Alice Coltrane - "Ptah, the El Daoud" 1970 (reupped)

Ok, ok, I´m back. I won´t get into all that´s been going on, but let´s just say that things haven´t gone so well and I´m trying to get back to a good place. Thanks to those who have left nice comments, you´re the main reason I´m blogging again.

Here´s some excellent mystic free jazz (or bost pop, or avant garde jazz, whatever you want to call it) from John Coltrane´s wife. Perfect for a rainy day like today, summer´s end vibes.


Alice Coltrane - Ptah, the El Daoud

Impulse!, 1970


from the label:

"As the bold, firmly integrated sound of the unit washes over the listener, the value of Alice Coltrane's experience stands out in bold relief. Hearing her function in this capacity, feeding and interweaving with the horns and rhythm section, we encounter another aspect of Alice Coltrane. Gradually the portrait is rounded out - a handsome likeness of a woman who has lived, loved, suffered, who has brought to her art a very special sense of esthetic universality. Produced by Ed Michel. Recorded at the Coltrane home studio, Dix Hills, New York on January 26, 1970."

Lineup:

Alice Coltrane - Harp, piano

Joe Henderson - Alto flute, tenor saxophone

Pharoah Sanders - Alto flute, tenor saxophone, bells

Ron Carter - Bass

Ben Riley - Drums

Alice Coltrane was a wonderful discovery for me. Her harp playing is truly magical and unexpected... sweeps of tinkling melody and mystical washes of sound, and her piano playing is nearly equally nice. The seriously moody brooding tunes on this album make for great meditative listening. Excellent performances on sax and flute from Joe Henderson (left channel) and Pharoah Sanders (right channel) too.... This is not her most out-there album, but it´s a good introduction to her aesthetic, hopefully you´ll want to hear more.

This album was Alice´s third, and first to use horns all the way through. A quick blurb from Wikipedia:

" All the compositions were written by Coltrane. The title track is named for the Egyptian god Ptah, "the El Daoud" meaning "the beloved". "Turiya", according to the liner notes, "was defined by Alice as 'a state of consciousness — the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life", while "Ramakrishna" is named after the 19th-century Bengali religious figure; this track omits the horns. The origin of the title of "Blue Nile" is self-explanatory, Coltrane switches from piano to harp, and Sanders and Henderson from tenor saxophones to alto flutes. "Mantra" returns to piano and saxes. Album cover design was created by Jim Evans."

"The description of the track "Turiya & Ramakrishna" in the liner notes of Ptah, the El Daoud
contains a quote from Alice Coltrane - "It's more a feeling than a melody" - which actually describes the music on the album as a whole. And yet it's far from the unfocused avant-garde haze such an assertion (as well as the presence of Pharoah Sanders) may seem to indicate; though never sharply defined - and excepting a few rambling missteps outside the realm of tonal structure during the vastness of the title track and "Mantra" - the music is honed and performed with the utmost kinetic congruence. Coltrane's music achieves its dynamic goals by channeling some of the most expressive and empathic players ever to wield instruments in Sanders, Joe Henderson, Ron Carter, and Ben Riley. The overall result is a captivating and indeed transcendent musical experience.
The afore mentioned "Turiya" and "Blue Nile" stand out as the shorter, more buoyant pieces sandwiched between the other two haunting epics. "Turiya" is a completely unique piece built around Coltrane's equally unique piano style; she tends to play a keyboard much the way she plays the harp, eschewing root chords for tight clusters of arpeggiated notes, and on this song she manages to wrap this around an exquisite blues form. The harp is only utilized on the album in "Blue Nile", providing an illustrious backdrop for the quiet musings of Carter and the saxophonists. Sanders sounds especially piquant in this somewhat restrained setting, though he compromises none of his intensity along with the volume. And Henderson, as soulful as they come yet not as obvious a choice as others perhaps more in Coltrane's (or Impulse's) more immediate musical circle, was an excellent personnel selection for Ptah.

Moreso than sequences of notes from respective instruments, what one hears and assimilates throughout this music is the individuals themselves who play it; designed within the ultimate statement and vision of Alice Coltrane is the opportunity for the soloists and even the rhythm players to filter their own spirits through it. Even as one may have no use for Coltrane's (or her husband's) underlying mysticism, there is no denying this magnificent spiritual quality that earmarks the best of her music. Seldom did it attain such heights as on Ptah, the El Daoud." -silentway at rateyourmusic.

The cover is quite interesting, naturally reflecting the album title´s references to Egyptian mythology. However, I don´t like the style it´s drawn in very much. And, though the music is often brooding as I mentioned earlier, it´s not really dark. The cover could have been better to match the music.

FILL YOUR EARS
(reupped)