Ravi Coltrane was born on Long Island. But any time the jazz saxophonist plays in Detroit, it’s a bit of a homecoming.

That’s because his late mother, musician and spiritual activist Alice Coltrane was a Detroit native who began her career in the Motor City before moving to Paris during the late 1950s. Ravi is the middle of the three children she had with saxophone legend John Coltrane, and he says there’s no better place to kick off “The Year of Alice” than during this year’s Detroit Jazz Festival on Labor Day weekend.

“It just seems like a beautiful home base for us in many ways, in regards to Alice and her music,” says Coltrane, 59, who will host the world premiere of “Translinear Light: The Music of Alice Coltrane” on Friday, Aug. 30 during the festival’s opening night. He expects some of his “many, many cousins” still in the area to be there. “Obviously it’s the city where she was born and raised and started her musical journey, so it always feels good to play Alice’s music in Detroit.

“And it’s a festival I’ve respected and admired from the first time I played there. It’s one of the best festivals in the world. The fact that they invite the whole city and people from everywhere because it’s free and open to the public, that brings another energy to the performance, as well — another spirit that permeates the space.”

The performance will feature New York harpist Brandee Younger, playing Alice Coltrane’s restored harp, and string players from around the metro area as the Detroit Jazz Festival Chamber Orchestra. Ravi Coltrane says many of the pieces have never been played live before, while others will receive fresh arrangements. It’s a daunting kind of challenge, taking on a repertoire some aficionados would consider sacrosanct, but Coltrane says he’s found the task more inspiring than daunting.

“She did raise me, and I do know what the essence of her music is and who she was,” he explains. “There were times where I checked myself, ‘Oh, I know my ma would never be down for this or that.’ I’m still under her guidance in that way. Even though she’s not on this Earth with us, she has that same effect on me and the choices I make through my life and my own creative choices.

“It is challenging to do something that’s never been done before. But if there was a time when I thought something would be unappealing to my mother or would be something she’d object to, I put it aside. We’re not turning her music into anything other than what it’s always been, and we try to do that with as much humility and respect and honor as we can.”

There is a great deal to celebrate.

Though John Coltrane’s musical legacy looms large over all music, Alice’s was formidable, as well. She was raised in a musical family as her mom was a church choir singer; her younger sister, Marilyn McLeod, became a Motown songwriter; and half-brother, Ernest Farrow, a jazz drummer. She performed on several of John’s albums, as well as with Terry Gibbs, Roland Kirk, McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson and others and began her own recording career with “A Monastic Trio” in 1968.

She was a Hindu spiritual leader known as Swamini Turiyasangitananda and those practices informed the work she created, including “Journey In Satchindananda” and “Universal Consciousness” through her final studio album, “Translinear Light” in 2004 — three years before her death in Los Angeles at the age of 69.

“Her music is very unique and very special,” says Ravi, who produced and played on “Translinear Light” along with Charlie Haden, Jack De Johnette, Jeff “Train” Watts and others. “I’ve been on the road since 1991, and for a long time, I just heard a lot of people saying, ‘I’m such a huge fan of your father. …’ Then at some point, I started to hear more people say, ‘I’m such a fan of your mother,’ and it evened out at some point. I was encountering as many if not more people who had grown up listening to Alice’s music and were ever affected by it.

“And I would tell her; I’d come back from the road and say, ‘Ma, they’re asking about you, wondering when you’re going to come out and play again.’ That’s how I was able to coax her back into the studio to make ‘Translinear Light.’”

The festival program, meanwhile, “is just sort of melding the two loves of Alice. She had such an expansive musical view and vision. She loved the sound of the orchestra. She loved strings. She didn’t often perform with strings, but she recorded with them and I always just enjoyed hearing all of the sounds that she created. The sound of the harp and the sound of the soprano (saxophone) and the organ and strings. … That’s Alice’s sound.

“So really this concert is an attempt to bring all of her worlds together.”

“Translinear Light” is, of course, just the beginning of The Year of Alice, which will precede a celebration of John Coltrane’s centennial in 2026. Events include an oral history helmed by daughter Michelle Coltrane and Younger (the next presentation is Oct. 1 at the University of Michigan) and a ballet program of Coltrane’s music to be premiered by the Alonzo King Lines Ballet company on Sept. 26-29 in San Francisco. An exhibit opens at Los Angeles’ Hammer Museum on Feb. 9, and the John & Alice Coltrane Home in Brooklyn is presenting a series of programming throughout the celebration.

Ravi, meanwhile, will be curating additional concerts in New York and Los Angeles. And following the March release of “The Carnegie Hall Concert” from 1971, there will be more albums. There is a lot of unreleased Alice material, her son says, though he’s not sure what the estate will feel comfortable putting out.

“Translinear Light: The Music of Alice Coltrane,” featuring Ravi Coltrane, Brandee Younger, Reggie Workman and the Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra opens this year’s Detroit Jazz Festival at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, on the Carhartt Amphitheater Stage in Hart Plaza. For the full festival schedule and information, visit detroitjazzfest.org.