Michelle Coltrane Discusses The Exhibition Monument Eternal At The Hammer Museum, Part Of The Year Of Alice Coltrane And More!

Michelle Coltrane and Maggie LePique discuss her Mother, Alice Coltrane and the year-long celebration currently underway that’s being called “The Year of Alice.”
This celebration spans 2024-2025 and features previously unreleased music and reissues, brand new community programming, a multimedia museum exhibit, specially curated concerts, newly choreographed ballet works and much more.
Jazz musician, composer, bandleader and spiritual and devotional leader, Alice Coltrane was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1937 to Solon and Annie McLeod, the fifth of six children. By the age of nine, she played organ during services at Mount Olive Baptist church.
In the early 60’s she began playing jazz as a professional in Detroit with her own trio and as a duo with vibist Terry Pollard.
Alice Coltrane would go on to collaborate and performed with Kenny Clarke, Kenny Burrell, Ornette Coleman, Pharaoh Sanders, Charlie Haden, Roy Haynes, Jack DeJonette, Carlos Santana and more.
Mrs Coltrane’s interest in gospel, classical, and jazz music led to the creation of her own innovative style. Her proficiency on keyboard, organ, and harp was remarkable and her artistry matured into amazing arrangements and compositions.
Her twenty recordings cover a time span from Monastic Trio (1968) to Translinear Light (2004).

Michelle discusses at length one of the events here in Southern California that is part of the Year of Alice.
Here in L.A. the exhibition Alice Coltrane, Monument Eternal at the Hammer Museum in Westwood is inspired by the life and legacy of jazz musician, composer and bandleader as well a spiritual and devotional leader, Alice Coltrane.

This exhibition is part of a larger initiative called “The Year of Alice," and in partnership with the John & Alice Coltrane Home, Impulse Records, The New York Historical Society, the Detroit Jazz Festival and more.

The exhibition presents works by contemporary American artists paired with items Coltrane’s personal archive and features a range of mediums including video, performance, and sculpture together with Coltrane’s archival hand-written correspondence, unreleased audio recordings, and rarely seen video footage.

The Year of Alice events include:
Reissues of Alice Coltrane's albums and previously unreleased music
Specially curated concerts in cities including New York, Brooklyn, Detroit, and California
A multimedia museum exhibit
Newly choreographed dance works
Community programming and an Oral History Project
Discussions about Coltrane's life and work
Partners in the celebration are:
Impulse! Records
Detroit Jazz Festival
Hammer Museum
Alonzo King LINES Ballet
The New York Historical Society
Shapeshifter Lab
Lyon & Healey Harps

Source: https://thecoltranehome.org/2024/03/16/let-the-year-of-alice-begin/
Source: https://www.alicecoltrane.com/
Source: https://hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/2025/alice-coltrane-monument-eternal

Host Maggie LePique, a radio veteran since the 1980's at NPR in Kansas City Mo. She began her radio career in Los Angeles in the early 1990's and has worked for Pacifica station KPFK Radio in Los Angeles since 1994.

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