January 14, 2007: Jazz Pianist Alice Coltrane Dies in Calif

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Alice Coltrane, an avant-garde jazz pianist and widow of saxophone great John Coltrane, whose musical legacy she helped keep, has died at age 69 of respiratory failure, an official said on Sunday.

Coltrane died on Friday at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center in West Hills, a Los Angeles suburb, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Famed for replacing McCoy Tyner on piano in her husband's last quartet as he broke new and controversial musical ground, Coltrane was also a convert to Hinduism and a guru who had her own commune.
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Born Alice McLeod in Detroit, Coltrane was trained as a classical musician and as an organist, harpist and pianist. Among her jazz teachers was the legendary Bud Powell.

Jazz vibist Terry Gibbs told the Los Angeles Times that Alice Coltrane met her husband while playing with his band at Birdland in the 1960s.

``He saw something in her that was beautiful. They were both very shy in a way. It was beautiful to see them fall in love,'' he told the paper adding, she was ``the nicest person I ever worked with. She was a real lady.''

She left Gibbs' band to marry and play piano for Coltrane as he moved into bolder, more spiritual music than he had been playing before.

In an interview with Essence magazine in September 2006, she was asked if she caused the change in his music and the break-up of the famous John Coltrane Quartet.

Her answer was, ``I didn't have to inspire John toward the avant-garde; he did not need anything from me. That is why it's so interesting that critics decided to dislike me. At some point the members of the quartet felt it was time for a change, and left on their own.

``When John said that he wanted me to play with him on piano, I told him that there were many others who were qualified. He said, 'I want you there because you can do it.''' She credited Coltrane with ``showing me how to play fully.''

After his death in July 1967 at age 40, she raised the couple's children, continued playing and expanding upon his music and devoted herself to the study of Eastern religions, adopting the Sanskrit name, Turiyasangitananda.