By Kristina Loring, KALW
The Church of John Coltrane has always put the man’s music at the center of its services.
“I hear John Coltrane say that when you discover the possibilities of music, you want to help humanity and free people from their hang ups and make the world a better place,” says Wanika King-Stephens, the church’s pastor. “And so that’s the kind of intention that he had behind his music.”
Her father, Franzo King founded the church decades ago after he took his wife Marina to see Coltrane play.
San Francisco was a hotbed for jazz at the time, filled with smoke-filled clubs and a rotating cast of musical greats. The Kings were at a popular club in North Beach, the Jazz Workshop. That night, Franzo King experienced what he calls his “sound baptism.”
“We had great expectation for John Coltrane. But I think that the most obvious thing I can remember is the atmosphere around his being,” Franzo King says. “He flooded our heart with the divine love of god, and he planted seeds that grew into what we now call the St. John Coltrane Church.”
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