Editing John Coltrane (section)

==Personal life and religious beliefs==

===Upbringing and early influences===
Coltrane was born and raised in a Christian home. He was influenced by religion and spirituality beginning in childhood. His maternal grandfather, the Reverend William Blair, was a minister at an [[African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church]]<ref name="Porter5-6">Porter, pp. 5–6.</ref><ref>Lavezzoli, p. 270.</ref> in [[High Point, North Carolina]], and his paternal grandfather, the Reverend William H. Coltrane, was an A.M.E. Zion minister in [[Hamlet, North Carolina]].<ref name="Porter5-6"/> Critic Norman Weinstein observed the parallel between Coltrane's music and his experience in the southern church,<ref name="Weinstein">{{cite book |last1=Weinstein |first1=Norman C. |title=A Night in Tunisia: Imaginings of Africa in Jazz |date=1933 |publisher=Hal Leonard |isbn=0-87910-167-9 |page=61 }}</ref> which included practicing music there as a youth.

===First marriage===
In 1955, Coltrane married Naima (née Juanita Grubbs). Naima Coltrane, a Muslim convert, heavily influenced his spirituality. When the couple married, she had a five-year-old daughter named Antonia, later named Syeeda. Coltrane adopted Syeeda. He met Naima at the home of bassist Steve Davis in Philadelphia. The love ballad he wrote to honor his wife, "Naima", was Coltrane's favorite composition. In 1956, the couple left Philadelphia with their six-year-old daughter and moved to New York City. In August 1957, Coltrane, Naima and Syeeda moved into an apartment on 103rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue in New York. A few years later, John and Naima Coltrane purchased a home at 116–60 Mexico Street in [[St. Albans, Queens]].<ref name="PorterDeVito2013">{{cite book |last1=Porter |first1=Lewis |last2=DeVito |first2=Chris |last3=Wild |first3=David |title=The John Coltrane Reference |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IvlVu9XCoxUC&pg=PA323 |access-date=November 25, 2018 |date=April 26, 2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-11257-8 |pages=323– |archive-date=February 8, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230208135307/https://books.google.com/books?id=IvlVu9XCoxUC&pg=PA323 |url-status=live }}</ref> This is the house where they would break up in 1963.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/06/john-coltrane-naima.html |title=John Coltrane: Naima |website=JazzWax.com|date=June 15, 2009 |access-date=January 16, 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121195221/http://www.jazzwax.com/2009/06/john-coltrane-naima.html |archive-date=January 21, 2017}}</ref>

About the breakup, Naima said in J. C. Thomas's ''Chasin' the Trane'': "I could feel it was going to happen sooner or later, so I wasn't really surprised when John moved out of the house in the summer of 1963. He didn't offer any explanation. He just told me there were things he had to do, and he left only with his clothes and his horns. He stayed in a hotel sometimes, other times with his mother in Philadelphia. All he said was, 'Naima, I'm going to make a change.' Even though I could feel it coming, it hurt, and I didn't get over it for at least another year." But Coltrane kept a close relationship with Naima, even calling her in 1964 to tell her that 90 percent of his playing would be prayer. They remained in touch until his death in 1967. Naima Coltrane died of a heart attack in October 1996.

===1957 "spiritual awakening"===
In 1957, Coltrane had a religious experience that may have helped him overcome the heroin addiction<ref>Porter, p. 61.</ref><ref name="Lavezzoli271"/> and alcoholism<ref name="Lavezzoli271">Lavezzoli, p. 271.</ref> he had struggled with since 1948.<ref>Lavezzoli, pp. 272–273.</ref> In the liner notes of ''A Love Supreme'', Coltrane states that in 1957 he experienced "by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music."<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.jindustry.com/xtra/coltrane/html/saintjohn.html
| title= John Coltrane's liner notes to ''A Love Supreme'' | date=December 1964 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608155911/http://www.jindustry.com/xtra/coltrane/html/saintjohn.html |archive-date=June 8, 2011|url-status=usurped}}</ref> Further evidence of this universal view can be found in the liner notes of ''Meditations'' (1965) in which Coltrane declares, "I believe in all religions."<ref name="Lavezzoli286">Lavezzoli, p. 286.</ref>

===Second marriage===
In 1963, he met pianist [[Alice Coltrane|Alice McLeod]].<ref name="Lavezzoli281">Lavezzoli, p. 281.</ref> He and Alice moved in together and had two sons before he became "officially divorced from Naima in 1966, at which time [he] and Alice were immediately married."<ref name="Lavezzoli286"/> John Jr. was born in 1964, Ravi in 1965, and Oranyan ("Oran") in 1967.<ref name="Lavezzoli286"/> According to the musician Peter Lavezzoli, "Alice brought happiness and stability to John's life, not only because they had children, but also because they shared many of the same spiritual beliefs, particularly a mutual interest in Indian philosophy. Alice also understood what it was like to be a professional musician."<ref name="Lavezzoli286"/>

===Spiritual influence in music, religious exploration===
After ''A Love Supreme'', many of the titles of his songs and albums had spiritual connotations: ''Ascension'', ''Meditations'', ''Om'', ''Selflessness'', "Amen", "Ascent", "Attaining", "Dear Lord", "Prayer and Meditation Suite", and "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost".<ref name="Lavezzoli286"/> His library of books included ''[[The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna]]'', the [[Bhagavad Gita]], and [[Paramahansa Yogananda]]'s ''[[Autobiography of a Yogi]]''. The last of these describes, in Lavezzoli's words, a "search for universal truth, a journey that Coltrane had also undertaken. Yogananda believed that both Eastern and Western spiritual paths were efficacious, and wrote of the similarities between [[Krishna]] and Christ. This openness to different traditions resonated with Coltrane, who studied the [[Qur'an]], the [[Bible]], [[Kabbalah]], and [[astrology]] with equal sincerity."<ref>Lavezzoli, pp. 280–281.</ref> He also explored [[Hinduism]], [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]], [[African history]], the philosophical teachings of [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]],<ref>{{cite web |title= John Coltrane, "A Love Supreme" and GOD |author= Emmett G. Price III |url= http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coltrane/article_003.htm |publisher= allaboutjazz.com |access-date= October 9, 2008 |url-status= dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090103101749/http://www.allaboutjazz.com/coltrane/article_003.htm |archive-date= January 3, 2009 |df= mdy-all }}</ref> and [[Zen Buddhism]].<ref>Lavezzoli, pp. 286–287.</ref>

In October 1965, Coltrane recorded ''[[Om (John Coltrane album)|Om]]'', referring to the [[Om|sacred syllable in Hinduism]], which symbolizes the infinite or the entire universe. Coltrane described ''Om'' as the "first syllable, the primal word, the word of power".<ref>Porter, p. 265.</ref> The 29-minute recording contains chants from the Hindu ''[[Bhagavad Gita]]''<ref>Lavezzoli, p. 285: "Coltrane and one or two other musicians begin and end the piece by chanting in unison a verse from chapter nine ("The Yoga of Mysticism") of the ''Bhagavad Gita'': Rites that the [[Vedas]] ordain, and the rituals taught by the scriptures: all these I am, and the offering made to the ghosts of the fathers, herbs of healing and food, the mantram, the clarified butter. I the [[oblation]], and I the flame into which it is offered. I am the sire of the world, and this world's mother and grandsire. I am he who awards to each the fruit of his action. I make all things clean. I am ''Om!''"</ref> and the Buddhist ''[[Tibetan Book of the Dead]]'',<ref>Nisenson, p. 183.</ref> and a recitation of a passage describing the primal verbalization "om" as a cosmic/spiritual common denominator in all things.

===Study of world music===
Coltrane's spiritual journey was interwoven with his investigation of world music. He believed in not only a universal musical structure that transcended ethnic distinctions, but also being able to harness the mystical language of music itself. His study of Indian music led him to believe that certain sounds and scales could "produce specific emotional meanings." According to Coltrane, the goal of a musician was to understand these forces, control them, and elicit a response from the audience. He said, "I would like to bring to people something like happiness. I would like to discover a method so that if I want it to rain, it will start right away to rain. If one of my friends is ill, I'd like to play a certain song and he will be cured; when he'd be broke, I'd bring out a different song and immediately he'd receive all the money he needed."<ref>Porter, p. 211.</ref>