About the Author

FRANYA BERKMAN was an assistant professor in the Department of Music at Lewis & Clark College. Her album of compositions, Blessings and Protection, was released by RMI Records in 2012. Berkman died of complications from breast cancer in August of 2012 at age 43.

Reviews

"...writing about Alice Coltrane matters--because her music and life bears on major ethnological questions of today concerning hybridity, globalization, and the late-capitalist music culture."--Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education

"writing about Alice Coltrane matters--because her music and life bears on major ethnological questions of today concerning hybridity, globalization, and the late-capitalist music culture."--Peter Monaghan, Chronicle of Higher Education

"a compelling portrait of an extraordinary womana fascinating and important study."--Pamela Margels, The WholeNote

"With an artistic vision that spanned the most archaic spirituals to the farthest-flung reaches of the cosmos, Alice Coltrane was much more than merely the wife of her legendary saxophonist husband. She was one of the most brilliant improvising artists that the 1960s produced, but her eclectic creativity was frequently derided, dismissed, or misunderstood. In this fascinating book, Franya Berkman makes the persuasive case that Alice Coltrane's music reflects a lifelong engagement with the divine element that often transcended the narrow implications of the word jazz, and is most accurately understood in terms of her ongoing spiritual evolution. Richly contextualized, insightfully theorized, and musically rigorous, this work should contribute to a profound reappraisal of Alice Coltrane's legacy and contribution, of the often-neglected achievements of improvised music in the 1960s and 1970s, and of potent alter-narratives of African-American spirituality."--Michael E. Veal, professor of ethnomusicology, Yale University

"Monument Eternal is a fascinating reading of the life and work of Alice Coltrane. This book will be of great value to jazz studies, women's studies, African American studies, and religious studies, as well as to everyday readers who will be fascinated by this portrait of an innovative artist who discovered new ways of connecting musical and spiritual practices.""--George Lewis, Case Professor of American Music, Columbia University

"With an artistic vision that spanned the most archaic spirituals to the farthest-flung reaches of the cosmos, Alice Coltrane was much more than merely the wife of her legendary saxophonist husband. She was one of the most brilliant improvising artists that the 1960s produced, but her eclectic creativity was frequently derided, dismissed, or misunderstood. In this fascinating book, Franya Berkman makes the persuasive case that Alice Coltrane's music reflects a lifelong engagement with the divine element that often transcended the narrow implications of the word "jazz," and is most accurately understood in terms of her ongoing spiritual evolution. Richly contextualized, insightfully theorized, and musically rigorous, this work should contribute to a profound reappraisal of Alice Coltrane's legacy and contribution, of the often-neglected achievements of improvised music in the 1960s and 1970s, and of potent alter-narratives of African-American spirituality."--Michael E. Veal, professor of ethnomusicology, Yale University