Fifty Years of Worship at the Church of John Coltrane (Hua Hsu, December 24, 2019, The New Yorker)

The Coltrane Church attracts visitors from all over the world. Its existence is a story of devotion, but it's also a story of family. Franzo and Marina--now Reverend King--raised their children there. Their daughter, Wanika, is now a pastor and bishop-elect at the church; Franzo, Jr., is a deacon; both of them along with the couple's other daughter, Nakeda, are "sound ministers." If you watch "The Church of John Coltrane," Jeff Swimmer's documentary, from 1996, you'll recognize many of the same worshippers who are still there today and who form the congregation's core. It's just that the city around them has changed.

The church seems more radiant and hopeful than ever, a refuge from the rhythms of the present. It is, as the Kings hoped, a community. Coltrane, too, only seems more visionary as time passes. He remains a beloved and inspirational figure because the strength of his vision, in service of, as he put it, "A Love Supreme," was so clear. From the elegant precision of his recordings in the fifties to his mid-sixties feats of conjuring, he saw himself as a vessel for higher possibilities. Where he wanted us to go remains an aspiration that guides the Kings and those who join them.