Worship in the house of jazz
Among the city’s vertebrae is Fillmore Street, which was named after America’s 13th president, Millard Fillmore, a member of the Whig party and a free marketeer, who was also antislavery, anti-immigration, and anti-manifest destiny. His idiosyncratic platform matches San Francisco’s character to a tee.
Fillmore is best known for its music scene, a reputation that’s epitomized by the legendary Fillmore Auditorium, which has hosted a range of iconic bands over the decades from the Grateful Dead to Radiohead. The street was also once the city’s Holy Land of jazz, even before World War I, and today the most popular jazz venues can still be found here, including Yoshi’s and the Boom Boom Room.
Info
Address 1286 Fillmore Street, San Francisco, CA, 94115, www.coltranechurch.org, +1 415.673.7144 | Public Transport Bus: 22 (Fillmore St & Eddy St stop) | Hours Sunday service 10am–2pm| Tip Relax under the sun around the five-tiered concrete Peace Pagoda, at 1610 Geary Boulevard. The pagoda was a gift to San Francisco by its sister city, Osaka.
Just a short block from Yoshi’s, behind a tinted storefront window, is Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church. Every Sunday morning the front door opens to the small space, decorated with murals of a black Mary and Jesus, and of the congregation’s unique patron saint, John Coltrane. In one large painting by Reverend Mark Dukes, a golden halo encircles Coltrane’s head, as he holds a scripture in one hand and a flaming tenor saxophone in the other.
The first tip-off that this isn’t your average Sunday service is the electric keyboard, drum kit, and two basses set up next to the altar. The weekly ritual begins with one hour of incense-filled meditation, listening to the album, A Love Supreme. Two hours of liturgy follows, during which the music of the jazz giant is played with passion and joy by the church’s band and anyone who wants to join the jam session (all attending are welcome to bring their own instruments).
The church was founded in 1969 by archbishop Franzo Wayne King and Reverend Mother Marina King, who saw Coltrane perform in 1965, and immediately felt the “presence of God” in his music.
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