Three Mo’ Harpists by Radha Botofasina (con’t)

Joyously, Brandee, Destiny, and Radha agreed to the 3 Mo’ Harpists experiment. The meager production budget was shared equally among the three harpists and the energy of this endeavor was dynamic. Through emails and phone calls, each harpist agreed to transcribe at least one of Alice Coltrane’s compositions. Brandee said, “I had never been to the Alice Coltrane’s Sai Anantam Ashram, and I wanted to go. So, when it came about, I was over the moon. Also, I was nervous about what we were going to put together, musically.”

Destiny said, “When the opportunity came for the collaboration with three harps with three black women, it was an exciting time. It was such fun, exchanging musical ideas with two powerful harpists.”

For five days, we prepared for the concert billed as Cosmic Harp: a Tribute to Alice Coltrane, on Saturday, August 27, 2011, at the Levitt Pavilion in MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles, California. The weather was so hot that the film crews’ cameras stopped working. But 1,500 people attended and several African American men and women who aspired to play harp lined up at the front of the stage.

A 2024 NAACP Image Award winner, Brandee Younger still has the transcriptions of the music. The local Salvi harp showroom loaned us three concert grand harps. We were joined onstage by 15 of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers, chanting sacred songs of Alice Coltrane. The music transcended preconceived notions of traditional harp music.

The pedagogy ascribed to Alice Coltrane was incredibly Afrocentric, and an avantgarde expression of her undisputed devotion to God. We had a delightful week of collaboration with our varying harp styles, playing the magnificent expressions of Alice’s music that opened our hearts and the hearts of our listeners, cosmically.

Throughout long hours of rehearsals, Brandee, Destiny, and I had no negative moments. At one point, we had an open-air dress rehearsal on a 105-acre property of a neighbor, who allowed us to perform there but forgot to tell us about the ducks that would be milling around our harps. We loved every minute of it. Literally, the open sky was the limit, as we played Alice Coltrane’s sacred music, Journey in Satchidananda, Prema, Jai Ramamchandra, and Krishna Krishna.

Each harpist shared her prowess during solo cadenzas. In reality, it was whatever their fingers felt free to do within the realms of music. So, there were no mistakes, only open-hearted listening. Every single note, glissando, trills and arpeggios, scales in both directions, or tapping on the soundboard in the ancient tradition of rhythm, combined in a sonic quilt of harp strings and heart strings, that is where we went as a trio.

Similar to children playing Ring Around the Rosie, while holding each other’s hands with complete trust, happiness, and song, our music was translated by nimble, calloused harp player fingers. We were lifted to heights only the Divine could take us musicians. Indeed, the ancestors were smiling upon us, allowing us to be together in an unforgettable moment that nurtured our spirits in an exalted experience of pure cosmic joy!

“When the opportunity came for the collaboration with three harps with three black women, it was an exciting time. It was such fun, exchanging musical ideas with two powerful harpists.”

Destiny

“Every single note, glissando, trills and arpeggios, scales in both directions, or tapping on the soundboard in the ancient tradition of rhythm, combined in a sonic quilt of harp strings and heart strings, that is where we went as a trio. “

Radha