Articles, Excerpts & Reviews             

INDEX:
2006 Translinear Light Concert Tour Reviews
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,  September 23
• New Jersey Performing Arts Center,  October 22
• Nob Hill Masonic Center, San Francisco,  November 4

Other Articles:
• Excerpt from ESSENCE Magazine, September 2006
• Excerpt from ASCENT Magazine, Spring 2006
• Excerpt from JAZZTIMES, October 2004

TRANSLINEAR LIGHT Concert Tour

Ann Arbor  Concert Reviews:

Alice Coltrane Comes Home
From http://thebookbeat.com/backroom/?p=104

At a packed Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor, Alice Coltrane, son Ravi Coltrane, Roy Haynes and Charlie Hayden played for nearly 2-1/2 hours and then gave a 20-minute encore of the classic JC composition A Love Supreme. It was a memorial concert honoring John Coltrane’s September 23rd birthday. Although a concert in homage to John (one of only three in the USA), it was obvious that Alice was the central attraction. She radiated a warm peacefullness in a glowing orange-gold sari, spotted with glittering silver jewels that flecked the concert hall up to the top of the nose-bleed section. An amazing spiritual journey through music was shared by the audience who left the concert floating on a cloud. More of this review

Blog
by Lazaro Vega, a Public Radio Announcer/Producer
from http://forums.allaboutjazz.com/

On the way down I’d heard all of a Louis Armstrong Jubilee broadcast with his orchestra, Rochester, special guest Jack Benny, M.C. Ernie Bubbles Whitman, some good tunes for Armstrong, and a feature for Joe Garland, is it?, tenor; as well as the companion concert on the cd by Red Allen with J.C. Higginbotham, alto Don Stovall, Bigard....had just switched to the first Coltrane live at the Village Vanguard when the storm hit...  More of this blog review

New Jersey  Concert Reviews:

From JAZZTIMES, published October 2006:
Alice Coltrane Concert Review  By Bill Milkowski
"...The impact of the expanded ensemble, when combined with a video presentation on a large screen that hovered overhead, was profoundly soul stirring."  More from this review

Excerpt from NEW YORK TIMES Music Review, October 24, 2006
Communing With the Astral, Spiritual and Tuneful  By BEN RATLIFF

Excerpt from Asbury Park Review
Smallest band delivers during Alice Coltrane show   Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/24/06
BY CARLTON WILKINSON, Correspondent
"...Leading a quintet that included the ageless and incredible drumming of Jack DeJohnette, her son Ravi Coltrane on sax with bassists Drew Gress and Reggie Workman, Coltrane played two roughly 45-minute sets that included late husband John Coltrane's "Africa" and the opening of his "A Love Supreme." She also previewed some large ensemble numbers from her upcoming Impulse CD of inspirational music."  More from this review

San Francisco  Concert Reviews:

A moving night of music from Coltranes
MOTHER, SON OFFER HOMAGE, LET THEIR OWN TALENT SHINE
By Richard Scheinin, Mercury News, posted on Mon, Nov. 6, 2006
From www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/

There's a large, expanding subculture out there in which the music of John Coltrane operates as a sort of spiritual DNA, a key for opening life-affirming vistas. This is what great music does, right? Beethoven offers hope and a sense of transformation. Nearly 40 years after his death, Coltrane, for many, has a similar effect.

That's part of the reason that pianist and organist Alice Coltrane's three-stop U.S. tour — which ended Saturday night in front of 3,000 listeners at the Masonic Center in San Francisco — has generated such interest. Her first major series of concert dates in a quarter-century offered a chance for audiences to connect through the pianist to her late husband, the legendary saxophonist.

Add the fact that their son, Ravi Coltrane, an accomplished saxophonist himself, was in the band, and you had some deep, Coltrane Cult reasons to be there. But Saturday's concert was much more than some cultish event. It was a wonderfully moving and exploratory night of music...  
(More of this review)

Alice Coltrane shows "A Love Supreme'
From http://www.ibabuzz.com/concerts/2006/11/05/
Posted by Jim Harrington on November 5, 2006

True “moments” don’t happen all that often in jazz concerts.

There were two, however, during Alice Coltrane’s show on Saturday at the Masonic Center in San Francisco. In both cases, the fans and musicians seemed to know instantly that people will be talking about those moments for months, if not years, to come.

The first occurred during the final number of the band’s first set. The tune was John Coltrane’s “Impressions” and the players were John’s widow, Alice, on keys; the couple’s son, Ravi Coltrane, on saxophone; Charlie Haden on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. Toward the end of the song, Ravi and Haynes locked into an epic tussle that reminded one of the work John Coltrane did with drummer Rashied Ali on 1967’s avant-garde masterpiece “Interstellar Space.”  (More of this review)

Excerpt from ESSENCE Magazine, September 2006
A Love Supreme, With Alice Coltrane
an interview by Susan L. Taylor

        “If we are worldly oriented or adversely affected by life's challenges, we cannot give the children the time, attention and guidance they need.  But we can receive healing and direction from meditation itself.  You do not have to adopt an Eastern religion.  You just need to set aside 15 minutes a day to be still.  Keep a little notebook near you to record your experiences.  You are going to find there is something in those notes that you require in your life, your family, your work, on your spiritual path.  Just as it is fire's nature to burn, it is meditation's nature to heal, to bring peace and uplift you beyond your worldly environment and transport you to a higher plane."

From Ascent Magazine 29 Spring 2006
by Clea McDougall

Clea McDougall:   What would you say is your most important teaching?

Swamini Turiyasangitananda:   I think the central teaching is meditation. Not teaching on the subject of meditation, but more so, explaining that the path to God must involve meditation to bring you to the closest point. In other words, your study is going to be fine, your acquisition of knowledge is going to be great — but you need direct communication. And the best time is after prayer, after recitation of the names — japa. Meditate. Sit in silence and try to hear the voice of the Lord. See the visions that God will send, ask the questions. This brings you into close proximity to God.    (More of this interview excerpt)

From JAZZTIMES, October 2004
Transcendence by Ashley Kahn:

        “I feel that if God gives you any type of blessing or good fortune or gift, you have to share it. You have to share it, because it's not really yours. It really is of the Supreme. Like [the title] Translinear Light refers to a single progression or concentration of light—focused upon an object or a goal, as it illumines the pathway to achievement. It is an emanation from the Divine. Sometimes I've heard music and feel like I've already engaged in the praise of God. I feel it already in my soul, in my spirit.
        “Once John and I were coming from a concert that he had played out here in California and it was late in the morning—we got out at daybreak. We heard a couple leaving, and the lady said, ‘I have to hurry home because I'm going to church.’ Her companion said, ‘Church? You've already been to church!’ ”

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“Meditate. Sit in silence and try to hear the voice of the Lord. See the visions that God will send, ask the questions. This brings you into close proximity to God.”