Jazz Archives

John Coltrane - The Mastery Of John Coltrane / Vol. III Jupiter Variation (1967)

1. Number One (11:58) John Coltrane
2. Peace On Earth (7:12) John Coltrane
3. Jupiter (variation) (6:49) John Coltrane
4. Leo (11:02) John Coltrane

Credits
Rashied Ali - Drums
Alice Coltrane - Piano
John Coltrane - Sax (Tenor)
Charlie Haden - Bass
Pharoah Sanders - Tambourine, Flute (Wood), Shaker

Notes
Recorded at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, N.J on March 7, 1967 (A1), February 22, 1967 (B1, B2).
Peace On Earth recorded at Coast Recorders, San Francisco on February 2, 1966.
Alice Coltrane replaced her piano part and Charlie Haden replaced Jimmy Garrison's bass part at Village Recorders, Los Angeles in April, 1972.
Previously released on AS-9225 with a string section overdubbed in April, 1972. It is released here without the strings.

Cosmic Music, a jazz album by John Coltrane and his wife Alice Coltrane, was released shortly after the death of John Coltrane. The album has the following tracks: "Manifestation", "Reverend King", "Lord Help Me", and "Sun". Reverend King is a tribute to the famous Martin Luther King Jr.  John Coltrane's two tracks, among his last, were recorded in 1966 and Alice's two tracks were recorded in 1968. True to the name of the album, Cosmic, the music is intense, spiritual, soul searching and moving, with the common perception that John introduced fundamentals of Indian philosophy into jazz. The album has John Coltrane on the saxophone and Alice Coltrane playing the piano.

:::Review by www.vinylrevinyl.com:::

Alice And John Coltrane – Cosmic Music (1966)

A1 Manifestation 11:14
Percussion – Rashied Ali, Ray Appleton
Written-By – John Coltrane

A2 Lord, Help Me To Be 7:11
Percussion – Ben Riley
Written-By – Alice Coltrane

B1 Reverend King 10:45
Percussion – Rashied Ali, Ray Appleton
Written-By – John Coltrane

B2 The Sun 3:50
Flute [Traces Of Pharoah's Flute Can Be Heard In The Distant Backround], Vocals [Invocation] – Pharoah Sanders
Vocals [Invocation] – John Coltrane
Written-By – Alice Coltrane
Percussion – Ben Riley

Credits
Bass, Violin – Jimmy Garrison
Flute, Tenor Saxophone – Pharoah Sanders
Piano – Alice Coltrane
Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet – John Coltrane

Sometimes written off as an also-ran to her more famous husband, Alice Coltrane's work of the late '60s and early '70s shows that she was a strong composer and performer in her own right, with a unique ability to impregnate her music with spirituality and gentleness without losing its edges or depth. Ptah the El Daoud is a truly great album, and listeners who surrender themselves to it emerge on the other side of its 46 minutes transformed. From the purifying catharsis of the first moments of the title track to the last moments of "Mantra," with its disjointed piano dance and passionate ribbons of tenor cast out into the universe, the album resonates with beauty, clarity, and emotion. Coltrane's piano solo on "Turiya and Ramakrishna" is a lush, melancholy, soothing blues, punctuated only by hushed bells and the sandy whisper of Ben Riley's drums and later exchanged for an equally emotive solo by bassist Ron Carter. "Blue Nile" is a case where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; Coltrane's sweeping flourishes on the harp nestle in perfectly with flute solos by Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson to produce a warm cocoon of sound that is colored by evocations of water, greenness, and birds. Perhaps as strong as the writing here, though, are the performances that Coltrane coaxes from her sidemen, especially the horn players. Joe Henderson, who can always be counted on for technical excellence, gives a performance that is simply on a whole other level from much of his other work -- freer, more open, and more fluid here than nearly anywhere else. Pharoah Sanders, who at times with John Coltrane seemed like a magnetic force of entropy, pulling him toward increasing levels of chaos, shows all of the innovation and spiritual energy here that he is known for, with none of the screeching. Overlooked and buried for years in obscurity, this album deserves to be embraced for the gem it is.

:::Review by Stacia Proefrock:::

Alice Coltrane - Ptah The El Daoud (1970)

1. Ptah, The El Daoud 13:58
2. Turiya And Ramakrishna 8:19
3. Blue Nile 6:58
4. Mantra 16:33

Credits
Bass - Ron Carter
Composed By - Alice Coltrane
Drums - Ben Riley
Harp, Piano - Alice Coltrane
Saxophone [Tenor], Flute [Alto, Left Channel] - Joe Henderson
Saxophone [Tenor], Flute [Alto], Bells [Right Channel] - Pharoah Sanders

This is a major set, "new" music from John Coltrane that was recorded February 15, 1967, (five months before his death) but not released for the first time until 1995. One of several "lost" sessions that were stored by Alice Coltrane for decades, only one selection ("Offering" which was on Expression) among the eight numbers and three alternates was ever out before. The music, although well worth releasing, offers no real hints as to what Coltrane might have been playing had he lived into the 1970s. The performances by the quartet (with pianist Alice Coltrane, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Rashied Ali) are briefer (from two-and-a-half to five-plus minutes) than Coltrane's recordings of the previous year, but that might have been due to the fact that this music was played in the studio (as opposed to the marathon live blowouts with Pharoah Sanders) or to Coltrane's worsening health. Actually 'Trane (who sticks exclusively to tenor here) is as powerful as usual, showing no compromise in his intense flights, and indulging in sound explorations that are as free (but with purpose) as any he had ever done. Coltrane's true fans will want to go out of their way to acquire this intriguing CD.

:::Review by Scott Yanow:::

John Coltrane - Stellar Regions (1967)

1. Seraphic Light 8:54
2. Sun Star 6:05
3. Stellar Regions 3:31
4. Iris 3:50
5. Offering 8:20
6. Configuration 4:01
7. Jimmy's Mode 5:58
8. Tranesonic 4:14
9. Stellar Regions (Alternate Take) 4:37
10. Sun Star (Alternate Take) 8:05
11. Tranesonic (Alternate Take) 2:48

Credits
Bass - Jimmy Garrison
Drums - Rashied Ali
Piano - Alice Coltrane
Producer, Composed By, Saxophone [Tenor] - John Coltrane

Recorded between April and June of 1971, Alice Coltrane's Universal Consciousness stands as her classic work. As a testament to the articulation of her spiritual principles, Universal Consciousness stands even above World Galaxy as a recording where the medium of music, both composed and improvised, perfectly united the realms of body (in performance), speech (in the utterance of individual instrumentalists and group interplay), and mind (absolute focus) for the listener to take into her or his own experience. While many regard Universal Consciousness as a "jazz" album, it transcends even free jazz by its reliance on deeply thematic harmonic material and the closely controlled sonic dynamics in its richly hued chromatic palette. The set opens with the title track, where strings engage large washes of Coltrane's harp as Jack DeJohnette's drums careen in a spirit dance around the outer edge of the maelstrom. On first listen, the string section and the harp are in counter-dictum, moving against each other in a modal cascade of sounds, but this soon proves erroneous as Coltrane's harp actually embellishes the timbral glissandos pouring forth. Likewise, Jimmy Garrison's bass seeks to ground the proceedings to DeJohnette's singing rhythms, and finally Coltrane moves the entire engagement to another dimension with her organ. Leroy Jenkins' violin and Garrison's bottom two strings entwine one another in Ornette Coleman's transcription as Coltrane and the other strings offer a middling bridge for exploration. It's breathtaking. On "Battle at Armageddon," the violence depicted is internal; contrapuntal rhythmic impulses whirl around each other as Coltrane's organ and harp go head to head with Rashied Ali's drums. "Oh Allah" rounds out side one with a gorgeously droning, awe-inspiring modal approach to whole-tone music that enfolds itself into the lines of organic polyphony as the strings color each present theme intervalically. DeJohnette's brushwork lisps the edges and Garrison's bass underscores each chord and key change in Coltrane's constant flow of thought.

On side two, "Hare Krishna" is a chant-like piece that is birthed from minor-key ascendancy with a loping string figure transcribed by Coleman from Coltrane's composition on the organ. She lays deep in the cut, offering large shimmering chords that twirl -- eventually -- around high-register ostinatos and pedal work. It's easily the most beautiful and accessible track in the set, in that it sings with a devotion that has at its base the full complement of Coltrane's compositional palette. "Sita Ram" is a piece that echoes "Hare Krishna" in that it employs Garrison and drummer Clifford Jarvis, but replaces the strings with a tamboura player. Everything here moves very slowly, harp and organ drift into and out of one another like breath, and the rhythm section -- informed by the tamboura's drone -- lilts on Coltrane's every line. As the single-fingered lines engage the rhythm section more fully toward the end of the tune, it feels like a soloist improvising over a chanting choir. Finally, the album ends with another duet between Ali and Coltrane. Ali uses wind chimes as well as his trap kit, and what transpires between the two is an organically erected modal architecture, where texture and timbre offer the faces of varying intervals: Dynamic, improvisational logic and tonal exploration become elemental figures in an intimate yet universal conversation that has the search itself and the uncertain nature of arrival, either musically or spiritually, at its root. This ambiguity is the only way a recording like this could possibly end, with spiritual questioning and yearning in such a musically sophisticated and unpretentious way. The answers to those questions can perhaps be found in the heart of the music itself, but more than likely they can, just as they are articulated here, only be found in the recesses of the human heart. 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.

 

A1 Universal Consciousness (5:05)

A2 Battle At Armageddon (7:22) Drums - Rashied Ali

A3 Oh Allah (4:54)

B1 Hare Krishna (8:16) Drums - Clifford Jarvis

Tamboura - Tulsi

B2 Sita Ram (6:12) Bells - Clifford Jarvis

Drums - Clifford Jarvis

Percussion - Clifford Jarvis

Tamboura - Tulsi

B3 The Ankh Of Amen-Ra (4:48) Drums - Rashied Ali

Wind Chimes - Rashied Ali

Bass - Jimmy Garrison (tracks: A1, A3, B1, B2)

Drums - Jack DeJohnette (tracks: A1, A3, B1)

Harp - Alice Coltrane

Organ - Alice Coltrane

Producer - Ed Michel

Violin - Joan Kalisch (tracks: A1, A3, B1) , John Blair (tracks: A1, A3, B1) , Julius Brand (tracks: A1, A3, B1) , Leroy Jenkins (tracks: A1, A3, B1)

This is one of the odder Joe Henderson recordings. The four lengthy selections not only feature the great tenor-saxophonist but the piano and harp of Alice Coltrane (during one of her rare appearances as a sideman), violinist Michael White, bassist Charlie Haden, percussionist Kenneth Nash and Baba Duru Oshun on tablas. The somewhat spiritual nature of the music (Henderson's compositions are titled "Fire," "Air," "Water" and "Earth") and the presence of Alice Coltrane makes these Eastern-flavored performances rather unique if not all that essential: an early example of world music in jazz. This recording has been reissued as part of Henderson's eight-CD Milestone box set.

 

1 Fire (11:07)

2 Air (9:53)

3 Water (7:33)

4 Earth (13:15)

Bass - Charlie Haden

Congas, Bells, Gongs, Sakara Drum, Percussion - Kenneth Nash

Drums - Leon Ndugu Chancler (tracks:1, 3

Engineer - Rick Heenan

Flute [Wood] - Kenneth Nash (tracks: 3)

Narrator - Kenneth Nash (tracks: 4)

Piano, Harp, Tamboura, Harmonium - Alice Coltrane

Producer - Orrin Keepnews

Saxophone [Tenor], Flute, Flute [Alto] - Joe Henderson

Tabla, Percussion - Baba Duru Oshun

Violin - Michael White

All music composed by Joe Henderson

Recorded at Village Recorders, Los Angeles, Ca., on October 15, 16, 17, 1973

Remix Engineer: Skip Shimmin (at Fantasy Studios, Berkeley, Ca.)