Jump to content

Alice Coltrane Complete Warner Bros. Studio Works


felser

Recommended Posts

Alice Coltrane Spiritual Eternal--The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings.  Coming on Real Gone 2CD set in September.

https://theseconddisc.com/2018/06/eternal-transcendence-real-gone-collects-alice-coltranes-compete-warner-bros-studio-recordings/

Does not include the great live trio recording with Workman and Haynes, "Transfiguration".  Probably a pass for me, but would like to hear others' thoughts on thes albums.  Per the website:

 

Eternal Transcendence: Real Gone Collects Alice Coltrane’s Compete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings

JUNE 28, 2018 BY RANDY FAIRMAN LEAVE A COMMENT

Alice-Coltrane-Spiritual-Eternal-300x300

BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

Real Gone Music has just announced its first release for this September and it should be of substantial interest to jazz aficionados: a collection of Alice Coltrane’s studio recordings for Warner Bros. from the mid to late 1970s.  The 2-CD set, Spiritual Eternal – The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings, is scheduled to be released on September 7.

Coltrane was born Alice McLeod in Alabama in 1937, but grew up in Detroit.  She studied music and played a number of instruments, including the piano and harp.  She decided to take up jazz and began to perform professionally.  She first met John Coltrane in 1962-63 when she was a member of Terry Gibbs’ quartet.  She and Coltrane wed in 1965; it was the second marriage for each.  In 1966, she became the pianist in John’s group and played with him until his death in July, 1967.  Among the recordings she performed on during this period is the acclaimed A Love Supreme.  Following John’s passing, Alice began a solo career, kicking off with the album A Monastic Trio later in 1967.  Her albums were released on John’s last label, Impulse!, through the early 1970s.  As her solo career progressed, her music began to take on a more spiritual flavor.  Amid some upheaval at Impulse!’s then-parent company, ABC, Coltrane was lured to Warner Bros. in 1975, where she would record three studio albums (and a live album not included on this compilation).

Though it is difficult to characterize the music of Coltrane’s Warner Bros. period, several things hold true throughout the three records, recorded from 1975 to 1977 with Ed Michel as producer. The first is that Alice’s instrument of choice was increasingly the Wurlitzer organ, which she had begun to use at Impulse!.  The second is that these albums reflect the increasing importance of Coltrane’s religious studies in her life. In 1968, Coltrane met Swami Satchidananda Saraswati, an Indian spiritual guru and yoga adept, and began to study with him and write and record music dedicated to him. By 1975, she was leading weekly ashrams devoted to traditional Hindi chants, and the music and participants in those services began to filter into the albums she recorded for Warner Bros. Thus, while 1976’s Eternity, her debut album for the label, employed professional vocalists and well-known jazz musicians like Charlie Haden, Ben Riley, and Hubert Laws (with a cameo from Carlos Santana), her next record, 1977’s Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana (the title itself offering praise in Sanskrit of the male and female aspects of Krishna), featured members of Coltrane’s growing ashram–singing, clapping the rhythm, picking up or slowing down the tempo depending on the arrangement.

Her last album for Warner Bros., Transcendence, also from 1977, furthered the transition; here, Coltrane (now going by the name Turiyasangitananda or Turiya for short) incorporated full-fledged lead vocalists from the ashram into her music, adding a distinct African-American gospel vibe to the proceedings. These tracks were to prove the template for the four purely devotional albums she released from her ashram in the years following her Warner stint.  Transcendence also proved to be the last commercial studio recordings she made until 2004’s Translinear Light on Verve.  That would also be Alice’s final album.  She passed away in 2007.

Real Gone’s new 2-CD set is presented in a six-panel digipak.  The booklet features an essay by noted Coltrane scholar Ashley Kahn and draws upon interviews with producer Ed Michel and engineer Baker Bigsby.  The book also features rare photos.  The set has been produced with the full cooperation of the Coltrane estate by Real Gone co-founder Gordon Anderson and jazz reissue producer Zev Feldman, who produced the 2014 John Coltrane reissue Offering – Live at Temple University for Resonance Records.  The reissue has been remastered by Mike Milchner at SonicVision, and designed by John Sellards, whose work can be seen on numerous Second Disc Records and Real Gone Music releases.

If you would like to revisit Alice Coltrane’s fasincating Warner Bros. output, we’ve got the full tracklisting and preorder links for the set due on September 7!

Alice Coltrane, Spiritual Eternal – The Complete Warner Bros. Studio Recordings (Real Gone Music, 2018) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada Links TBD)

Disc 1

  1. Spiritual Eternal
  2. Wisdom Eye
  3. Los Caballos
  4. Om Supreme
  5. Morning Worship
  6. Spring Rounds
  7. Govinda Jai Jai
  8. Ganesha
  9. Prema Muditha
  10. Hare Krishna

Disc 2

  1. Om Namah Sivaya
  2. Radhe-Shyam
  3. Vrindavana Sanchara
  4. Transcendence
  5. Sivaya
  6. Ghana Nila
  7. Bhaja Govindam
  8. Sri Nrsimha

CD 1, Tracks 1-6 from Eternity, Warner Bros. Records LP BS 2916, 1976
CD 1, Tracks 7-10 and CD 2, Track 1 from Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana, Warner Bros. Records LP 2986, 1977
CD 2, Tracks 2-8 from Transcendence, Warner Bros. Records LP BS 3077, 1977

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Will strongly consider this. I enjoyed the recent reissue on Luaka Bop (iir the label c). Disclosure: I've taken up yoga in my advancing years, and have gotten more comfortable with the "woo-woo" spiritual material ;) than some listeners may be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, jlhoots said:

I still like Ptah the El Daoud (Impulse).

I need to think about this reissue. Tempted.

Transfiguration is pretty pricey!!

$23.48 on ebay.  It's worth it if you like the earlier Impulse albums without the strings (Ptah. Monastic, Satchidananda).  I love them.  She plays organ throughout on Transfiguration, and Workman and Haynes each do their awesome thing,  Originally a 2 LP set, so lots of music,

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Why is transfiguration completely ignored from this, that was on Warner’s too?Would rather have a series of Japanese mini lp reissues of the Warner years, like they did with the Impulse albums a while back, those were beautiful. The artwork on this looks pretty uninspiring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If this package is reasonably priced, I'll hit it. The albums didn't do too much for me back in the day, but oh well, let's try one more time and see what happens this time. The Ashram stuff that was recently put out into general circulation was a nice thing to do.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, soulpope said:

Don`t own (to put it mildly) a lot of Alice Coltrane`s euvre .... so if the price is right and situational compensatory shopping should occur ;) ....

Start with the first three Impulse's (Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery, and especially Ptah, The El Doud, which has Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson) and with Transfiguration.

9 hours ago, JSngry said:

If this package is reasonably priced, I'll hit it. The albums didn't do too much for me back in the day, but oh well, let's try one more time and see what happens this time. The Ashram stuff that was recently put out into general circulation was a nice thing to do.

How is that stuff compared to her earlier recordings?  Does the religious content overwhelm the music?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, felser said:

Start with the first three Impulse's (Monastic Trio, Huntington Ashram Monastery, and especially Ptah, The El Doud, which has Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson) and with Transfiguration.

Thnx - this is/was my initial plan (and I do already have  "Ptah, The El Doud" and "Transfiguration") .... so the Warner stuff would be sort of add on ....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I wish they would release some of the early 70s live material that Impulse clearly has in the vaults.

The live version of Isris & Osris on Satchenenanda that was recorded at The Village Gate is incredible.

i’ve read that there are several releasable things from that era but they seem to be focusing on the later more religious stuff at the moment it seems

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, felser said:

 

How is that stuff compared to her earlier recordings?  Does the religious content overwhelm the music?

Well it is music written to be performed at religious ceremony so the religious element is pretty upfront and central. It's largely vocal and chant-based. That being said I find it a joyous and rewarding listen (and I'm of no faith). The concert where the Ashram choir performed these pieces in London last year was one of my most moving musical experiences. 

I wouldn't discount trying to sample it somewhere if you can. It's very recognisably Alice Coltrane music, I think

Edited by mjazzg
Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you didn’t speak English, would it sound like religious music?

Just saying, I don’t understand the question, especially given the robust cross-pollination between secular and spiritual musics that are mandated in the US constitutions.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, JSngry said:

If you didn’t speak English, would it sound like religious music?

Just saying, I don’t understand the question, especially given the robust cross-pollination between secular and spiritual musics that are mandated in the US constitutions.

Don't want to get into a spitting contest (I'd lose badly anyways), but yes, it would.  There are certain musical conventions that are brought to play on 'Amazing Grace' that aren't on Aretha's other music of the period such as the mass choir backing, the style of organ playing with the sustained chords, etc. and the compositional style is of an older time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It would, but only up to a point.

Tell me - does this sound like ashram music or an early 80s love song by some obsucre cult favorite?

At some point, people gonna be who they be, no matter the impetus behind the music.

I have to say though, you'll want the recent issue even if you never listen to a note of the music. Best cover of the 21st Century to date, imo.

a1059984321_10.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Understood on the music.  Agreed it does not sound overtly "religious".  OTOH, also does not sound like anything I'd ever listen to in full.  I don't really ever listen very much to vocal music in other languages (understand that may be my loss in many ways, but listening to something is opportunity loss of not listening to something else with the finite listening time we are each accorded in life).  But yes, what a joyous,  beautiful album cover!   Can't look at it without breaking into a big smile!  Thanks for sharing both.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...