Alice Coltrane - S/D

Two of the albums - Divine Songs and Infinite Chants - are still available on CD, I think

also worth noting that these two discs comprise 8 out of the 10 tracks on this new release...

http://www.innerpath.com/swamini-turiyasangitananda/

Yeah, I have Divine Songs and Infinite Chants on CD too, so it's pretty disingenuous to advertise the songs on this new comp as having "previously been available only on cassette".

That dublab mix really opened this stuff up for me, and I think I listen to the Ashram stuff more than any other Alice these days. I welcome the compilation but would really like the complete set. Hopefully forthcoming!

Suspect so. Luaka Bop comps always seem to kick off a round of original album reissues.

yeah, see also Os Mutantes

yeah imagine all of 'em will be made available on vinyl sometime soon. An introductory comp isn't a bad idea imo -- i imagine most people would still hear the name Alice Coltrane and say "Is she related to John Coltrane?"

Listening to it now. People who've never heard this stuff before are gonna have their skulls popped open like stuck jar lids. (The promo included the two vinyl-only bonus tracks.) It's crazy; her singing voice is almost Sade-like.

ha, i wouldn't go that far but i do enjoy her voice a lot.

http://www.npr.org/2017/04/27/525541596/first-listen-the-ecstatic-music-of-alice-coltrane-turiyasangitananda

this is so so good.

yes

TBH, I think the "hidden treasure" status of these recordings have made people overrate them. I own two of the albums this compilation is mostly culled from (Infinite Chants and Divine Chants), and I'm sure they were important to her and her congregation, but mostly it's just rather functional music of/for religious services.

Besides some neat synth flourishes, there isn't really the sort of unique and original approach she had when expressing the same sentiments (and even interpreting the same music, such as with "Hare Krishna" on Universal Consciousness) through the jazz idiom and with jazz players.

I dunno, I haven't heard Turiya Sings, so maybe that one is really mind-blowing, but the chant albums aren't. Without her name attached they'd be filler in the New Age shelf of your record store. They're pleasant to listen, to be sure, but there are loads of New Age albums more interesting and more worthy of rediscovery.

strongly disagree, the loose spacy unrehearsed feeling of these recordings is what I love about them. I certainly prefer them to the organ-centered records of the 70's.

yeah, disagree as well -- i think what's impressive about her devotional stuff is that it still has so much of her own musical sensibility. even though it has a functional side as you say, it always feels deeply personal to my ears.

i was kind of meh on the idea of releasing a single compilation rather than just the individual albums (if they would have done that and made it a box, i would have bought it).

but i have to say, after listening to the npr full album stream, the way the sequencing navigates through these albums is perfect. the second side is just...fucking intense. "Journey To Satchidananda" is maybe my favorite thing she ever did ("Journey In Satchidananda" might be my number two. i think i just love her musical version of satchidananda and adjacent realms?), so that's going to naturally elevate the side. but 'Er Ra' manages to sustain the serene momentum like you're puffing up over the clouds a bit. and then when the closing 'Keshava Murahara' deploys the sweeping synth sound that she uses throughout the rest of the selections (and throughout all four of the albums from this period), it somehow hits so much harder. especially on headphones. it is intense and almost unbearable.

yeah the comp does feel thoughtfully sequenced ... i assume after it sells 12,000,000 copies and singlehandedly sets the world on a better path they'll just reish the albums.

Wow, I haven't heard this material before. I almost can't believe how sample-ready it is (and how modern some of it sounds!), surely it's been sampled in a lot of rap/dance music?

The air raid siren synths!

I think the albums are next in line for release. Or at least that's what I've heard.

And Tuomas so not OTM. This is strange, beautiful and essential music.

yeah the comp does feel thoughtfully sequenced ... i assume after it sells 12,000,000 copies and singlehandedly sets the world on a better path they'll just reish the albums.

Like we discussed upthread, two of the albums (which provide most of the tracks on this comp) are still available, I think someone even posted a link where to buy them. I ordered them from some New Age store a few years ago. I think it's only Turiya Sings that's been available on cassette only, the story with this comp's press release that the others have never been reissued on CD is simply not true.

xxp yesssss

records that are in-print and much more readily available get reissued all the time, what's the big deal

Listening more I think I have heard some of this material before, but it was probably way back in filesharing days?

Turiya Sings was bootlegged by some German label in 2015, but that edition has since been withdrawn.

My favorite tracks from these are the ones where there's a sort of gospel-ish male singer atop the synths and Indian percussion. It's a very cool blend of sounds.

"Like we discussed upthread, two of the albums (which provide most of the tracks on this comp) are still available, I think someone even posted a link where to buy them"

I just had a look at the Inner path website and it doesn't seem that the discs are available. I'm happy for Luaka Bop to get this material a bit of a promotional push and I do hope the individual releases are reissued.

the story with this comp's press release that the others have never been reissued on CD is simply not true.

this claim only appears at the pitchfork link above. neither the luaka bop site nor the npr piece say this.

Luaka Bop has had these remastered from what I understand (? Dunno since I don't have the comp handy)

Just searched my Gmail archives and found an email I sent to The Wire's then-reviews editor, telling him that all four of these albums were going to be reissued on CD, along with an entire disc of unreleased music in a similar style, by a label called RKM, formed by Ravi Coltrane, his wife Kathleen, and clarinetist Mike McGinnis. That was in January 2014. Coltrane and his wife have since split, as far as I know, so that's probably why that never happened.

I don't hear much difference between the CDs I have and the posted online on the NPR site? Certainly they didn't particularly call for any remastering, they sound fine. But I get it that making them more easily available is a reason enough for a reissue. I would definitely buy Turiya Sings if they ever come to reissuing it, since with that one it really is impossible to find a copy. Seems like the comp only has one song from that album though?

(xpost)

breaking that down in terms of tracks per album:

Turiya Sings: Rama Katha

Divine Songs: Om Shanti, Rama Guru, Rama Rama, Hari Narayan, Er Ra, Keshava Murahara

Infinite Chants: Om Rama, maybe a different Rama Guru, Krishna Japaye

Glorious Chants: Journey To Satchidananda

so a pretty good overview, this is cool

― sleeve, Thursday, March 2, 2017 9:32 AM (one month ago)

haha, red bull is on board.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-iNM0BVoAAsDUm.jpg:large

makes me want to slurp down a red bull!

Ravi Coltrane and the ashram's choir are doing a RBMA Nyc show of Alice's music in late may, hence that bullboard

wow, german 2015 bootleg of "turiya sings" must be some real black market shit. discogs won't allow anybody to list it for sale

meanwhile, some jerk is trying to get $250 for the original cassette

HAS THE WHOLE WORLD GONE INSANE

I'm interested in why Alice Coltrane is having her moment now. Like, what's coming together that makes her speak to so many that she's moving from being a cult artist to a widely adored artist. Like the Robert Johnson moment in the late 80s, culminating in the reissue, or Gang of Four circa 2001.

I think it must at least partially have to do with L.A., Flying Lotus, Kamasi & neo-spiritual jazz, etc.

I 'own' all the ashram records, but have never really experienced them as discrete experiences, as such - partly due to the fact of owning them digitally, I guess. Anyway, in reflection I like the group chant exercises well enough, but it's Alice on her own with minimal swelling synth backings that transport me. Of the tracks on the new compilation, it's 'Keshava Murahara' that utterly destroys me.

i like this new compilation a lot. tuomas off the money

Geeta Dayal posted this early footage on twitter yesterday, great to see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8H6sRYIaChw

Picking up the comp on Monday.

damn that is awesome

wow

Cool.

did i ever write itt abt alice playing w arthur russell

it is a mystery anyway

hyped to hear this record !, these tapes are so beautiful but i don't think i ever got my blogspots in a row to hear every last thing

I'm sure this has been linked here before - maybe even by me - but it is wonderful. I think her piano version of Giant Steps might be my favourite version ever. And the interview is charming.

I would definitely buy Turiya Sings if they ever come to reissuing it, since with that one it really is impossible to find a copy. Seems like the comp only has one song from that album though?

Yes - the "vinyl only" bonus track, which is lame (I want this on CD)

Double shot of "Om Shanti" and "Rama Rama" is just an incredible 15 minutes of music

Will buy all the single-disc reissues if / when they materialize

I hear the Sade thing

The last few minutes of "Journey to Satchidanada" get kinda "Janitor of Lunacy," don't they?!

Amazing music

Forgot to post my link above http://www.npr.org/2011/09/23/140743198/alice-coltrane-on-piano-jazz

i love this performance, esp the middle minutes and closing section where she's complimenting the glissandos with the single-plucked harmony. there's no way (for me) to describe it without sounding like a jackass but she creates a tremendous feeling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XNG7tmIQx4