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Alice Coltrane

Old age got the better of me last night, I turned the hifi on to listen to Alice while I did some tarantula housekeeping, but while the SBT booted up I started what I needed to do and completely forgot to actually play any music, so I did the whole thing in silence. There is no hope.
 
I dug out A Monastic Trio this morning and enjoyed it. Mind you, that was always the AC album I liked the most. Will work through the rest of the Impulses and see how far I get.
 
I dug out A Monastic Trio this morning and enjoyed it. Mind you, that was always the AC album I liked the most. Will work through the rest of the Impulses and see how far I get.

And now I've also listened to Ptah the El Daoud and Journey in Satchidananda. She's a brilliant pianist, obvs, but I'm really not keen on the harp. But I was too hard on her, I enjoyed all these a lot more than I did the last time I listened to them. Having said that, she clearly did her best work with Trane. That's not a gendered point, I'd say the same about virtually everyone who played with Trane, male or female. And these three are all early records, I'm still not at all keen on her later music.
 

I hadn't really listened to Alice Coltrane until I got this on a free sampler CD from Piccadilly Records. Her voice is extraordinary.

I think this captures a similar ecstatic groove

 
A few nights ago I was looking at record shop websites and I saw Ptah the El Daoud for sale on vinyl - some RSD-type release, it seemed. I made a mental note to take another look when I wasn’t busy buying too much other stuff. When I did, of course, no such thing could be found. Was it just a wine-induced hallucination?
 
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I received this reissue today. It’s a truly extraordinary record. Unfortunately the vinyl reissue has a background rumble… that will not be acceptable for most.
 
R-14976548-1616707155-3858.jpeg.jpg


I received this reissue today. It’s a truly extraordinary record. Unfortunately the vinyl reissue has a background rumble… that will not be acceptable for most.

Oh that's bad news - I'm waiting for mine to arrive. It's the first release by this reissue label and from what I gather a bit of a labour of love. I hope it doesn't put them off further releases.
 
Damn! Oh well...

Another unofficial one last year that I saw somewhere, though seems no official Impulse release since 1974.

However, with a much smoother sound than Alice, American harpist Brandee Younger released an album on Impulse this summer, Somewhere Different. Recorded at RVG’s studio, with two tracks including this one...


...with Ron Carter, age 84.
 
no official Impulse release since 1974

Hard to understand how her catalogue has been so neglected. Perhaps that's a reflection of the fact that she effectively retired at the end of the 70s to devote herself to her religious pursuits. At least CD reissues have been more plentiful.

I realised I missed the Superior Viaduct reissue of Lord Of Lords so I've just bagged that.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07CXC333S/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

 
This site contains affiliate links for which pink fish media may be compensated.
I'm not sure how happy Tony would be if I linked directly to it but for anyone interested the Live At The Berkeley Community Theater 1972 bootleg is fantastic and available on a certain popular video streaming platform.
 
This was played on FMlJ last night. My ears pricked up and I thought ‘Wow, a Latin Swing Big Band version of ‘Ptah, the El Daoud!’ Neat!’ Only it wasn’t, it was Stan Kenton playing a composition by JJ Richards in 1956. I was then perplexed. Has anyone ever noted or acknowledged the similarity between the two themes?

 
A few nights ago I was looking at record shop websites and I saw Ptah the El Daoud for sale on vinyl - some RSD-type release, it seemed. I made a mental note to take another look when I wasn’t busy buying too much other stuff. When I did, of course, no such thing could be found. Was it just a wine-induced hallucination?

Sounds of the Universe show this, due in tomorrow, but whether any left who knows?
https://soundsoftheuniverse.com/product/alice-coltrane-ptah-the-el-daoud-1970
 
i just got a text from Alex @ elephant music in Winchester that my copy of Ptah has arrived - as referenced earlier in this thread by another poster, Turiya & Ramakrishna is one of my desert-island tracks, so hoping this verve reissue lives up to my hopes.....if I pick it up this weekend I will post my impression vs the recent Dunhill reissue
 
So did Alice C have a jazz career before she met JC, or was she persuaded into it by just being his Mrs?

Must admit I'd never heard of her before this thread, but Im not a jazznut, only got a few/ the 'usual essentials'.
 


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