Alice Coltrane Interview (with John Coltrane Jr.) Item Info
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Leonard Feather:But I take it over to Alice Coltrane to do an interview with her. If it's not working I'll just call up and see if she's got a tape recorder of her own so I can make use of it. I'll just take a cassette. I think that should be enough. I've got about 12 inches away from my mouth.
Unknown Speaker:So you didn't need them right now?
Leonard Feather:No, we can. We can.
Alice Coltrane:Why don't you all go on and then come back, okay? Don't go far, alright?
Leonard Feather:Yeah, we'll talk to you later. I'll talk to your mother first, then talk to each of you. Okay. Well, let's talk first about how each of the boys developed to where they are now. How much personal influence did you have on getting into music?
Alice Coltrane:I don't believe it's a great degree of influence. basically, I never played a lot of records that I recorded of myself hardly any. Even of their father, I was not playing very much of our music at home. So I really believe their interests sort of developed in a lot of their own appreciation and their own concerns.
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:Basically, because it wasn't something that I encouraged in any form or something that I insisted on that they must live up to a name or to a tradition or something like that.
Leonard Feather:That's interesting. And they were all very young when they came out here, weren't they?
Alice Coltrane:Oh, they was small boys. The youngest boy was just two or three and was in their very first elementary school, so they were quite young.
Leonard Feather:I suppose they were all too young to remember their father, 'cause he died when they were just babies.
Alice Coltrane:Yeah. The oldest usually have a few memories and they're just very vague memories. But the middle boy and the youngest, they don't, they don't remember anything.
Leonard Feather:They couldn't possibly. Did they ever see that film that the one that John that Ralph Gleason did in San Francisco?
Alice Coltrane:No, they've never seen it. I've seen it because I saw it shown when we were still living in New York and they were still too young to understand anything. So it was like whether it was a cache or what he did.
Leonard Feather:And that's what I mean, yes.
Alice Coltrane:It's very nice.
Leonard Feather:So, they've never actually seen him in action.
Alice Coltrane:No, we have no, no, no, no, no. There's only listening. And they started it out with their own interest in it. Basically last year in 1981-
Leonard Feather:Really?
Alice Coltrane:-when they really showed an interest. I've had the instruments here, you know, all of their father's instruments and they've been surrounded.
Leonard Feather:Is that John's alto too? Because he didn't play alto.
Alice Coltrane:Oh, no, no. They are not playing their father's instruments yet. And I wanted to wait.
Leonard Feather:You have them around the house, but not being used.
Alice Coltrane:I really wanted to wait, but they are here, yes. And they, they were always seen for many years. I could always see their father's instruments.
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:But I wanted at least one or two boys be serious-
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:-about music before they take up their father's instruments
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:Whereas, like, now they're playing the horns that, you know, that it's theirs basically.
Leonard Feather:Who have their teachers been?
Alice Coltrane:One boy, one boy, I allowed him - the younger boy - to study privately for about two or three months and he didn't care for it; Oran. He didn't like it. And so there was no way that I was going to insist. I don't believe in that. You know, I think if they don't have it, they're not motivated, you know, under their own volition.
Then there's no need for me to to insist on anything. So after three or four months, I said alright, if you don't care for it because honestly, you know, there's some teachers, they don't have a rapport. They have. no, no - There there's no affinity between themselves and the student. And not that they're incapable, you know, and qualified. The student cannot learn.
Leonard Feather:Yeah
Alice Coltrane:Sometimes with certain people, you see. So I didn't want to go to the - any of the -
Leonard Feather:So, he gradually got back into it, or what?
Alice Coltrane:No, he never went back. And there was never a return back to study.
Leonard Feather:For Oran, really?
Alice Coltrane:Yes. So what he knows is basically from association here now. So from listening and from our talks. When we talk about theory and what he has to do to be a musician he's doing on his own.
I don't sit down and write charts out and lines out and notes out. I don't do that. We talk about music. So we do have an understanding of music in this picture in the mind, and then they take it from that.
Leonard Feather:And when you talk about music, do you still not refer back to John or his records or any of what he represented in music?
Alice Coltrane:Of course. They're learning their father's repertoire.
Leonard Feather:Oh, they are now?
Alice Coltrane:Yes. And they plant and every (UNKNOWN) will be, you know, the fathers (unknown) the this is the only way I can really convey to them, right? There's no way for me to have any concrete idea about someone else's music and then have a commitment to it or a conviction about someone else's music.
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:Definitely they're born into a family, its their natural heritage. They're born into a tradition here that's theirs. And so what else? You know, what would be more appropriate?
Leonard Feather:It's logical, of course. Was John the first one to start?
Alice Coltrane:The oldest boy? No, the first one to really to take up music was the little boy. And he started playing in the El Camino High School band, playing on clarinet; his very first instrument. And I sort of thought he might consider an orchestra so he could get the classical, you know, experience. And he didn't want it. He wanted to be in the band.
He wanted to because it was like he would be able to attend all the football games. He didn't want to he didn't want to miss out on that, you see.
Leonard Feather:He got to be in the band so he could see all the games.
Alice Coltrane:Every game, every game. And so I thought that he would have more exposure to some of the various classical music and modern music. Some of the modern music that might be played with the band, but he didn't want, so I said alright
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:I mean in New York, as opposed to one would interpret the band. So he really started out first and I think he learned a lot of, you know, the technique of playing a reed instrument. the teaching was provided by qualified instructor and then of course was quite competent in teaching young people. So he was very first one.
So yeah, so like after him, the little boy, you know, I talked to him, I said-
Leonard Feather:Oran.
Alice Coltrane:So what do you think? You'd like to play? And he said I'd like to try. I just want to try. So he was quite small. Get yourself more comfortable on the sofa.
Leonard Feather:Yeah. Um, how did John get to take up the bass?
Alice Coltrane:basically, yeah, because of his character. I suggested it. I knew that he could even play keyboard, that he might even be interested in reeds. But for his character, that instrument somehow suits his personality. There's something is this is a large instrument. There's something that will respond through a particular type of playing from him, sort of giving from him.
And he's a very energetic person and I didn't want him with on, you know, the piano or a lighter- even lighter instrument. Even all through high school he played on the football team. So there need to be something to match that that personality and that particular and you and even through even though I did suggest he had an affinity for the instrument.
You know when you leave from here, I want you to take the tape that they made so you can hear When I took him in for the demonstration tape, they made. Listen, you have a sort of close up listening. (unknown), but we should have a really good quality there. But you must listen. You know, that boy really has an affinity for that instrument.
And you'll also see, Leonard, that none of these boys are dependent on someone else. And the way that I recorded with them, they're immediately in the forefront, you know, it's not you know, I'm taking them along and carrying along. They're safe, you know, and that they're secure in that way. Do you see they're independently able to play music without them?
You know, without needing someone else's support.
Leonard Feather:Any of them to write music?
Alice Coltrane:Not yet. No. I think they will eventually.
Leonard Feather:What has it like living up- well, you've been ten years now.
Alice Coltrane:72 we arrived in New York, so now ten years, yeah.
Leonard Feather:(unknown)
Alice Coltrane:You know, this community is sort of filling in more. More and more. Yes, especially the school. You know, they had been bussing. They have bussing. So many of their friends are, you know, in the culture, you know, because they're coming from a, you know, Los Angeles area, and, so.
Leonard Feather:So, have they been reasonably well received and made friends in the community.
Alice Coltrane:We didn't have any problem. I didn't see the need for private schools. No board. No board or anything like that. I knew that this was no good, spoiled anything like that. And we got along well. And in the neighborhood here, you know, this really, you know, there ain't no problem..
Leonard Feather:Things have improved in the valley, then?
Alice Coltrane:Yes.
Leonard Feather:Over ten, 15 years.
Alice Coltrane:Yeah
Leonard Feather:I've been here 20 years. When I moved here (unknown)
Alice Coltrane:Yes.
Leonard Feather:It hasn't improved that much, but it's something you can look at.
Alice Coltrane:Well, you know what I think is even worse than it really is really feeling that... (unknown) You know, they won't, you know, want to get away from the city living.
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:How can they, you know? It's very expensive.
Leonard Feather:Well, let's backtrack a little and talk about, you know, life without John. I've never even discussed-
Alice Coltrane:Discussed.
Leonard Feather:-You know, the years that you had with him. So many years without him. But what what are- you looking back now, what do you think that you basically learned from him? I don't mean just musically, but spiritually or humanistic or anything like that, you know.
Alice Coltrane:I think it was from him a true appreciation for a person with commitment and dedication. He was definitely dedicated it to music. He was quite spiritual. He had devotion for the Lord. And this is what I admire these qualities, because it wasn't such that this person is so involved with his music and his own personal pursuits, you know, and in terms of achievement or however experimentation or exploration, he still had a appreciation for the Lord.
And that to me, I quite respect. Yeah.
Leonard Feather:Did that sort of draw you into that same.
Alice Coltrane:I believe it was quite influential because, you know, you've studied Indian music for a long time and from that he went over to Eastern philosophy and I really quite appreciate Eastern philosophy, sort of above Western concepts because it was so orthodox, but that's quite closed to universality. Then in appreciating all of the present in the human family and stop making the differentiation and the separations and looking at the superficial distinction and creating, you know, conflict and war and all of these types of things just because of the surface consideration.
Leonard Feather:Sort of helped to bring you some inner peace through that.
Alice Coltrane:I believe so, yes. I think that he was somewhat instrumental in the appreciation for it. Just in the whole universality of people and cultures, music, arts and really on on a large scale. And he was a quiet kind person, a very good father. really nice, the way, you know, he would hold the children and be with the children.
And he never liked, he didn't like a lot of association and he didn't like going out, you know, being at the parties and he didn't really like that. If people would invite, you know, he would not attend because he didn't like it. And so it was just a very nice, really very, very happy, very peaceful in the house in New York.
And so so it was quite nice. He always also wanted me to to continue in music even. And upon leaving, you know, he told me just go onward with music.
Leonard Feather:Was he really aware? Were you aware how seriously ill he was?
Alice Coltrane:Not till, about maybe three months before leaving. Only this I say to you, it didn't seem so at first because he was not an ill person. You never saw him ill, you know. But then I found out just how serious it was and that it was a matter of time.
Leonard Feather:What prompted you to. Maybe I was going to say what prompted you to move out here, but maybe you should cover the ground between then. He died in 1967.
Alice Coltrane:Yeah. Yes.
Leonard Feather:And it was another almost five years of before you came down here. What did you do in that time?
Alice Coltrane:Yes. Yeah. Yes. Well, because I began meditating very seriously. one of the directives from the meditation was to move to California. Yes. Otherwise, there was no reason to leave that house. It was quite a nice house. I was much more spacious than this. We were in Huntington, New York, on the Long Island area of New York. And it was no- I really didn't care about California too much.
Leonard Feather:Where were you at?
Alice Coltrane:You know, from the visits here. It wasn't a very beautiful, very scenic place. It's sunny and nice, but it it didn't have the character of the area in New York where we lived, not the city. And we you know, we didn't live in it. We were out 40 miles from the city, was very beautiful, very green.
Leonard Feather:Right. Yeah. Something told you you should move here.
Alice Coltrane:Yes. So so I, you know, immediately followed that directive and, you know, got everything arranged so that we moved. It was a very nice then even after a year that I even questioned the children of what do you like about California? Do you want to go back to New York? And they said no, we don't want to go back.
We don't have a swimming pool. We don't have this. We don't want to go back. It's too cold.
Leonard Feather:You very soon adjust to that, don't you?
Alice Coltrane:yes, yes.
Leonard Feather:I hadn't been out there long and I felt that same way about moving up. I didn't want to go back. So you liked it?
Alice Coltrane:Yes. And they liked it, too, you know, because they don't have any say so. Well, the directive was received. What could they say? They only followed instruction and there was no sharing with any other person. I just want to follow that instruction given. And they were here and so I asked. I waited until about a year.
And they got in the school and met new friends. And and so I said, What about getting ourselves ready and we all go back to New York. They said no, no, we can't do that at all. So that's quite nice. You know, they're really happy here.
Leonard Feather:Why have they done so little in public?
Alice Coltrane:Because I got in the renounce order. I'm in the renounce order. It means I've taken vows. I don't know, Leonard, you don't know the Berlin model, the spirituality. But I've been quite, quite, quite involved with that. There's a spiritual center that I have called the Vedantic Center. You need a pencil?
Leonard Feather:Vedantic Center? I had one, but I don't know.
Alice Coltrane:You got on the pause button because maybe we can stop for a moment or.
Leonard Feather:No that's alright. Here it is.
Alice Coltrane:Oh good. The Vedantic Center. V-E-D-
Leonard Feather:I know how you spell it. A-N-T-I-C. And where is that?
Alice Coltrane:Okay. Right. It's right down center. The buildings right next door over there. Right there in the next building and there must be now already about 25 to 30 initiated students and we do have some some new members. And so have.
Leonard Feather:You have you been running that?
Alice Coltrane:Yes. Yes. Very, very much involved with that over the past now eight years.
Leonard Feather:What do you basically teach?
Alice Coltrane:Well, what I'm really teaching from all the Vedic scriptures itself, and that would be from Bhagavad Gita, the punishments.
Leonard Feather:If you could spell that
Alice Coltrane:Bhagavad Gita? B-H-A-G-A-V-A-D dash Gita. G-I-T-A.
Leonard Feather:Bhagavad Gita.
Alice Coltrane:Gita.Yes. And also, there were from the meditations I received a group of scriptures and I want to show you that from a book. It's very nice. In fact, I would say take the book also. And then there was another book of this fusion documentary you call a book called A Monument Eternal, and the book that has the scriptures entitled in this wisdom.
So this is probably the reason I never really left music. People think, oh, you went away. I never left because even during this time of teaching and involvement in certain activities, I was always called upon to do benefit programs. And I did many, many benefit concerts. So it never music never really stopped. Plus, when I started initiating, I was became under contract with Warner Brothers and was with them three years. So, I made four albums and a double record album.
Leonard Feather:Oh, that's right. What was the last record you ever played on?
Alice Coltrane:In 1978. An album entitled Transfiguration.
Leonard Feather:And got out across the show.
Alice Coltrane:And the show was I was with Warner Brothers also. Yes.
Leonard Feather:You're still in touch with me?
Alice Coltrane:Yes.
Leonard Feather:Yes, I like them. So, you think you're gonna do some more recording, maybe with the boys.
Alice Coltrane:I think with the boys, we had two mentioned from two companies, but have not talked yet.
Leonard Feather:So that's that's a natural evolution. You not just to carry our family name, but any talent you see in them it should be recorded.
Alice Coltrane:Yes.
Leonard Feather:(unknown)
Alice Coltrane:Well, I think it would be fine.
Leonard Feather:Have you continued to practice?
Alice Coltrane:Well, I'm doing some practicing now because I believe it's quite necessary and plus, with the boys, you see, yeah, they have to practice.
Leonard Feather:You work out with them somes?
Alice Coltrane:Yeah. Yes, yes, I do. Three days a week they practice. So I'm right there. So you know, it's quite beneficial.
Leonard Feather:What kind of organ is that?
Alice Coltrane:Is the world as a groundswell for me. Yeah. And on the concert I'll have the smaller one is not quite this size, but I have a small one down there in the harp also.
Leonard Feather:Were you playing the harp before you met John, or did that all come later?
Alice Coltrane:That came from him because he had a harp in the house and he used to write songs. you know, you could make up songs and melodies just from, you know, from playing the harp itself. And it was from that. So I used to just go to the harp and, you know, make chords or something. And he said, why don't I just get a harp and that's the harp he got.
Leonard Feather:Do you feel that you're still having some contact with him?
Alice Coltrane:Occasionally he is there is kind of a definite contact about him. So probably the reason is we were allowed two or three years. There was a definite conversation with him on on the particular subject of life after death and in living in the particular existence that he's in. I did make inquiries. I noticed that he did have an instrument.
It looked like something on the order of the soprano, but much longer and larger. And so he was quite absorbed in this quite involved with looking at its structure and thinking of what would he play. So I asked him, I said, What do you think about Earth life? He said not much and so I said do you ever consider that you prefer living on earth?
You know, as opposed to your life? And this, you know, in music and after, you know, in afterlife still. And he said no. He said I don't prefer that. I don't prefer living on Earth. And so I said You know, I said really because of how, you know, the acceptance, recognition and fame and all these things. So I said, why, do you prefer this life, the spirit life. as opposed to that?
And he said because of the way life is.
Leonard Feather:Did this happen to you in a trance or a dream or what?
Alice Coltrane:I was in a meditative state. Yes. Meditative state, yes. So I let let it be, you see, because it quite emphasized it to me. And then also immediately time after, after he left the body, there were instances where he did actually return in spirit form. And there were some conversations, communications at that time. So it's really, really nice, you know, and you know what it does to you know, there's no real grief.
You can't you can have that. You can't have a sorrow for someone that you know has existed.
Leonard Feather:Yeah. Yeah, it's spiritually reinforcing too, right?
Alice Coltrane:Yes. And there was never a sense of loss. There was never a sense of loss with him, you know, because we don't see in a visible form. We never, never experience loss of it. It was like it was always me. I was here and I was alive, you know, although in another state of existence could not really, you know, not there.
And this was like what was very beautiful.
Leonard Feather:How much have you talked to the boys about it, now that they're old enough to understand?
Alice Coltrane:More and more we are talking about their father and they're really expressing their concerns about their ideals and goals in music and what they want to do. Because now it seems like it's almost more decided, like there was a time and was well, I want to I want to play football or I you know, I want to race cars.
You know, they have these kind of ideas, but now it is more crystallized. They all are focusing on music as a career you see.
Leonard Feather:Its gratifying.
Alice Coltrane:Yes. Yes. And then that what I also there's a forte in music. There's a skill to have an ability to music. Naturally it's there and not speaking from oneself partial or to them in any way.
I'm telling you very objectively, you'll be witness to it, yourself that they have a natural skill for music. And I've seen that above all of these other things or other interests of theirs, really music is much more outstanding. Much more, much more achieved in them than some of these other things that they like.
Leonard Feather:How about their religious upbringing? Bringing them up spiritually?
Alice Coltrane:Yes, they have to attend services once a week.
Leonard Feather:Oh, yeah?
Alice Coltrane:And they meditate. The children are supposed to meditate 15 minutes a day. That's all the requirement is. Obviously, God is really kind. You know, like when you go to the schools, you are going to study constantly, you know, hour after hour. And the students are up in the night during the study, you know, for the exams within the meditated, you know, that was a spiritual path, you know, the 15 minutes really, God always ask for belief and God really will give the most simple.
Leonard Feather:Well, they seem like very well adjusted people. You obviously brought them up very well.
Alice Coltrane:Oh, thank you.
Leonard Feather:In that attitude.
Alice Coltrane:yes, you.
Leonard Feather:Really have to work together with.
Alice Coltrane:The father bought every one. He purchased every rug you see, they all these are the Persian rugs all along and you leave this out. And that's not different. You know, I've looked at not added anything. This is exactly the house the way it was in New York. Had you visited us in New York, you would say we're walking almost in the same house.
We had the same like piano, like this white one down there. He wanted the room. The concert grand was the only thing was the harp could not come because we had to wait a year for that. And he was not there. from the koto he brought from Japan. Those are his bagpipes, you see.
What is that? Is that a lute?
Alice Coltrane:That's a, this is something called a Begena. B-E-G-E-N-A. that's a Ethiopian harp.
Leonard Feather:What about that one up there?
Alice Coltrane:What, the sitar? A sitar, yes.
Leonard Feather:That's a small, I guess regular sized.
Alice Coltrane:It's a regular size, I think you're thinking (unknown)
Leonard Feather:Yeah. Those one down there, as well.
Alice Coltrane:That's a Begena.
Leonard Feather:Alright, would you like to hold this? So, you're the youngest right? So you can't possibly remember your father?
Oran (youngest):Yes. No, I don't.
Leonard Feather:Your father died about when you were born, is that so?
Oran (youngest):Yes, I think that's about right.
Leonard Feather:And you've never seen him in movies or anything?
Oran (youngest):yes. Like filmstrips and things like that.
Leonard Feather:Oh, you have? Oh, okay. So you have at least some idea of what he was like in any case?
Oran (youngest):Yes
Leonard Feather:When did you become aware that, I imagine very early, that your parents were rather unusual people, and rather talented people?
Alice Coltrane:Well, are you.
Leonard Feather:Have pretty much. It's okay. Yeah.
Oran (youngest):I pretty much knew as you know I grew older I got my parents being musicians and all.
Leonard Feather:That didn't inspire you to get started on some?
Oran (youngest):No, it didn't
Leonard Feather:What were your main interests, I suppose?
Oran (youngest):Well, I sort of like playing, you know, most any normal kid would. I really wasn't that interested in music then than I am now.
Leonard Feather:You came to it gradually as as you heard more music every years. Who what are your main what do you really do to improve yourself?
Oran (youngest):Well, we try to practice on well most every other every day. And me and myself, I we got that much of a chance to practice as much as I should, but I will just, you know, go up and down these scales and, you know, things just to make improvement. skills.
Leonard Feather:What kind of sound are you aiming for because your father didn't play alto sax right? Do you have any particular alto players in mind?
Oran (youngest):No. I really don't know any.
Leonard Feather:Really seriously, I really could try to develop something of your own, you know, to be accused of copious things.
Alice Coltrane:(unknown)
Leonard Feather:Yeah that's right
Alice Coltrane:(unknown)
Telephone:(ringing)
Leonard Feather:I think got to talk to each other so okay That's alright. When did you become aware that your mother and father were two very special people in the 1960s? Age wise, you mean? Yeah, right. Yeah.
Ravi (middle):Age-wise you mean?
Leonard Feather:Yeah, right. Yeah/
Ravi (middle):Okay.
around maybe three or four or five. Yeah.
Leonard Feather:Did it have any special effect on you?
Ravi (middle):It's kind of made me want to be, like them kind of special too.
Leonard Feather:So you, you had sort of an earlier interest in it than Oran because he said it didn't really mean much to him at first.
Ravi (middle):I think so. I think I did.
Leonard Feather:Did you start to start listening to the Jones records?
Ravi (middle):I, I did it first, but now since we've been playing his music, I have more than I have. I've been playing in more.
Leonard Feather:To try to get your own interpretation of it rather than to copy directly?
Ravi (middle): I try, yeah. It's hard for me. So yeah.
Leonard Feather:It's got to be a little bit of that feeling in there if you're playing his going.
Ravi (middle):Yeah.
Leonard Feather:Which was compositions has impressed you the most?
Ravi (middle):Giant steps.
Leonard Feather:Giant steps. Yeah, Yeah. That was really a masterpiece. That turned the whole state of jazz thinking around what you want to do in terms of changes. Did you start playing that when you were young?
Ravi (middle):Giant Steps? I mean, I've never tried it now.
Leonard Feather:You've never tried it? Is it too hard?
Ravi (middle):Ah yeah, Yeah.
Leonard Feather:It was great a music. Have you ever tried to play (unknown)? What else? What do you play?
Ravi (middle):Like Africa and and Love Supreme. Yeah. And I practice playing those the most, because we're doing the concert.
Leonard Feather:Yeah, that's what I'm here for. I'm going to write an article to come up, you know, the Sunday before the concert. Can I speak to John for a minute?
Ravi (middle):Sure.
Leonard Feather:This is John. Is that John? Well, I'll ask you what I asked your brothers. How and when did you first become conscious of your very unusual heritage in terms of both your father and your mother and what it signified?
John Jr (oldest):Could you repeat the question please?
Leonard Feather:Well, how and when did you become aware of the fact that you had a very unusual background in terms of your father and mother. They're both … of multiple people.
John Jr (oldest):Well, I mean, my mother, she, like, brought it up mainly like making us not really making us. She would like play some music for us and we would listen to my father's records and her records, you know, different things like that.
Leonard Feather:I see. How old were you?
John Jr (oldest):At first maybe about maybe 14, maybe just started coming up with it.
Leonard Feather:So they sort of influenced you very soon, and by that time you're old enough to maybe appreciate it. How long was it after that you started playing?
John Jr (oldest):I didn't start until I was about 16.
Leonard Feather:You started on bass or discipline first?
John Jr (oldest):I started on bass. It was like one day my mother wanted me to play- she wanted me to play an instrument. And she wanted me to play the sax since I was the oldest and but then my other brothers were playing sax, so she put me on the bass and we had got a bass and I just started playing it and got used to it and everything.
Leonard Feather:How did you learn that?
John Jr (oldest):She taught me.
Leonard Feather:You taught him everything.
John Jr (oldest):And I had a little instruction in school. I did music classes in school, but mainly my mother helped me out a whole lot.
Leonard Feather:You play just upright, you don't play anything else?
John Jr (oldest):Yeah, no.
Alice Coltrane:Yeah.
Leonard Feather:I think you got the right instrument. That's a beautiful instrument. It's really a noble sound, don't you think?
Alice Coltrane:Right. And I told you, don't put this down.
Leonard Feather:There's nothing like this. That's right. The acoustics are really still the. You. Have you got any other people that you learn to admire and listen to much.
John Jr (oldest):As far as bass.
Leonard Feather:Outside of your family? Well, in any instrument, anything at all. When impressed by bass particularly first.
John Jr (oldest):Bass, yeah. Jimmy Garrison, for one. I really liked him because I remember him because he used to come by the house a lot in New York. So I really. I really liked him a lot.
Leonard Feather:Do you ever know Mingus?
John Jr (oldest):No.
Leonard Feather:There's a lot of very fine bass players around. Those are the ones that you remember?
John Jr (oldest):Those are the ones that I just remember. I don't know too many.
Leonard Feather:You're playing... you're at school now? Are you a senior?
John Jr (oldest):I'm out of high school.
Leonard Feather:You're out of high school?
John Jr (oldest):Yeah.
Leonard Feather:Oh, I see. You gonna go to college?
John Jr (oldest):No.
Leonard Feather:What do you plan to do?
John Jr (oldest):I plan to work on my music as much as I can. 'Cause that- That's what it looks like we're going to be doing. Mainly it's going to be that.
Leonard Feather:When the other boys come out of high school do you think they'll go to college, or is it just up to them?
Alice Coltrane:I don't think they need to explain that to me. (unclear). A lot of young people they really like, you know, anything they can find restricted. (unclear).
Leonard Feather:Yeah.
Alice Coltrane:It comes with the everyday involvement.
Leonard Feather:Well if you've done well enough in high school (unclear). You get good grades?
John Jr (oldest):Uh huh. I got pretty good grades.
Leonard Feather:You all get pretty good grades? I'm sure they do. Okay, John, thank very much. Not that it looks as though there's (unclear) and you can help with that. Do you think you might spend a little more of your time actually on music and maybe took a little less time to the center.
Alice Coltrane:I think is going to be shared. It's going to be shared is what its looking like.
Leonard Feather:Yeah, that's what I mean.
Alice Coltrane:Yes. And with them, because I'm supposed to- there's another band active. I'm supposed to be with them.
Leonard Feather:Right.
Alice Coltrane:You know? And I think it's more than seeing to that they're well and that they're doing what they're supposed to. I think it's more than that. You know, some like guardian over them. It's really to help them in their music.
Leonard Feather:Yes.
Alice Coltrane:And to accompany that and to be with them as they're growing and developing themselves in music.
Leonard Feather:I'm sure John would be very proud of all of them.
Alice Coltrane:You know, when I think about it. It's really beautiful because, you know, I'll be there and you know, I'm going to think about it for even sometimes in the year ahead. You know, you this all same person, you know, there's a covenant of the father now, you know, it's just like the father's living again through the children.
Leonard Feather:The last time I saw you, when you was doing that radio show, you did some things with her and also on your own that were sort of reminiscent of what you were doing when I first heard your hymns. And that's a whole different world of music you're playing traditional chords and traditional tunes. Have any of the children learned about that or did they really start with where you came in?
Alice Coltrane:Yes, they didn't go back.
Leonard Feather:They didn't go back to that.
Alice Coltrane:They didn't go back so far to, like, a particular era, you know, before their father's time.
Leonard Feather:Oh, so they really started with the modes, right?
Alice Coltrane:Yes. They started with the modes and basic twelve bar, because you know that (unclear).
Leonard Feather:Well Africa, that's twelve bars, isn't it?
Alice Coltrane:No, the one that you just listened to. The Blues Man is.
Leonard Feather:Oh yeah, that's right.
Alice Coltrane:So that is a- that's a standard. I mean it's a standard, you know, I-
Leonard Feather:(unclear)
Alice Coltrane:Oh, well they play- they play pieces. You'll see how you put on the (unclear) you see that they are not being carried beyond (unclear) It won't be foreign to them. If they're going to play one of their father's pieces, if I could give an example.
Leonard Feather:They know the names of the chords and the old symbols?
Alice Coltrane:Yes, yes, yes. Because they' be playing You Think You've Got Problems, and I didn't put chord changes througout that entire piece.
Leonard Feather:Well, (unclear) you have to know what chord changes are.
Alice Coltrane:Oh, yes.
Leonard Feather:I think it was Robbie that said that Giant Steps was his first inspiration. (unclear)
Alice Coltrane:Yes, yes, yes. So That, you know, I really can't separate them from that particular kind of-
Leonard Feather:But also what's interesting to me is that, as I heard when you did that program with Mary, you were still not forgotten or put down that you're in music either.
Alice Coltrane:Not entirely, but it was very remote. It's quite remote. I'm not engaged in that kind of- it's known basically that she's not engaged in it as it was.
Leonard Feather:You know, it's not part of the scene as you know it.
Alice Coltrane:No. It's different. The whole-modal concept, the whole-tone concept, chromatic concept, it's different. It's really quite different from the way it was.
Leonard Feather:It's a total change.
- Title:
- Alice Coltrane Interview (with John Coltrane Jr.)
- Creator:
- Leonard Feather
- Date Created (ISO Standard):
- 1981
- Description:
- Alice Coltrane interviewed by Leonard Feather
- Subjects:
- jazz spiritualism
- Location:
- Agoura Hills, CA
- Latitude:
- 34.1533
- Longitude:
- -118.7617
- Source Identifier:
- alice_13
- Format:
- audio/mp3
- Preferred Citation:
- "Alice Coltrane Interview (with John Coltrane Jr.)", Alice Coltrane, Jazz Spiritualism, University of Idaho Library Center for Digital Inquiry and Learning, https://www.lib.uidaho.edu/digital/coltrane/items/alice_13.html