FEATURED CD: Alice Coltrane - Journey in Satchidananda

[Poisoned Youth]

Sublime!

Review from Amazon:

Perhaps the best album Alice Coltrane recorded, "Journey in Satchidananda" is one of those records where everything comes together-- Alice Coltrane took her late husband's final bands and their spiritual sounds and eschewed the frantic extended improvisations in favor of a more tame and subtle spiritual groove. The results here are stunning.

The majority of the album is made of from a studio session recorded in November of 1970-- Coltrane, heard on harp and piano, is joined by Pharoah Sanders (heard exclusively on soprano sax), Tulsi (playing tamboura, an Indian droning instrument), Cecil McBee (bass), Rashied Ali (drums) and Majid Shabazz (percussion). The pieces are all set up in a deep spiritual groove by the rhythm section (particularly McBee, who really finds a pocket throughout), with an air added to the pieces by the presence of the tamboura. Coltrane's framing, on either piano or harp, is lovely, reminiscent of her works with John Coltrane, and her harp playing has evolved greatly even since "A Monastic Trio" (1968) to become very unique and exciting. Sanders, for his part, solos lyrically and rather restrained, and is far more melodic than he often was at that time. It's difficult to discuss highlights-- the whole thing is utterly superb.

The closing track is a less performance from July of the same year, with Coltrane on harp joined by Sanders (again on soprano) and Ali again, but also joined by Vishnu Wood (on oud) and Charlie Haden (on bass). The sound is remarkably different, with Wood providing the driving rhythmic figures and Sanders soloing even more delicately then he does on the studio track, and it makes for a fitting coda for the record.

I can't really recommend this album enough, it is one of the great spiritual jazz records. It belongs in the collection of anyone interested in this sort of music.

[walt]

Meditative, beautiful,droning,kosmigroovy sound dominates this music.Very accessible music,for the most part.Great work by Cecil McBee(bass) and Pharoah Sanders(soprano sax).

Good stuff,all around.

[helicase]

Marvellous album. First time I heard Pharoah Sanders. I liked what I heard there and I've since added quite a few of his albums to my collection.

[Kavus Torabi]

Oh boy. What an album. This was my portal into Alice. Still play it all the time.

[Progmatic]

Marvellous album. First time I heard Pharoah Sanders. I liked what I heard there and I've since added quite a few of his albums to my collection.

I am not familiar with Alice's work but Pharoah's albums are amazing..I bought one and then another 3 within next week....

I think I will have a go at this one as well...

[JKL2000]

Hey, Poisoned Youth, the mouse-over for the current featured CD hasn't been updated. Andale! Andale!

And why is it always CD, why no vinyl or MP3s? Just kidding, but why not Featured Album?

[Wisdomview]

This is such an amazing album and I'm very happy to see it featured here. If you haven't heard it, please do so.

[Reid]

I'm a big fan of Alice Coltrane especially when she's playing piano. But I don't reach for Journey that often.

Monastic Trio, Ptah the El Daoud, and Universal Consciousness get played the most.

[Trane]

My fave after El Daoud...

I wrote this in JazzMusicArchives

Along with Pthah, this could be Alice’s absolute tops in her career, because she’s nearing the climax of her quest for spirituality through music and clearly her apex was very near the present album’s release. Nowhere in Alice’s discography is the Indian Classical music influence greater than on Satchidanada (a guru mentor of her) save maybe the previous album Pthah. Assisted by old Trane-galaxy usual-suspects, like Pharoah, Rashied and McBee and the giant Haden on bass, she’s also invited two Indian musicians in Vishnu Wood on oud and Tulsi on the ever-present tambura.

Opening on the tamboura-laden title track, the album directly sends you in a daze of Indian spirituality, spiced with some of the tastiest Pharoah sax intervention ever and Alice’s rambling fingers on her harp. The following Shiva-Loka sees Alice switching to piano and we’re off for another intra-Indian mythology journey. As an afterthought, the short Bombay piece seems to be a fitting epilogue before the needle lifts from the wax.

On the flipside, Alice reminisces of her late husband with a superb Something About, where she evokes McCoy Tyner though her piano parts over the now-usual tamboura background, while Pharoah’s sax goes limit dissonant…. A very emotional track… difficult not to shed a tear to it. The album closes on the Osiris track, which dates from an earlier recording session, but it’s definitely not out of character with the rest of the album, even if it’s the only tamboura-less piece, but Visnou’s oud fills the void.

Well, Satchi is certainly one of my three fave Alice album, and is downright close to Pthah at the top of the pyramid. If you’re an atheist like, don’t be afraid of Alice’s (and many of her peers and collabs) quest for that strange happy-go-lucky mix of spirituality, a sort of boiling pot where monotheist and polytheist religious beliefs and myths blend in a kind of tasty soup, but you won’t be joining some guru sect even if you listen to her works daily. Run for this one, before they stop pressing discs of any kind.

[mogrooves]

Klassic kosmigroov, and her best effort, imo. Proggaz not inclined toward "jazz" but who dig, say, Ash Ra Tempel and Popol Vuh would likely find something here to their liking.....

[nosebone]

Agreed, classic kozmigroove!

Fire up the hookah and crawl to bed!

[Blah_Blah_Woof_Woof]

I'm glad that Alice has gotten recognition over time, since there were some doubters along the way. I like the music she made with Carlos Santana and the remix/remake that Laswell did. Still, this one and the one before are fabulous and a gentle intro to Sanders' works.

[Dana5140]

Jesus, one of my favorite records ever ever ever! I love this beast. I saw her live in a concert so long ago- with Charlie Haden, and Bennie Maupin, and I cannot even remember who played drums, but it was cosmic! Intense beyond belief!

ETA: It was Rashied Ali on drums! And she played this:

[rcarlberg]

I'm a big fan of Alice Coltrane especially when she's playing piano. But I don't reach for Journey that often.
Monastic Trio, Ptah the El Daoud, and Universal Consciousness get played the most.

Journey is my favorite, but A Monastic Trio, Ptah and a harder-to-find early album called Huntington Ashram Monastery are all great.

Ever notice that Alice didn't really play the harp, but just held down the pedals and strummed? She's an excellent pianist, but her harp skills were pretty marginal. Not like Harpo Marx or Dorothy Ashby.

[Egg Helmet]

I like Ptah, but I just clicked on that first link, and am REALLY turned off by the out of tune tamboura. Is that on the whole album? I'd like to hear this but that will definitely be a deal breaker for me.

[Reid]

Journey is my favorite, but A Monastic Trio, Ptah and a harder-to-find early album called Huntington Ashram Monastery are all great.

Ever notice that Alice didn't really play the harp, but just held down the pedals and strummed? She's an excellent pianist, but her harp skills were pretty marginal. Not like Harpo Marx or Dorothy Ashby.

The Ashram Monastery album was re-issued on a 2-fer along with a bunch of other Impulse albums. Doesn't that one have a lot of harp playing? Or maybe it's the World Galaxy album it's paired with? Anyway, I can only take so much of the harp strumming, but when she plays piano it's sublime.