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Alice Coltrane

Alice Coltrane kickstarted my interest in jazz. I was lying in bed one evening in the mid 90s tuning the radio and I happened upon Journey In Satchidananda playing on Jazz FM.

I went straight down to Virgin Records in Reading the next day, and upstairs where they had a separate room for jazz and classical I found the CD album, plus Ptah The El Daoud.
 
The Captain said:
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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From Wikipedia

"With the encouragement of her father, Alice McLeod pursued music and started to perform in various clubs around Detroit, until moving to Paris in the late 1950s. She studied classical music, and also jazz with Bud Powell in Paris, where she worked as the intermission pianist at the Blue Note Jazz Club in 1960. It was there that McLeod appeared on French television in a performance with Lucky Thompson, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke.[4] She married Kenny "Pancho" Hagood in 1960 and had a daughter with him.[5] The marriage ended soon after, on account of Hagood's developing heroin addiction, and McLeod was forced to return to Detroit with her daughter.[6] She continued playing jazz as a professional in Detroit, with her own trio and as a duo with vibraphonist Terry Pollard. In 1962–63, she played with Terry Gibbs' quartet, during which time she met John Coltrane."

There is a view that her influence on him was considerable. It at least coincided with some significant developments in his music.
 
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I played mine 30 mins ago - would say its good, at least in comparison to the recent Dunhill reissue - its certainly got more detail, however its a bit more "stark" and not as warm as the dunhill, which has a slightly nicer tone to the bass

That said, this was never an audiophile studio recording, although by no means bad - if you don't have any copy at all, then grab this in an instant. If you have the dunhill and feel the sound is lacking detail & separation, for example at the start of " Blue Nile", then this would definitely help

Now if only i could find a NM original at affordable levels.... :)
 
It sounds like the latest reissue has been reEQ'd or from a digital master or both.

AGUYCALLEDSIMON said:
Now if only i could find a NM original at affordable levels.... :)
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Good luck! ;) but you may not be missing much. I have a clean original (bought for $25 about a decade ago) and it has noisy vinyl in parts. Truth be told, the digipak CD version that came out earlier is excellent and to my ears, loses nothing much to the original record. Just get that and be happy.

I think sometimes we get so caught up with obtaining only originals or that special reissue (remastered from the original tapes, blah-blah...etc) that we dismiss or ignore the far more affordable and in some cases, better alternatives. I count myself guilty of this.
 
hockman said:
I have a clean original (bought for $25 about a decade ago) and it has noisy vinyl in parts. Truth be told, the digipak CD version that came out earlier is excellent and to my ears, loses nothing much to the original record. Just get that and be happy.
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I gave up on original Impulse pressings years ago for that very reason - often poorly pressed, not a good success rate in obtaining acceptable copies.

The CD version you refer to sounds fine to my ears, and probably hard to beat. The new reissue would have to have a lot going for it for me to consider it viable.
 
The standard CD is good, right enough. I just like records, so hoping that the reissue is as good. Not always the case with Alice Coltrane that the CDs can compete with the good vinyl versions.
 
Seanm said:
The standard CD is good, right enough. I just like records, so hoping that the reissue is as good. Not always the case with Alice Coltrane that the CDs can compete with the good vinyl versions.
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I have A Monastic Trio on Superior Viaduct and digipac Impulse CD - I’ll have to directly compare them one day. Superior Viaduct did a great job on this one regarding art work - Stoughton card sleeve and sharp photo and graphics. That alone won me over - it’s such an iconic image.
 
Graham H said:
I have A Monastic Trio on Superior Viaduct and digipac Impulse CD - I’ll have to directly compare them one day. Superior Viaduct did a great job on this one regarding art work - Stoughton card sleeve and sharp photo and graphics. That alone won me over - it’s such an iconic image.
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Haven’t stuck that on in a while but I did compare and remember there being no real difference. Worth it for the sleeve though as you say. The one that stands out to me as being very different on vinyl is Universal Consciousness - I’m always banging on about it.
 
kjb said:
From Wikipedia

"With the encouragement of her father, Alice McLeod pursued music and started to perform in various clubs around Detroit, until moving to Paris in the late 1950s. She studied classical music, and also jazz with Bud Powell in Paris, where she worked as the intermission pianist at the Blue Note Jazz Club in 1960. It was there that McLeod appeared on French television in a performance with Lucky Thompson, Pierre Michelot and Kenny Clarke.[4] She married Kenny "Pancho" Hagood in 1960 and had a daughter with him.[5] The marriage ended soon after, on account of Hagood's developing heroin addiction, and McLeod was forced to return to Detroit with her daughter.[6] She continued playing jazz as a professional in Detroit, with her own trio and as a duo with vibraphonist Terry Pollard. In 1962–63, she played with Terry Gibbs' quartet, during which time she met John Coltrane."

There is a view that her influence on him was considerable. It at least coincided with some significant developments in his music.
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Aha thanks for this kjb, interesting. There was me thinking she'd most likely capitalised on his name, squawked out a few patchy recordings, that's after the innevitable divorce! Appreciated: me not having to delve into pages of jazz spiel = good.

Ok so where do I start? I can't do too-leftfield jazz. I have kind of blue, hhancok quarted double Lp, & sketches of spain. That's it. I can't really deal with the vast majority of jazz (defo nothing contemporary). Is there an accessible something, recorded well-?

Thanks, Capt.
 
There's quite a lot of range in her recordings. Some may offer different views, but the standard "I've only got one Alice Coltrane" record is this

Journey In Satchidananda: AmazonSmile: CDs & Vinyl

This will let you know if you want to explore further IMO
 
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Actually I've not found Impulse vinyl quality to be particularly poor. As with most records, it got worse in the 1970s during the oil crisis when a lot of bad quality and recycled vinyl was used and Impulse records got thinner. My Alice Coltrane records looks pretty clean with a few scuff marks but it's still noisy on one side despite several rounds of ultrasonic cleaning.

For years and years I felt that early or original Impulse records were greatly undervalued and underpriced in comparison to Blue Note for instance. Unfortunately the world has caught up.

On a recent shopping spree, I found that more and more records are commanding ridiculous prices, undoubtedly driven by new collectors heavily influenced by social media. A Walter Bishop record on Black Jazz that I picked up for $40 a few years back is now being sold by my dealer at 200 euros! Really? It's a good album but by no means particularly remarkable or special. At that price, I'd rather go with the CD or the recent Real Gone Music record reissue at $25.

Nowadays I just focus more on early ECMs, Black Saints, Hat Hut, etc and all those still uncool jazz records...and leave the other precious records to the newcomers and those with deep pockets.

Graham H said:
I gave up on original Impulse pressings years ago for that very reason - often poorly pressed, not a good success rate in obtaining acceptable copies.

The CD version you refer to sounds fine to my ears, and probably hard to beat. The new reissue would have to have a lot going for it for me to consider it viable.
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AGUYCALLEDSIMON said:
I played mine 30 mins ago - would say its good, at least in comparison to the recent Dunhill reissue - its certainly got more detail, however its a bit more "stark" and not as warm as the dunhill, which has a slightly nicer tone to the bass
...
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The Dunhill is a bootleg as far as I know, so I would hope the new Universal reissue is a bit better sounding
 
paulfromcamden said:
Just wondering if anyone has an opinion on the 2019 reissues on Antarctica Starts Here of Alice's Warners LPs?
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Far from amazing. I bought all four: no better than the Spotify versions in terms of SQ (not that they’re bad) and two had such bad pressing flaws that I returned them. Kept Transfiguration and Transcendence. Later bought the Speakers Corner pressing of Eternity which is very nice.

CDs are the sensible way to go here but…
 
Seanm said:
Far from amazing. I bought all four: no better than the Spotify versions in terms of SQ (not that they’re bad) and two had such bad pressing flaws that I returned them. Kept Transfiguration and Transcendence. Later bought the Speakers Corner pressing of Eternity which is very nice.

CDs are the sensible way to go here but…
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Thanks Sean. Yeah have them all on CD but....

I was looking at the Speakers Corner Eternity though I already have a scruffy Warners pressing so would be a bit of an extravagance.
 
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