The service begins casually, a potpourri of worshipers in suits, tie-dye, colorful African garb, or religious vestments gathered at the door of a storefront near the corner of Fillmore and Eddy streets. Inside, about 50 banquet chairs face an altar that's flanked by a full set of musical instruments: keyboards, drums, standup bass, and shiny brass saxophones. On the walls are massive paintings depicting the late free-jazz pioneer John Coltrane as a saint.
Smiles greet first-time visitors. When my wife and I mention that we recently relocated from North Carolina — Coltrane's birthplace — one longtime member flashes a toothy grin and whispers, "Ah, the Holy Land."
Within an hour, the little storefront church is bursting at the seams with the wailing, honking, and squalling of improvised sax and keyboards grounded by a cool, swinging bass line and drums, and the repeated meditative chant, "A love supreme, a love supreme."
Welcome to the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, one of the more intriguing Christian-based institutions in San Francisco for nearly four decades. In 1965, Franzo and Marina King — the church's longtime bishop and reverend mother — saw Coltrane perform in San Francisco just after the release of his classic album A Love Supreme. Two years later, Coltrane died of liver cancer. By then, the Kings had become obsessed with the saxophonist's most famous album, and in 1969 the couple started a meeting in their home they called the Yardbird Temple (Yardbird was the nicknme of saxophonist Charlie Parker), in which the couple would invite people over to talk about A Love Supreme's spiritual underpinnings.
The Kings had been moved by the way Coltrane, a decade earlier, had used the inherent spirituality in his music to help lift him out of a nasty drug addiction. "During the year 1957," Coltrane wrote in the liner notes to A Love Supreme, "I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life."
The Yardbird Temple expanded in those early heady days, changed its name to One Mind Temple Evolutionary Transitional Church of Christ, and moved to a building on Divisidero Street. By 1972 the Kings had met Coltrane's widow, pianist Alice Coltrane, who introduced them to the Eastern philosophies that also colored his belief system.
Eventually, the Kings' church — by then called the John Coltrane African Orthodox Church — would be relocated to its current home on Fillmore. But the services have generally remained the same, revolving around the music and text Coltrane wrote for A Love Supreme, a suite that combines elements of all the religious traditions he explored in four parts: "Acknowledgement," "Resolution," "Pursuance," and "Psalm."
To the faithful at the Coltrane church, the saxophonist's words and music are sacred. But this church is no joke and no novelty.
"John Coltrane is an actual saint in Christiandom and he is acknowledged as such," the Kings' eldest daughter, the Rev. Sister Wanika King-Stephens, said in Turnstyle Video's 2011 short documentary The Saxophone Saint. Indeed, the saxophonist was canonized by the African Orthodox Church in 1982, the year the Coltrane church joined the denomination.
As the service enters its second hour, my wife and I are moving rhythmically to the bass and drums when our heads turn towards each other and our eyes meet in looks of incredulity. It seems that without even realizing it, we had begun mouthing the words along with the rest of the congregation: "A love supreme, a love supreme."
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