Alice Coltrane: Journey In Satchidananda Vinyl LP

Cosmic jazz stunner. This is one of those upper-crust LPs that easily holds down a spot in any seasoned selector's late night top ten - it's simply that timeless. From the first swirls of the title track, this record just carries you away. Each tune is built on a different hypnotic string bass groove that bores into your mind. "Shiva-Loka," "Stopover Bombay," take your pick. The tamboura (that's the metallic buzz that signals exotica in any B-movie) never lets up, and when Alice Coltrane flings some harp over it (or piano, in the case of "Something About John Coltrane"), you've got a powerful mystic brew indeed. As you’d expect, ace contributions from Cecil McBee, Rashied Ali and the great Pharoah Sanders, who even gets a Cuban Linx-style co-author mention on the front cover. Recommended.

• black vinyl pressing
• housed in tip-on gatefold sleeve w/ liner notes
  
• featuring Alice Coltrane (p, harp), Pharoah Sanders (s. sax), Cecil McBee (b), Rashied Ali (d), Majid Shabazz (perc)
• original release year: 1971
• music label: Impulse! 2019

reviewed by monk 02/2007