Those critics also at times belittle John Coltrane's "later" period, many times considering it as secondary, or unimportant in the grand scheme of his legacy.
This is a double slap to Alice's Coltane's legacy. For some reason, she is pushed to the back seat as John Coltrane's wife, or Ravi's mother in recent years, as if she wasn't as great as she was, like she only had a voice because of her husband?
Her Passing in January of 2007 was particularly tragic for the jazz community as she had recently began to record again, and as far as the media was concerned she was starting to step out of the gargantuan shadow of her late husband John Coltrane.
When I first got around to the John Coltrane catalog during my on going jazz journey, I would read all these after thought statements: "Alice is no McCoy Tyner", or "Alice urged John into free jazz", they opine that she led to the dissolving of the quartet?
They very much say some of the same sort of things that were said about Yoko Ono and the break up of the Beatles.
The first Alice Coltrane album I purchased was Universal Consciousness, not exactly a 4/4 shuffle blues album? Really pretty high brow spiritual influenced post bop/world music stuff "avant-garde astral jazz" if you will? I like a challenge, and still enjoy that album quite a bit.
I then turned to Ptah the El Daoud with Joe Henderson and Pharaoh Sanders, a real gem of an album on impulse records. Alice also did a date fore Milestone Records with Joe Henderson called The Elements which is also a killer free bop style session.
Alice also appeared on several of her husbands mid to late 60's albums up until his death in 1967. These albums include Live Again at the Village Van Guard, Stellar Regions, and Expressions.
She also did some very controversial overdubbing on a mid 60's sessions release Infinity. They are not nearly the disaster I was lead to believe, very interesting string arrangements over top of free form blowing. The main upheaval comes from Jimmy Garrison's Bass parts being replaced on the 1966 sessions by Charlie Haden.
I have a dozen vinyl copies of her records from the 60's and 70's, the above mentioned sessions as well as Huntington Ashram Monastery, Eternity, and Journey in Satchidananda, these are all very worthy of your jazz or world music collections.
You know, when I think about how satisfying Alice's music is as jazz, world music, and even
experimental improvised music, it's a cryin' shame she doesn't always get her due.
If you think Alice isn't a first rate instrumentalist, you need to check out the double live album on Warner Brothers called Transfiguration, an album has her going completely bananas on an organ; playing some very advanced improvised music in a trio setting, with Roy Haynes on drums, and Reggie Workman on bass, a fantastic album from 1976 at UCLA.
These records were all purchased online at one time or another, they are apart of my personal collection.
Vintage copies of most titles run from 20-50 bucks most times, reissues can be had a fairly reasonable prices too. check em' out. Watch out though, you might never get it out of your blood that vinyl.
No comments:
Post a Comment