Alice Coltrane

LOS ANGELES -- Alice Coltrane, the jazz performer and composer who was inextricably linked with the adventurous musical improvisations of her late husband, the legendary saxophonist John Coltrane, has died. She was 69.

Coltrane died Friday at West Hills Hospital in Los Angeles, according to family friends. She had been in frail health for some time and died of respiratory failure.

Though known to many for her contributions to jazz and early new age music, Coltrane, a convert to Hinduism, was also a significant spiritual leader and founded the Vedantic Center, a spiritual commune now in Agoura, Calif. A guru of growing repute, she also served as the swami of the San Fernando Valley's first Hindu Temple, in Chatsworth.