The Gala

Kicking off what will be an Alice Coltrane year with more releases to come in the next 12 months, is a previously unreleased, killer live recording from 1971. Recorded live, by Impulse! at a charity gala given at Carnegie Hall for the benefit of the Integral Yoga Institute in 1971, this incredible set never saw commercial release until now. The gala concert was one of two halves with the first two transcendental tunes by Alice taken from the album she had just released on Impulse! and then two explosive tunes by her late husband John Coltrane. Naturally, à la Coltrane/Dolphy at the Gate, which picked up the recent Grammy nomination for Best Liner Notes, the package includes some knockout editorial, with essays by Lauren Du Graf and Alice’s producer Ed Michel.

Among the great orchestras of the world specializing in music for ballroom and competition dancing figure the Gala Big Band, founded in 1983 by pianist, composer, arranger and German director Günter Maier Noris (Unterfranken, 1935-2007). During his career Günter performed 2,500 live performances in some 15 countries. This album is dedicated to dance music and offers twelve subjects taken from classical music pieces and versioned in several standard and Latin rhythms.