Spiritual jazz creates a container capacious enough to hold tragedy and ecstasy at the same time.

John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” was the pioneering spiritual jazz album.

Music helps people wrestle with emotions and lends solace that other people are exploring similar paths.

I recently stumbled across “Spiritual Jazz Essentials” on Apple Music, and it took me back to the 10 years I taught spiritual psychology workshops at the Esalen Institute. During yoga, I would play Alice Coltrane’s “Journey in Satchidananda” because Alice Coltrane espoused Vedanta, a major school of Hindu philosophy that is the origin of the yoga we practice today. What a surprise to discover that an entire genre has spawned from John and Alice Coltrane's devotion!

The Influence of the Coltranes on Spiritual Jazz

This lineage emerged from John Coltrane's albums such as "A Love Supreme," “Meditations,” and “Om” that functioned as prayers, the sound of someone employing a saxophone the way a monk employs a mantra. When John Coltrane died in 1967, his widow Alice, who had been playing piano in his band, continued her husband’s........

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