Saint John Coltrane: The San Francisco Church Built On A Love Supreme

 

“Little of San Francisco today is as it was half a century ago. But at the corner of Turk Boulevard and Lyon Street stands a true survivor: the Church of St. John Coltrane. Though officially founded in 1971, the roots of this unique musical-religious institution (previously featured here on Open Culture) go back further still. ‘It was our first wedding anniversary, September 18, 1965 and we celebrated the occasion by going to the Jazz Workshop,’ write founders Franzo and Marina King on the Church’s web site. ‘When John Coltrane came onto the stage we could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit moving with him.’ Overcome with the sense that Coltrane was playing directly to them, ‘we did not talk to each other during the performance because we were caught up in what later would be known as our Sound Baptism.’ Or as Marina puts it in this new short documentary from NPR’s Jazz Night in America, ‘The holy ghost fell in a jazz club in 1965, and our lives were changed forever.’ ...”

Open Culture (Video)

2011 November: John Coltrane Quartet, Live at Jazz Casual, 1963, 2012 March: John Coltrane 1960 - 1965, 2012 September: "Naima" (1959), 2012 October: Blue Train (1957), 2013 April: The World According to John Coltrane, 2013 November: A Love Supreme (1965), 2014 July: New Photos of John Coltrane Rediscovered 50 Years After They Were Shot, 2014 November: Coltrane’s Free Jazz Wasn’t Just “A Lot of Noise”, 2015 February: Lush Life (1958), 2015 May: An Animated John Coltrane Explains His True Reason for Being: “I Want to Be a Force for Real Good”, 2015 July: Afro Blue Impressions (2013), 2015 September: Impressions of Coltrane, 2015 December: Giant Steps (1960), 2016 January: Crescent (1964), 2016 April: The Church of Saint John Coltrane, 2016 July: Soultrane (1958), 2016 December: Dakar (1957), 2017 July: The John Coltrane Record That Made Modern Music, 2017 October: Live at the Village Vanguard (1962), 2017 December: Interview: Archie Shepp on John Coltrane, the Blues and More, 2018 March: Cannonball Adderley Quintet in Chicago (1959), 2018 June: Lost John Coltrane Recording From 1963 Will Be Released at Last, 2018 July: Stream Online the Complete “Lost” John Coltrane Album, Both Directions at Once, 2018 November: Jazz Deconstructed: What Makes John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” So Groundbreaking and Radical?, 2020 January: John Coltrane’s Handwritten Outline for His Masterpiece A Love Supreme