Ravi Coltrane on saxophone, with Jack DeJohnette on drums, paying tribute to Mr. Coltrane’s mother, Alice.
The musical and the spiritual were inseparable during the Alice Coltrane Ascension Ceremony, a memorial held on Thursday night at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine. In a lengthy but carefully organized program, a succession of musicians and speakers attested to a life of devotion. From a screen beside the altar, her projected image cast a beatific gaze.
Ms. Coltrane, who died in January, was more than a jazz keyboardist and harpist and the widow of the saxophonist John Coltrane. After her husband’s death in 1967, she ventured deeper into spiritual study, adopting the name Swamini Turiyasangitananda and releasing albums with a forthright religious intent. In 1983 she founded the Sai Anantam Ashram in Agoura Hills, Calif., and it was there that she focused her energies for the rest of her life. This legacy set the tone on Thursday, as the saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, one of her two sons, acknowledged in his remarks. “She truly was the mother of many,” he said.
Three years ago Ravi produced “Translinear Light” (Impulse), his mother’s first new album in 25 years. It placed Ms. Coltrane in the company of strong and sympathetic musicians, like the bassist Charlie Haden and the drummers Jack DeJohnette and Jeff (Tain) Watts. The ceremony included several songs that appear on that recording, in new renditions that filled the vaulting cathedral with a warm and enveloping sound.
“Blue Nile,” which Ms. Coltrane originally recorded in 1970, received an especially meditative treatment. Rashied Ali, the drummer with whom she played in her husband’s late-period bands, cleared the air with a rasping snare-drum inquiry; the bassist Cecil McBee answered with a pizzicato solo. Then came Brandee Younger’s harp glissandi, and the melody, played in unison on two flutes by Steve Wilson and Gamiel Lyons.
On the gospel-steeped ballad “Jagadishwar,” Mr. Coltrane played his tenor saxophone with Mr. Haden, Mr. Watts, the pianist Geri Allen and a modest string orchestra. “For Turiya,” a song Mr. Haden composed for Ms. Coltrane, was quieter and more effective. It began with Ms. Younger’s gently plucked strings in a music-box cadence, eased through a ruminative statement by Mr. Haden, and finally opened up to the sumptuous melancholy of the theme, which Ms. Allen played beautifully.
Mr. Haden recalled that he had to beg Ms. Coltrane to record the song on harp in the mid-1970s. “I thought I had ascended into heaven, the way she played it,” he said. “It was so magnificent.”
The other speakers in the ceremony were more literal about matters of the spirit. They included representatives from the cathedral, the ashram and the Integral Yoga Institute, which Ms. Coltrane also helped establish. J. J. Hurtak, a specialist in Hebrew mysticism, excitedly introduced a portion of the program featuring music from Ms. Coltrane’s forthcoming final album, “Sacred Language of Ascension.” (He left it to someone else to note that Thursday was Ascension Day, the occasion on the Christian calendar when Jesus Christ ascended to heaven.)
“Mata” and “Universe,” the two pieces Mr. Hurtak introduced, were celestial and impressionistic. As performed by an orchestra and choir from the Sai Anantam Ashram, along with Mr. DeJohnette and the bassist Reggie Workman, the music nodded promisingly toward polyphony but ultimately faltered into vagueness.
By contrast, the evening’s highlight was personal as well as spiritual in tone, and couldn’t have been clearer. It was “Translinear Light,” played by Mr. Coltrane on soprano saxophone, with Ms. Allen, Mr. Haden and Mr. DeJohnette. Every facet of their performance was gripping: the cascading piano arpeggios, the sophisticated shimmer of cymbals and drums. And in Mr. Coltrane’s searching improvisation, there was an extraordinary emotional tension, along with a spirit of surrender.
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