Ravi said. “And not only her musical ideas, but also her spiritual ideas and the message of peace and love that sort of permeates everything that she did and everything she believed in. My mother did have a very expansive musical vision. And most of the records that she made in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s featured strings and her own string arrangements. She heard music on a higher plane, I think, and wanted to utilize the strings to bring that music to a sort of ethereal place.
“We’ll be doing some arrangements for orchestra and jazz band, and performing some of Alice’s compositions that have never been played live before. We’re doing this for the first time in Detroit, which seems very appropriate, Alice being a Detroit native. There's going to be an about 20-piece orchestra and eight or nine jazz players onstage, including myself. We’re hoping it’s going to be a beautiful pairing between the two groups.”
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Alice Coltrane’s legacy
Harpist Younger, a popular figure in Detroit who’s toured through the region multiple times over the last few years, names Alice as a major influence and has been celebrating her work around the country throughout 2024.
“She’s everything,” Younger said of Alice. “Seriously, when we think of (another Detroit native and groundbreaking jazz harpist) Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane, both coming from Detroit, both playing this instrument. As Black women harpists, that’s already a rarity, but also being a woman in the jazz realm is very hard … and then, bringing this instrument specifically into jazz. It’s like a triple layer.”
Younger cited Stevie Wonder’s recording “If It’s Magic,” which included Alice on harp.
“That was the first recording I heard with the harp outside of the orchestral context,” Younger said. “I’d never heard the harp through the rhythm section before. That is what really turned things around for me as a musician because I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do. I was like, ‘Whatever this sound is, that’s what I want to do.’
“So if it wasn’t for them existing and – not to sound cliché – marching to the beat of their own drum. … Them taking the less-traveled path, that gave me permission to go literally wherever I wanted with this instrument, being a Black woman and bringing it out of the orchestra.”
During the performance, Younger will play Alice’s own harp, recently refurbished by Chicago’s Lyon and Healy.
“This is the premiere for the harp,” Younger said, “and I’m over the moon. It sounds beautiful. I’m really excited. I’m doing backflips over the harp!”
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‘A historic cultural moment’
Detroit Jazz Festival Foundation President and Artistic Director Chris Collins called Friday night’s planned premiere “a historic cultural moment.”
“We have the luxury of presenting some really amazing and forward-thinking sets at Detroit Jazz Festival,” he said, “and this set is a major performance that gives some insight into the trajectory of the art and craft itself – musically, emotionally, culturally, it is so connected to who we are as a community, and our involvement in the jazz legacy. I think it’s really going to touch everyone on a deep level.
“There’s incredible history at the heart of this. These are moments I live for, but I think (everyone), whether you’re a jazz nut or not, will be moved emotionally by what’s going to happen here in the next few days.”
‘Ode to Alice’
In observance of Alice Coltrane’s birthday this week, Detroit’s Irwin House Gallery is hosting a visual and sonic celebration titled “Ode to Alice,” inviting visitors to listen and learn about the musician, explore her imagery and spirituality and enjoy local art inspired by Alice and the institution of jazz.
“This is something we’ve wanted to do since Ingrid LaFleur first introduced a series of sculptural installations dedicated to Alice Coltrane, which appeared in our inaugural exhibit in 2018,” shared Irwin House Gallery director Misha McGlown. “We are proud to be able to work with our local artist community to raise awareness about one of Detroit’s own, a beautiful daughter of our city and a musical giant.”
Ode to Alice at Irwin House Gallery features visual artists Ackeem Salmon, Allen Williams, Crystal Starks Webb, Cyrah Dardas, Geno Harris, Ingrid LaFleur, Jasmine Graham, Jonathan Kimble, Lance Johnson, Michael Cummings, Nathan Spratt, Onzie Norman, Reggie Singleton, Rosemary Summers, Sam Kthar, Shaquona Espinosa and the Mirrored Glass Harp Trio.
Irwin House Gallery is located at 2351 W. Grand Blvd. and will be open to visitors from noon - 7 p.m. all weekend, through Labor Day. For more information, visit irwinhousegallery.com or call 313-932-7690.
Remembering Alice
Ravi remembered his mother as a “unique and kind person.”
“She really taught me a lot about patience, and meeting people not where I might be personally, but where they are, and really being able to hear people as deeply as you can,” he said. “My mother would finish a concert, and this was during the era when she was doing more live performances, and there’d be a line of people at the door of her dressing room – just, like, 50 people lined up after the concert. She played her heart out for two hours, and she would speak to every person and she would not try to rush people off. She wouldn’t roll her eyes when someone walked away. She was always right there.
“It was just such a generous and kind and human type of interaction that she initiated. It’s something you can kind of feel in her music, and it was a part of her spirit as well. It’s probably one of the best things that I learned from her.”
Ravi is no stranger to the Motor City, with much family still living locally.
“My mother grew up there, so half of my family is still in Detroit,” he said. “Many, many cousins. I spent a lot of my youth there, there’ve been family reunions there. I have also done a few things for Alice there in Deroit; she passed in 2007, and the year after, we did a tribute at the festival. I love the city very, very much.
“I always enjoyed being in Detroit, and I do love a festival that invites the entire city there.” (The Detroit Jazz Festival remains free for all to attend.) “Free festivals, there’s always a very unique and beautiful energy from the audience, so I’m very much looking forward to being back there. I just can’t wait to celebrate such a unique individual, such a very, very powerful, creative person.”
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit harpist Alice Coltrane to be honored Friday night at Jazz Fest
