Alice Coltrane

The pianist, harpist and organist who, after her husband's death, took the name Turiyasangitananda, founded an ashram in California, and made devotional music on a Wurlitzer for a congregation rather than for a label.

⭐⭐ THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S CLEAREST CASE OF A MAJOR MUSICIAN LEAVING THE CONCERT ECONOMY FOR A DEVOTIONAL ONE, AND THE MUSIC GETTING STRANGER RATHER THAN SAFER. The ashram tapes were made to be sung along with by people in a room; they were not released as art and circulated for decades as cassettes. ⭐ Two things belong to this wing specifically: the vocal repertoire is congregational — the same structural claim Section II and Ms Friedman both make — and her instrument of choice was an organ, played as drone, which is what happens when a musician stops needing a piece to end.