Monument Eternal

The long-awaited reissue of Alice Coltrane’s original spiritual teachings and reflections, which provide powerful insight into her transcendent music, cherished by millions across the globe 

ALICE COLTRANE (1937–2007) was a composer, master of various musical instruments, improviser, spiritual leader, and wife of John Coltrane. Throughout her adult life, she worked within and combined a broad range of musical genres, including gospel, R&B, bebop, free jazz, Indian devotional song, and Western art music. She recorded more than twenty full-length albums for Impulse and Warner Bros. Her music speaks to her experiences as a child playing for church congregations in Detroit; the transcendent and mind-bending avant-garde improvisations she performed with John Coltrane; and her religious pilgrimages to India. 

When Monument Eternal was originally published in 1977, Alice Coltrane was living in Southern California and had recently become a swami, building and nurturing an alternative spiritual community. In these pages, she says that the book is “based upon the soul’s realizations in Absolute Consciousness and its spiritual relationships with the Supreme One.” Monument Eternal offers deep insight into Coltrane’s tremendous musical output, and shines a light on her transformation from Alice McLeod, Detroit church organist and bebopper, to sage thought leader Swami Turiyasangitananda. It also reflects the extraordinary fluidity of American religious customs in the mid and late twentieth century. 

Akashic’s long-awaited reissue of Monument Eternal includes a new foreword by Ashley Kahn.

ALICE COLTRANE was born in Detroit in 1937. Her interest in music started at a young age when she began playing organ at the Mount Olive Baptist Church. By the early 1960s she was a professional jazz musician playing with her own groups and also collaborating and performing with Charlie Haden, Ornette Coleman, Carlos Santana, and many others. She married John Coltrane in 1965, and not long after that she joined the John Coltrane Quartet, replacing pianist McCoy Tyner. Together, the Coltranes embarked on a deeply spiritual journey of musical exploration and forged a new genre of musical expression. In 1975, after a trip to India, Alice founded and was the director of the Vedantic Center; she would later establish a spiritual community in the Santa Monica Mountains. She passed away in 2007.

ASHLEY KAHN is a music historian and author of A Love Supreme:The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album.