Many people have helped me bring this project to fruition, and I offer them my sincere gratitude. Most of all, I thank the late Alice Coltrane and her associates (George Bohannon, Terry Gibbs, Bennie Maupin, Cecil McBee, Ed Michel, Ben Riley, and Vishnu Wood) and members of the Sai Anantam Ashram community (in particular, Radha Reyes-Botafasina and Surya Botafasina) who took the time to speak with me at length.
Many others have also helped facilitate my research: my dissertation committee (Anthony Braxton, Ingrid Monson, Mark Slobin, and Su Zheng) and Deborah Nelson helped shepherd me through the early stages of this project; and other musicians, writers, and spiritual seekers interested in the topic assisted me as a graduate student (Shanti Norris and the staff of Integral Yoga; the jazz scholars Lars Bjorn, Eric Charry, Jim Gallert, Lewis Porter, and Steve Rowland; Dolores Brandon; the vibraphonist, and my friend, Jay Hoggard; and Shubalananda). Thanks are also owed to my ethnomusicologist friends who sustained me with their expertise, love, humor, inspiring conversation, and draft reading: Richard Harper, Michael Heffley, Hankus Netsky, and Michael Veal. More recently, Sherrie Tucker and George Lewis have offered valuable critiques in their readers’ reviews for Wesleyan University Press.
I would also like to thank my Portland network at Lewis & Clark College and the new friends who have sustained me; Elise Gautier, my copy editor; and my immediate and extended family, who have kept my children safe, sound, creatively engaged, and lavished with love while I have taken the time to write this book—Grandma Sandy, Uncle Mike, Donna and Grandpa Frank, Shayla Holmes, Rashelle Chase, Aline Ochun, and my patient and devoted husband, Kristopher Logan Wallsmith.