About
URSA ASHEVILLE AND APLR Present: A PERFORMANCE OF COLTRANE’S *INTERSTELLAR SPACE*

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2026

AyurPrana Listening Room - 312 Haywood Rd, Asheville, NC 28806

Doors 6 PM || Show 7 PM

As part of *Giant Steps: Celebrating 100 Years of John Coltrane*, URSA Asheville and AyurPrana Listening Room present a free, RSVP performance of Coltrane’s *Interstellar Space* on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. The performance will be followed by a conversation with the audience and a Q&A moderated by Dr. Bill Bares.

Recorded on February 22, 1967 — just months before Coltrane’s death, and not released until 1974 — *Interstellar Space* paired Coltrane’s tenor saxophone with the drums of Rashied Ali in an extended suite of duets, stripped of piano and bass entirely. Widely regarded as a landmark of free jazz, the album remains one of the most daring and spiritually charged recordings of Coltrane’s career, and one of the last studio statements he would make.

For this performance, saxophonist Steve Alford of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and drummer Jeff Arnal of the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC) will take on Coltrane and Ali’s roles, bringing their own voices to the duo’s open, unaccompanied dialogue.

Following the performance, Alford will speak about Coltrane’s music and legacy, and Arnal — who knew Rashied Ali personally — will share stories about Ali and discuss the practice of free drumming.

The evening is a collaboration between URSA Asheville, AyurPrana Listening Room, and the two musicians, offered free to the public as part of URSA’s mission to bring first-rate jazz to Asheville. RSVP and additional information are available at **ursaasheville.org**.

“URSA is proud to partner with AyurPrana in presenting this unique guided tour of the complex worlds of late-Coltrane era free jazz, featuring two of the most experienced and creative exponents of free jazz in North Carolina,” said Dr. Bill Bares, President and Founder, URSA Asheville.

About the Artists

Jeff Arnal

Jeff Arnal is an American percussionist, composer, and community organizer working across experimental, improvised, and interdisciplinary music, shaped by more than three decades of work in contemporary classical music, jazz, and free improvisation.

A student of percussionist Milford Graves and composer Stuart Saunders Smith, Arnal has recorded for Clean Feed, Mahakala Music, NoBusiness Records, and Generate Records, and his drumming has been praised by *The Wire* for its “balletic sense of time and imaginative deployment of colour.”

He is Executive Director of the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, where he has led the organization since 2016.

Steve Alford

Steve Alford is a multi-instrumentalist and educator specializing in contemporary improvisational music. A saxophone graduate of the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, he toured extensively across the United States and Europe before settling in Chicago, developing expertise on harmony clarinets and performing across straight-ahead jazz, modern improvised music, and experimental indie-rock.

After relocating to Asheville, Alford taught at Mars Hill University and UNC Asheville while earning his Master’s in Jazz from the University of Tennessee, and later served as coordinator for Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation Studies at the University of Minnesota Morris.

He has developed a widely respected pedagogy centered on multi-lateral ear training and melodic immersion, and leads a range of adventurous ensembles, including the 11-piece big band Rational Discourse and the punk-jazz E.Normus Trio.

This performance is part of *Giant Steps: Celebrating 100 Years of John Coltrane*, a festival of performances, education, and conversation celebrating the life, music, and legacy of John Coltrane, presented as part of the worldwide Coltrane 100 centennial.

All ages