John Coltrane |
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Mon. April 10.2000 8:45 AM EDT |
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Eviction Not Slowing Down Church Of Saint John ColtraneServices will continue in temporary location while new building is readied. by Contributing Editor Richard B. Simon |
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For nearly 30 years, Bishop Franzo King has ministered to the poor and tourists alike at the Church of Saint John Coltrane. (Mark McKenna) |
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SAN FRANCISCO — Bishop Franzo King of the world-renowned Church of Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane is starting to look at the bright side of his church's impending eviction. He has found a new
"We do believe that there is some divine providence unfolding through this whole thing," King said. "[The Bayview/Hunter's Point] community is very much in need of the benefits that the church can do with its services and the Coltrane consciousness, and the John Coltrane Human Outreach programs. ... There's even an idea for a Coltrane college." For 30 years, the church has been an attraction for tourists and music lovers who came to receive the ministerings of a full jazz band, and for indigents who ate meals prepared in the church's kitchen. But real-estate value is soaring in economically booming San Francisco, and the church's rent was nearly doubled, from $1,350 to $2,500. Initially set to move out March 15, the church won a court ruling to extend its lease to allow it to hold Easter services at its Divisadero Street location on April 23. Coincidentally, King said, the date is the 33rd anniversary of Coltrane's final appearance, at the Olatunji Cultural Center in Harlem. The Coltrane church, which is affiliated with the African Orthodox Church (a branch of Catholicism), reveres the legendary jazz saxophonist as a saint whose music and ideas convey the word of God. Benefits For Church Hoping to raise $60,000 toward the purchase of the Hunter's Point space, house band Ohnedaruth is playing a Sunday night gig at the Divisadero Street location April 23. Coincidentally, the date is the 33rd anniversary of Coltrane's final appearance, at the Olatunji Cultural Center in Harlem, N.Y. Supporters of the church raised close to $10,000 at a March 15 benefit at Bimbo's 365 Club in San Francisco. The Coltrane-flavored jazz marathon featured sets by avant-garde trio the Broun Fellinis, Afro-Cuban conga virtuoso John Santos, Tom Waits sideman Ralph Carney, theMarcus Shelbyquintet, esteemed drummer-producer Narada Michael Walden and E.W. Wainright and the Roots of Jazz. The focus of regular Sunday and Wednesday services, the "Coltrane Liturgy" features traditional African Orthodox prayers chanted to Coltrane tunes such as "Africa" and "Cousin Mary" RealAudio excerpt RealAudio excerpt) and selections from the seminal A Love Supreme. The musical service often includes as many as five saxophones, piano, organ, drum kit, congas, bongos and singers. Hour-long jams frequently occur before Bishop King addresses the congregation. A vintage Hammond B-3 organ sits in the current storefront window, its Leslie speaker cabinet nestled inside among the pews, along with a drum kit, a bass amplifier and an upright piano covered in tambourines and red-bound bibles. The other window is shaded by an African-style tapestry featuring several depictions of an angel-winged Miles Davis, surrounding the Virgin Mary — a gift from guitar legend Carlos Santana. Large painted icons of a golden-haloed Coltrane adorn the walls. Coltrane is depicted holding a flame-spouting saxophone in one hand and a scroll with lines from his Love Supreme liner notes in the other. The icons share space with the Virgin Mary and a dreadlocked Jesus — all depicted as dark-skinned Africans in this heavily African-American neighborhood, a few blocks downhill from the fabled Haight-Ashbury district. 'Baptized In The Sound' Founded in 1971 by Bishop King and his wife, Marina King, the church originally held Coltrane to be an incarnation of God but eventually designated the spiritual sax guru a saint to fend off charges of cultworship and to move into more mainstream religious territory. "[The Kings] had gone to see Coltrane, and they had a Holy Ghost experience like you have in the Pentecostal Church, emanating from him and his vibration," Father Roberto De Haven, a priest and saxophonist at the church, said. "They felt baptized in the sound, and they were so inspired that they had to go tell everybody. Then they found out John had said in an interview that he wanted to be a saint." Coltrane, who died in 1967, underwent a spiritual transformation in the early 1960s, while recovering from heroin addiction. A Love Supreme included extensive liner notes in the form of devotional poetry — which his namesake church has adopted as prayer. |
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