Los Angeles Honors the Spiritual and Musical Legacy of Alice Coltrane
Alice Coltrane: Monument Eternal — A Spiritual and Sonic Journey Through Time
At the intersection of homage, music, and spiritual transcendence, the Hammer Museum’s exhibition Alice Coltrane: Monument Eternal offers visitors more than a retrospective — it delivers an immersive, soul-stirring experience. Curated by Erin Christovale with curatorial assistant Nyah Ginwright, the exhibition, which runs through May 4, 2025, in Los Angeles, is a multidimensional exploration of the life and legacy of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda — a jazz visionary, spiritual leader, and cultural icon.
Who Was Alice Coltrane?
Born in 1937 in Detroit and raised in a musically inclined family, Alice Coltrane (née McLeod) was a child prodigy on piano. She trained under renowned bebop pianist Bud Powell and carved her early career through collaborations with jazz luminaries. In 1965, she married legendary saxophonist John Coltrane, with whom she began a powerful artistic and personal partnership. Their union was brief — John Coltrane passed away in 1967 — but it deeply influenced Alice’s spiritual and musical trajectory.
Following her husband’s death, Coltrane delved into Eastern philosophies and practices. She established the Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura Hills, California, becoming a swamini and adopting the name Turiyasangitananda (“the transcendent song of the Lord”). Over her lifetime, she released more than 20 albums, bridging the realms of jazz, classical Indian music, and spiritual chant. Her music, characterized by cascading harp melodies and modal improvisation, helped shape the genre known as “spiritual jazz.”
An Immersive Experience at the Hammer Museum
The exhibition Alice Coltrane: Monument Eternal transcends traditional curatorial practices by transforming the gallery space into an atmosphere of introspection, community, and sacred sound. It unfolds across three thematic currents:
1. Sonic Innovation: This section traces Coltrane’s instrumental voice and groundbreaking recordings, revealing how she revolutionized jazz through the harp and spiritual compositions.
2. Spiritual Transcendence: Exploring her path toward divinity and self-realization, this segment highlights her spiritual writings, practices at the ashram, and the religious philosophies underpinning her music.
3. Architectural Intimacy: This final theme explores her role as a community builder and the physical and metaphysical spaces she created, such as her ashram.
Soundscapes, archival documents, personal sketches, and newly commissioned artworks by 19 contemporary artists share space within the museum, offering a dialogue between Coltrane’s legacy and emerging creators who echo her spiritual and sonic ideals.
Highlights from the Exhibition
Among the most impactful works is Adee Roberson’s “BLUE NILE (cosmogram #2),” where visitors stand on a selenite platform as chakra-aligned audio plays from overhead speakers, inviting a meditative engagement with vibration and frequency. Nearby, Gozié Ojini’s sculptural installation “44.6 lbs” presents dismantled pianos suspended in gravity-defying poses, speaking to the deconstruction of classical form into spiritual context.
Nicole Miller’s “For Turiya” dazzles with RGB laser animations, offering visual homage to Coltrane’s spiritual name and radiating the same kind of transcendent energy that inhabited her compositions. Visitors are then drawn into a tranquil refuge designed by musician Steven Ellison (aka Flying Lotus), who also happens to be Coltrane’s grand-nephew. His installation, “Untitled” (2025), reworks cassette recordings from Coltrane’s Sunday ashram sermons into an ambient sound bath that cultivates collective reflection.
Echoing throughout the exhibition is an emblematic orange hue — a color traditionally worn by Hindu monastics — which bathes the room in sacred glow and underscores themes of renunciation, joy, and enlightenment.
The Turiya Rising Performance Series
Accompanying the exhibition is Turiya Rising, a performance series that enlivens the gallery as a space for ritual and artistic expression. The events take place inside GeoVanna Gonzalez’s installation “Beneath the Sun Lies the Wisdom Eye,” functioning as both stage and altar. Featured artists include harpist Mary Lattimore, musical visionary Jasper Marsalis (aka Slauson Malone 1), and Coltrane’s own daughter, vocalist Michelle Coltrane.
These performances blur the line between exhibition and devotion. Audience members sit in reverent silence, often with eyes closed, absorbing each nuanced note and contemplative silence. Behind the musicians, a towering photograph of Alice Coltrane gazes quietly, evoking a sense of eternal presence.
Legacy as Monument
The show’s title, Monument Eternal, is a poignant reference not only to Coltrane’s autobiographical meditation published in 1977 but also to a broader idea — that art, like spirit