Theodore A. Harris, Coltrane’s Thunderclap, 1998, paper collage. 11X17 in.
September 23, 1926 was the birth date of John William Coltrane. A giant of the saxophone, a jazz innovator, a spiritual/artistic icon of the Black Arts Movement, and patron saint of the jazz avant garde, are merely the most obvious of his achievements earned through his music. On October 9-10, 2026, The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music will host a symposium and concert to celebrate and reflect on the centennial of Coltrane’s birth.
Submissions for the symposium closed on August 31. We will be selecting papers, panels and films for the program in the month of September. Please check back to this page for a full symposium program.
Keynote address will be delivered by Archbishop Franzo King, co-founder of the African Orthodox Church of John Coltrane. The keynote address in addition to remarks by the archbishop will feature music from members of the church.
The Double bill will begin with a set by the outstanding tenor saxophonist/vocalist, Camille Thurman-Green. Thurman is a woman who exemplifies the integrity and the intensity of John Coltrane. She will lead her own quintet for the concert and will also conduct a workshop for UCLA students.
The concert will close with a collaboration between Regina Carter-Garnett and KuUmba Frank Lacy based upon the Meditations and Infinity recordings by John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane respectively.
Alice Coltrane released Infinity in 1972 using recordings of her late husband from 1965 and 1966 to which she added her arrangements of orchestral strings, and herself on vibraphone, harp, piano, and organ. These compositions are all from the most advanced stages of John Coltrane’s artistry. Two of the songs, “Joy” and “Living Space”, are from 1965, the culminating year of John Coltrane’s “classic quartet” consisting of Coltrane, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison, and McCoy Tyner. A third composition, “Living Space”, is from Coltrane’s subsequent and final quartet, featuring Alice Coltrane, Jimmy Garrison, and Rashied Ali. A new orchestral arrangement for “Living Space” will be written by KuUmba Frank Lacy. The orchestral strings will be under the supervision of internationally renowned violinist, Regiina Carter while Lacy will lead the jazz quintet that will accompany them. Finally, a coda of Coltrane’s “After the Rain” featuring Regina Carter will close the concert.
Theodore A. Harris, Coltrane’s Thunderclap.
1998, paper collage, 11×17 in.
Theodore A. Harris (1966-) is a Philadelphia-based visual artist and poet. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in private and public collections such as Libraries and Museum University of Delaware, Fort Garland Museum and Cultural Center, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Saint Louis University Museum of Art, La Salle University Art Museum, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, McGill University Visual Arts Collection, Center for Africana Studies; University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center Rare Books and Manuscript Library; University of Pennsylvania, and the Petrucci Family Foundation Collection of African American Art, and the Winston and Carolyn Lowe Collection. Harris is the co-founder of the Anti-Graffiti Network/Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. Harris has also co-authored and authored books including Our Flesh of Flames (2019), Malcolm X as Ideology (2008) with Amiri Baraka, TRIPTYCH with Amiri Baraka and Jack Hirschman (2011), i ran from it and was still in it with Fred Moten (2007), and Thesentür: Conscientious Objector to Formalism (2017). He is the Founding Artistic Director of the Institute for Advanced Study in Black Aesthetics.
