Alice Coltrane

[Richard Barrett]

Yesterday I chanced for the first time on Alice Coltrane's album Universal Consciousness. The first track made my hair stand on end: a rhythm section of Garrison and DeJohnette, four violins (including Leroy Jenkins) with added horror-reverb, and AC herself swapping between swirling harp and quasi-"Eastern" modal organ. I've never heard anything like it before, and I'm really not sure what to think about it except wasn't it great that around this time (1971) you could basically release any music you wanted, unlike now. But I know next to nothing about Alice's work post-JC. Does anyone here have any pointers/preferences?

[Quarky]

I assume you heard last Saturday's JLU? (was that a repeat?)

Alice was deeply into yoga, as were many other jazz musicians (Mclaughlin/ Mahavishnu). I'm an adherent myself, but in terms of music, I don't think the mixing of Jazz and Indian-based music works- the blues is something Yoga works very hard to avoid?. Expanding one's consciousness via yoga may probably make a better musician, but it doesn't necessarily follow that Jazz must incorporate "Indian sounds".

[Richard Barrett]

I assume you heard last Saturday's JLU? (was that a repeat?)

Alice was deeply into yoga, as were many other jazz musicians (Mclaughlin/ Mahavishnu). I'm an adherent myself, but in terms of music, I don't think the mixing of Jazz and Indian-based music works- the blues is something Yoga works very hard to avoid?. Expanding one's consciousness via yoga may probably make a better musician, but it doesn't necessarily follow that Jazz must incorporate "Indian sounds".

No I didn't hear that programme, must have been some mystical correspondence! I'm a yoga practitioner of sorts myself, but I'm not concerned with the "spiritual" side of it at all. I'm also interested in Indian music but that doesn't take the form of lifting modes and/or moods from it. It wasn't the quasi-raga aspect of the music that struck me anyway, but something about the energy and texture of it that suggested that her music would be worth further investigation, although there are so many albums I was looking for a possible way in from someone with real knowledge of them.

[Serial_Apologist]

No I didn't hear that programme, must have been some mystical correspondence! I'm a yoga practitioner of sorts myself, but I'm not concerned with the "spiritual" side of it at all. I'm also interested in Indian music but that doesn't take the form of lifting modes and/or moods from it. It wasn't the quasi-raga aspect of the music that struck me anyway, but something about the energy and texture of it that suggested that her music would be worth further investigation, although there are so many albums I was looking for a possible way in from someone with real knowledge of them.

Here's the iPlayer link to the programme referred to by Oddball, Richard:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b092fj7m

I'm no authority on Alice Coltrane, so this was quite useful, though how "representative" of her work, I would have no idea. There might be a written interview somewhere with the saxophonist Paul Dunmall, in which he speaks to Phil Gibbs about having worked with her in the Divine Light Mission, when he was in it in the 1970s, and she did some workshops there. I'll have a search. Although I know Paul pretty well, I have never broached the subject of his immersion in that organisation.

[Quarky]

Here's something else from Kevin Legendre:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08h0cc8

[Serial_Apologist]

Here's something else from Kevin Legendre:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08h0cc8

Fantastic! THANKS for finding that

[Lat-Literal]

I have "Astral Meditations" which mainly predates 1971 although it also includes 1971 and 1972.

Also very much like Dorothy Ashby.

Thom Jurek:

"For those about to get terribly excited at the prospect of a new Alice Coltrane album, don't; this is a compilation from her years on Impulse! solo and with her late husband. But, given the radical juxtaposition of some of these works, this seems like a new Alice disc just the same. Assembled by the crack team of Patrick Forge and Kerstan Mackness, this set is gorgeously sequenced and, while debatable among people who have nothing better to do, is the only way this track selection could go. Quibbling over the actual tunes is ridiculous: "Lovely Sky Boat," "I Want to See You," "Galaxy in Turyia," "Blue Nile," "Universal Consciousness," "Battle at Armageddon," "A Love Supreme" (the version from World Galaxy with Frank Lowe on saxophone, Ben Riley on drums, and Reggie Workman on bass with Alice playing piano, organ, and harp, as well as a string section), "Journey in Satchidananda," "Galaxy Around Oldumare," and the tracks "Peace on Earth," from John Coltrane's Infinity album, and "The Sun," from the controversial Cosmic Music album. They are impeccable choices that represent the full range of Alice Coltrane's shamefully undernoticed contribution to jazz.

Here, with a host of musicians that includes not only those previously mentioned, but also Pharoah Sanders, Jack DeJohnette, Jimmy Garrison, Rashied Ali, Joe Henderson, Leroy Jenkins, Elvin Jones, Ron Carter, and many others, the depth and dimension of Alice Coltrane's musical vision can be articulated within the context of (mostly) her own work. Again, the way that Mackness and Forge have culled and sequenced the track selection is seamless, offering the development of Coltrane's creative voice as a pianist, harpist, organist, composer, and improviser -- not to mention arranger -- as a process, a constant evolution from high to even higher. The music is revelatory in how it uses color and tension to articulate tonal speech, and how it uses improvisation within the context of particular timbres. For those who have the catalog, this may come as a welcome refresher course; for those encountering Alice Coltrane's work for the first time, there simply is no other choice".

[Richard Barrett]

Thanks, that sounds like something well worth listening to.

[Conchis]

Yesterday I chanced for the first time on Alice Coltrane's album Universal Consciousness. The first track made my hair stand on end: a rhythm section of Garrison and DeJohnette, four violins (including Leroy Jenkins) with added horror-reverb, and AC herself swapping between swirling harp and quasi-"Eastern" modal organ. I've never heard anything like it before, and I'm really not sure what to think about it except wasn't it great that around this time (1971) you could basically release any music you wanted, unlike now. But I know next to nothing about Alice's work post-JC. Does anyone here have any pointers/preferences?

She was once described to me as 'the Yoko Ono of jazz'. It was meant as an insult but I think it misses the mark, anyway.

I got into Alice Coltrane's music a couple of years ago. It is perfect for certain moments and certain moods.

[Serial_Apologist]

She was once described to me as 'the Yoko Ono of jazz'. It was meant as an insult but I think it misses the mark, anyway.

I got into Alice Coltrane's music a couple of years ago. It is perfect for certain moments and certain moods.

Eg higher states of Conchisness

[teamsaint]

Eg higher states of Conchisness

Oh very good.

[Lat-Literal]

Thanks, that sounds like something well worth listening to.

You are welcome.

[Richard Barrett]

Eg higher states of Conchisness

Well, he is supposedly something of a Magus after all.

[Jazzrook]

Yesterday I chanced for the first time on Alice Coltrane's album Universal Consciousness. The first track made my hair stand on end: a rhythm section of Garrison and DeJohnette, four violins (including Leroy Jenkins) with added horror-reverb, and AC herself swapping between swirling harp and quasi-"Eastern" modal organ. I've never heard anything like it before, and I'm really not sure what to think about it except wasn't it great that around this time (1971) you could basically release any music you wanted, unlike now. But I know next to nothing about Alice's work post-JC. Does anyone here have any pointers/preferences?

My favourite Alice Coltrane album is 'Translinear Light' recorded in 2000/2004 with Ravi Coltrane, Oran Coltrane, Charlie Haden or James Genus & Jeff Watts or Jack DeJohnette,
The Japanese edition of this CD has an extra track - a 9-minute version of 'Acknowledgement' from 'A Love Supreme'.

http://www.allmusic.com/album/translinear-light-mw0000401754

JR

[Richard Barrett]

My favourite Alice Coltrane album is 'Translinear Light'

Thanks JR, I'll give that a try too.