Coltrane Alice

Universal Consciousness was the fifth solo album released by Alice Coltrane in 1971 on Impulse! Records. The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4½ stars saying "This is art of the highest order, conceived by a brilliant mind, poetically presented in exquisite collaboration by divinely inspired musicians and humbly offered as a gift to listeners. It is a true masterpiece".

This is Alice Coltrane's first album as a leader, made a year after her husband's death. Even though you can tell that she was still developing her own style at this point, it is still a great record. The first 3 songs are especially good, I think; this is probably because of the additon of Pharoah Sanders. Alice is great with a trio, but she had incredible chemistry with Pharoah.

"Lord, Help Me To Be" is just classic. I really like Jimmy Garrison's bass playing on this one. He may not have been as technically developed as other bass players of his time, but he could really swing, which is something that other bass players sometimes lacked. "The Sun" is wonderful, too. It is basically a 4 minute Alice Coltrane solo in free rhythm, colored by bells and sparse bass. Although Pharoah is listed here, he is barely audible, playing flute in the left channel. The drums are very quiet as well. "Ohnedaruth" is a chant that the last John Coltrane group used to perform. It features a rare Pharoah Sanders solo on bass clarinet!

For his third duet album, Carlos Santana performed the works of John Coltrane, paired with Coltrane's widow, harpist/keyboardist Alice Coltrane, on this instrumental album…

Various Artists - The House That Trane Built: The Story Of Impulse Records (2006) [4CD] {Impulse! Japan Edition}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (image)+CUE+LOG -> 1.62 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 610 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 114 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2006 Impulse! / Verve | UCCI-7001/4 / B0006680-02
Jazz / Avant-Garde Jazz / Bop / Afro-Cuban Jazz / Free Jazz / Hard Bop / Modern Creative

The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records is a four-disc set, compiled and annotated by author Ashley Kahn who wrote the book of the same name being published concurrently with its release. Impulse's great run was between 1961 and 1976 – a period of 15 years that ushered in more changes in jazz than at any other point in the music's history. Impulse began recording in the last weeks of 1960, with Ray Charles, Kai Windig /J.J. Johnson, and Gil Evans. While Impulse experimented with 45s 33 1/3 EPs, cassettes, and reel to reel tapes later in its existence, it was–and this set focuses on– it was the music on its LPs (with distinct orange and black packaging in gatefold sleeves containing copious notes) that helped to set them apart.

Alice Coltrane is the undeniable godmother of spiritual jazz and an acknowledged influence on everyone from Flying Lotus and Kamasi Washington to Solange and Radiohead. Kirtan: Turiya Sings features Alice Coltrane at peak spirituality and is presented in this arrangement for the first time in any format. Turyia Sings was originally released in 1982 on cassette as a collection of devotional songs including vocals, organ, strings, and synthesizers available only at Alice’s Sai Anantam Ashram. Kirtan: Turiya Sings features a sparser arrangement of organ and chanting, produced by Ravi Coltrane. This is intentional, devotional music created with the purpose of connecting to a higher power. The pared back arrangements on this new release are enchantingly haunting and encourage the listener to reach a meditative headspace so as to channel connectiveness to a greater spirit. The perfect introduction to Alice Coltrane for listeners interested in music for mediation and personal wellness. “Turiya” is short for Alice’s full Sanskrit name Turiyasangitananda. “Kirtan” means “narrating, reciting, telling, describing, of an idea of story”.

Within the first 30 seconds of "Spiritual Eternal," the opening track on Alice Coltrane's final studio album, Eternity, the listener encounters the complete palette of Alice Coltrane's musical thought. As her Wurlitzer organ careens through a series of arpeggiated modal drones, they appear seemingly rootless, hanging out in the cosmic eternal. They remain there only briefly before an orchestra chimes in behind her in a straight blues waltz that places her wondrously jagged soloing within the context of a universal musical everything as she moves through jazz, Indian music, blues, 12-tone music, and the R&B stridency of Ray Charles. This is the historical and spiritual context Alice Coltrane made her own, the ability to open up her own sonic vocabulary and seamlessly create an ensemble context for to deliver an unpredictable expression of her vision of harmonic convergence…