Born out of the sort of liquor-soaked nightclubs deemed unfit for a “respectable lady,” it’s no wonder the world of jazz, including jazz criticism, has always been a boy’s club. The primer playlistįor Spotify users, listen below or click on the Spotify icon in the top right of the playlist for Apple Music users, click here.While jazz has a long history of racial integration, its inclusion of woman musicians is limited-focused almost exclusively on women vocalists and the novelty of all-female big bands. Monument Eternal is not an autobiography, but a hallucinatory, esoteric text that she introduces as “a book about my true spiritual experiences and spiritual suffering which has never ceased even unto this present day”. There is a wealth of great reading about Coltrane, but she also wrote about her spiritual life herself, including this small pamphlet recounting the revelations and trials she underwent in the late 60s. Monument Eternal, by Alice Coltrane-Turiyasangitananda His statement that “the music of Alice Coltrane is more relevant today than when it was first recorded between 1968-78” is followed by speculation that “perhaps the need for spiritual salvation is that much greater in a world apparently bent on self destruction” – a sentiment that rings as true today. Pouncey’s portrait (with beautiful photography by Jake Walters) places her in a historical context while illuminating her uniqueness and awe-inspiring presence. In 2002 Edwin Pouncey interviewed Coltrane for Wire magazine at her California ashram, which burned down in the 2018 wildfires. Joe Henderson with Alice Coltrane – The Elements (1974)Įnduring Love: Alice Coltrane, by Edwin Pouncey The album closes with the salvation of A Love Supreme, which is soothingly narrated by Swami Satchidananda before she lets loose a rude funk upon the standard’s signature motif. My Favorite Things starts sweetly but descends into a chaotic breakdown as her organ flares in anxious bursts. Recorded over two days with a 16-piece string orchestra, World Galaxy features Alice playing piano, harp and organ. World Galaxy includes Alice’s renderings of two of John’s signature tunes – it was not the first or the last time she did this, but there is a ferocious power and emotion in these versions of A Love Supreme and My Favorite Things. John died suddenly, leaving Alice as a single mother with four children, but she continued to work on the music they had been developing. After John’s divorce they married and she joined his band, playing on albums including Infinity and Expression. They met in 1963 when Alice was on tour as a member of the Terry Gibbs Quartet. There is a sub-catalogue to this primer, which is the music of John and Alice. The three albums to check out nextĪlice Coltrane with Strings – World Galaxy (1972)Īlice Coltrane: My Favorite Things – video It ought strictly to be called fusion music, with elements taken from Indian music and combined with western traditions, but in Coltrane’s music there are no visible joins – all is bound in cosmic opulence. It is an audaciously lush theme for her guru, Swami Satchidananda, and like so much of Coltrane’s composition it is positively cinematic, suggesting the opening of luxurious drapes on a panoramic vista. In its opening (title) track, there are all the aspects of Alice Coltrane’s music – jazz player Cecil McBee lays down a double bass motif, joined by a sharp drone from an Indian tamboura, then Coltrane’s sparkling harp pours in like cool water as Pharoah Sanders’s saxophone dances over the top.
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Jump in anywhere and you’ll find variations on the signature sound that developed from her beginnings in bebop jazz, through the spiritual free compositions of the Coltranes as a romantic and spiritual unit ( John Coltrane died of liver cancer in 1967, four years after they met), to the transcendental sounds of her later divine music.īut you have to start somewhere, so make it Journey in Satchidananda, a mid-point between the modal and meditative, where all the parts of her musical being and biography are present. The first thing to understand about composer and musician Alice Coltrane’s catalogue is that there are no duds. Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda – video
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