The Church of Saint Coltrane
January 9, 2025 4:57 PM Subscribe
The Church of Saint Coltrane
The Church of St. John Coltrane - 50th Anniversary - July 20, 2019 - Grace Cathedral, San Francisco - "Africa"
The Coltrane Church: Apostles of Sound, Agents of Social Justice, by Nicholas Louis Baham III
The Church of St. John Coltrane - 50th Anniversary - July 20, 2019 - Grace Cathedral, San Francisco - "Africa"
The Coltrane Church: Apostles of Sound, Agents of Social Justice, by Nicholas Louis Baham III
The website of the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church is ColtraneChurch.org. For almost 30 years they had a storefront church on Divisadero near Oak St (near the former location of jazz club Both/And.) I lived nearby in the 90s and often heard the beautiful music on the street as I passed by. They were displaced from that location around the year 2000. They have since met in various locations around the city including a decade in the Fillmore which ended with an eviction. Currently they meet at the Magic Theater at Fort Mason, on the north side of San Francisco overlooking the bay.
posted by larrybob at 5:57 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]
posted by larrybob at 5:57 PM on January 9 [6 favorites]
Back in the day I used to walk down Haight to go to services at the Divisadero church. Any of those long-haired hippies you see in the video, any one of them could have been me. I credit St. John's with keeping alive in me a mustard seed of faith in what must have animated and inspired the earliest of the followers of Jesus. St. John's is the reason why I can't just listen to A Love Supreme in the background, but have to give it my full attention. The folks at St. John's are true believers, but they're also practitioners, practitioners of divine music and spirituality.
posted by vverse23 at 6:06 PM on January 9 [5 favorites]
posted by vverse23 at 6:06 PM on January 9 [5 favorites]
When I first moved to San Francisco in ‘92, I was walking around in my new neighborhood, and saw this little store front a few blocks my domicile. Church of St John Coltrane. Huh? Later I walked by on a Sunday, and the small space was packed with people, and the music sounded wonderful. It didn’t take me long to go back for the whole service. A few months later, a friend from LA was visiting, and her being a devout Catholic, she asked about going to church, and me being a devout disbeliever in general, told her about this church. She said ok with some subtle misgivings. We went and though she really wasn’t a jazz fan and the service was a long ways from a catholic mass, she liked it and said that it had moved her. And years later, I ran into a former coworker, who told me for the first time that she was the piano player at that church for a couple years. I’m not a church goer, but seeing this posting reminds me that I should go back and experience it again.
posted by njohnson23 at 6:43 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 6:43 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
A Love Supreme
"I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee, O Lord. It all has to do with it. Thank You God."
A Love Supreme.
posted by clavdivs at 6:55 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
"I will do all I can to be worthy of Thee, O Lord. It all has to do with it. Thank You God."
A Love Supreme.
posted by clavdivs at 6:55 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]
John's wife Alice also made some spiritual music.
posted by clawsoon at 7:53 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
posted by clawsoon at 7:53 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]
John's wife Alice also made some spiritual music
don't tell anyone, but her post is coming tomorrow
posted by Lemkin at 8:13 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
don't tell anyone, but her post is coming tomorrow
posted by Lemkin at 8:13 PM on January 9 [9 favorites]
Last night Sun Ra, tonight Coltrane. I hope tomorrow isn't Smash Mouth. We are getting pretty high brow around here.
posted by Keith Talent at 10:33 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
posted by Keith Talent at 10:33 PM on January 9 [1 favorite]
a decade in the Fillmore which ended with an eviction
I don't want to say modern San Francisco in a nutshell, but....
Definitely glad they're still going though. A reminder (along with Noise Pancakes, Tape Music Festivals, the First Church of the Sacred Silversexual paying tribute to Bowie, etc.) that not all Culture in SF has been snuffed out.
posted by gtrwolf at 1:10 PM on January 11 [2 favorites]
I don't want to say modern San Francisco in a nutshell, but....
Definitely glad they're still going though. A reminder (along with Noise Pancakes, Tape Music Festivals, the First Church of the Sacred Silversexual paying tribute to Bowie, etc.) that not all Culture in SF has been snuffed out.
posted by gtrwolf at 1:10 PM on January 11 [2 favorites]
Coltrane truly is a god. His music contains multitudes.
His playing is technically perfect, yet Gritty, Raw, Primal... and Tuneful.
When his critics complained that he sounded too simple, he didn't argue but made Giant Steps;
When his critics complained that he sounded too aggressive, he didn't argue but recorded Ballads;
posted by ovvl at 3:56 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]
His playing is technically perfect, yet Gritty, Raw, Primal... and Tuneful.
When his critics complained that he sounded too simple, he didn't argue but made Giant Steps;
When his critics complained that he sounded too aggressive, he didn't argue but recorded Ballads;
posted by ovvl at 3:56 PM on January 12 [1 favorite]
By the way, their services stream on their Facebook page.
posted by larrybob at 9:34 AM on January 14
posted by larrybob at 9:34 AM on January 14
« Older End Of The Pizzagate Road | One bag to rule them all Newer »
Relatedly: John Coltrane is a freedom fighter, liberator of the spirit from the shackles of form
posted by JohnFromGR at 5:11 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]