N.Y. group trying to restore Coltrane home
Supporters aim to raise $1.6M, open museum in 2014
DIX HILLS, N.Y. — In a quiet, treelined suburb of New York City, there’s an unassuming brick ranch house that many musicians consider hallowed ground.
This is where saxophonist John Coltrane composed the epic 1964 jazz masterpiece A Love Supreme, shortly after moving into the Dix Hills, Long Island, home. Although he only lived there three years — Coltrane died of cancer in 1967 at age 40 — musicians including Carlos Santana and Coltrane’s jazz saxophonist son Ravi are among those backing a volunteer effort to turn the dilapidated, four-bedroom house into a museum and learning centre.
“The Coltrane home is a beacon to anyone interested in jazz history, cultural history, AfricanAmerican history, New York history and American history,” Santana said in a statement promoting a Manhattan fundraiser where he helped raise $31,350 (all figures Cdn). The guitar virtuoso has been a Coltrane fan for decades; he released a 1973 album with fellow guitarist John McLaughlin called Love Devotion Surrender as a Coltrane tribute.
The move to restore the home began about a decade ago when jazz enthusiast Steve Fulgoni learned a developer had purchased the 1.4-hectare property with plans to demolish the home and build three smaller houses. Fulgoni organized a lobbying effort to save the home, and eventually local officials purchased the property from the developer for $1.02 million and designated it as a town park.
But officials told Fulgoni and his supporters — which by then included members of the Coltrane family — that any effort to create a museum would have to be privately funded.
Years of neglect left the home infested with mould and in dire condition, Fulgoni said. However, much of the interior was essentially unchanged from when the Coltranes lived there in the 1960s.
Ron Stein of Friends of the John Coltrane Home, said that before last month’s fundraiser, the organization had raised about $125,000. There also has been about $209,000 of in-kind donations from architects, electrical contractors, general contractors, mould remediation and other services.
Stein says the goal is to raise about $1.57 million. The 50th anniversary of Coltrane’s completion of A Love Supreme in 2014 has organizers dreaming of opening the house to visitors next year, but Stein said that may not be realistic.
“What we need to do is seize the momentum from this recent event and get enough people to realize the importance of this investment,” Stein said. “People here and abroad need to understand the real importance of the Coltranes’ legacy.”
The house features a large meditation room that Coltrane’s wife, jazz pianist Alice Coltrane, used for several years until she moved to California in 1973. The basement had a recording studio where the couple performed. Alice Coltrane died in 2006, shortly after meeting with the Long Island group and signing off on restoration efforts, according to Fulgoni.