Chi Coltrane's great…Yesterday Today and Forever

Yesterday she was hot, then she cooled down, then she spent about 20 years in a kind of Snow White-sleep, and then she returned to the road to tomorrow. She is forever.

She's Chi Coltrane.

In the 70's there was nothing like the sweet soul shouting of Chi Coltrane when she pounded the keyboard and howled about "Thunder and Lightning." I tell you…it wasn't frightening. Not when she looked so hot. After her Columbia run ended, she was sort of forgotten. Her excellent "Road to Tomorrow" album didn't bring back "Yesterday" or make her one of the today stars, but she made a few more albums. There was some great stuff on "Silk and Steel" and the other Europe-only releases…and then she fell victim to a weird ailment that just sapped her energy. (There's a lot of it about).

"I had a disorder that is quite common among rock stars, because we do so many television interviews and then go right to the concert hall, and we don't get much sleep...it's not good quality sleep...and we have what they used to call "burn out." I know Cher had the same thing, too, and Randy Newman had it. But a lot of women get it, even more than men. Even every-day women get it; it's a lack of a certain hormone. Conventional doctors right away want to put you on thyroid medicine. A went to this doctor and she told me what it was. She said "Take this supplement for a year..." and now I'm fantastic. I don't feel like 20 years went by because I was sleeping most of the time. I feel great." With the right diet and holistics and attitude, she's re-emerged and over the past five years has put out a new album, a DVD concert, and performed some very successful (100,000 viewers) shows in Europe.

Her show isn't just the old stuff. One of the daring newer tracks is "Yesterday Today and Forever," which you'll hear below via a 2009 live TV broadcast overseas. It's just her and her piano in a studio, and that's enough. She ain't afraid of the high notes. In concert she does have a full band. She likes to joke with reporters. Explaining her 20 years out of the spotlight, she says: "I was waiting for my musicians to get out of prison. We needed money for a new album so they robbed a bank."

Chi Coltrane Yesterday…Today…and Forever