The Coltrane Church: Apostles of Sound, Agents of Social Justice

Front Cover
McFarland, Aug 11, 2015 - Music - 276 pages

The John Coltrane Church began in 1965, when Franzo and Marina King attended a performance of the John Coltrane Quartet at San Francisco's Jazz Workshop and saw a vision of the Holy Ghost as Coltrane took the bandstand. Celebrating the spirituality of the late jazz innovator and his music, the storefront church emerged during the demise of black-owned jazz clubs in San Francisco, and at a time of growing disillusionment with counter-culture spirituality following the 1978 Jonestown tragedy.

For 50 years, the church has effectively fought redevelopment, environmental racism, police brutality, mortgage foreclosures, religious intolerance, gender disparity and the corporatization of jazz. This critical history is the first book-length treatment of an extraordinary African-American church and community institution.

 

Contents

Preface
1
1 Apostles of Sound
13
2 The SelfRepresentation and Spiritual Teachings of John Coltrane the Saint
41
3 Jimbos Bop City
63
4 The Yardbird Club and the History of African American Jazz Entrepreneurship in San Francisco
77
5 The Dr Huey P Newton Experience
105
6 The Yardbird and One Mind Temple and New Church Movements in the 1960s and 70s
115
7 The Alice Coltrane Experience
133
10 The Oscar Grant Movement
169
11 The John Coltrane University of Arts and Social Justice
180
12 The Battle Against Environmental Racism
192
13 The Ordination of Pastor Wanika Kristi King Stephens
210
14 The Apostles of Sound Occupy SF
232
15 Answering the Prophetic Call
243
Chapter Notes
249
Bibliography
259

8 The African Orthodox Church
151
9 Anatomy of a Miracle
159

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2015)

Nicholas Louis Baham III is a professor of ethnic studies at California State University East Bay. He lives in Oakland, California.

Bibliographic information