Today, the museum kicked off its 13th annual Jazz Appreciation Month by celebrating A Love Supreme’s 50th anniversary. And in honor of the occasion, Ravi Coltrane, himself an accomplished contemporary jazz musician, donated one of his father’s three principal saxophones—a Mark VI tenor crafted by Henri Selmer Paris, a manufacturer of high-quality brass and woodwind instruments. The saxophone was made in 1965, the same year in which the recording of A Love Supreme was issued. “Every time I open the case to look at the saxophone,” said John Edward Hasse, curator of American music, who presided over its donation ceremony, “I get goosebumps. John…Coltrane’s….saxophone.”
From the SF Chronicle: “..earlier this year one of its principal funders, the New College of California, collapsed financially, leaving the church without a vital income source. The school had paid two-thirds of the church’s rent, so now King and his retinue are again asking its members and the community to help the church.”
Background is that the church was founded by saxophonist Franzo Wayne King back in 1971. He and his wife had a “religious experience” at a Coltrane concert in 1965. So, I guess the natural outcome was to found a church for it 6 years later during the whole hippie thing in the Bay Area? Dunno…..but it’s time of existence is getting rather short unless there is some “divine” intervention (or a large influx of money…or both).