Thursday, October 2, 2014

Correspondence (1)

Summary :  As stated in prior renditions, correspondence is rich, with sociological, spiritual, political and artistic aspects of Coltrane's life well documented. Along with activities within the Black Panther party, afore kept hidden by the family. There are also letters between Alice and Nina Simone, and between her and Angela Davis as well as interview requests from magazines ranging from Playboy to Ebony to Bomb to Downbeat, most unanswered as far as the record shows. There is a partially written autobiography the breaks down into sheet music for a theater production of film Ganja and Hess, re-imagined.  And there is an unfinished letter to Melvin Van Peebles requesting that he direct the production.

I want a land where the sun kills questions.

Highlights : There are several unreleased pieces of music including one full album entitled Run! There is a manifesto on transcendental meditation and an Oxford Annotated Bible with extensive notes in the margins. A stack of letters between her and her son Ravi, and a couple of letters from poet Amiri Baraka to her, exalting her music. And finally, there are tape recordings of interviews Alice conducted of fellow musicians who visited her ashram in California. Miles Davis, Sun Ra, and Abbey Lincoln among them.