Alice Coltrane - S/D

I can't speak to what the reaction was at the time and I am sure it has been mentioned upthread but the AC re-evaluation is pretty recent, even in the early 90s when I was getting into jazz she was considered a joke, lots of Yoko Ono jokes, that sort of thing

This is really interesting to read and I'm not contradicting it at all. I do remember for me just getting into jazz as a teen in the late '90s, I was drawn to the look of all those Impulse digipak reissues and I was seeing those three AC reissues (Journey.., Ptah.., A Monastic Trio) on essentially equal footing as not just the Sanders albums but also, like...the Count Basie and Coleman Hawkins albums reissued at the same time. Obviously an ahistorical experience for me as a new listener, but it made me think her music was quality work and clearly someone at the label thought there was enough interest in her solo stuff to get those albums out there while not reissuing, say...Gabor Szabo or Shirley Scott in droves despite them both having a ton of Impulse albums.

I was drawn to the look of all those Impulse digipak reissues and I was seeing those three AC reissues (Journey.., Ptah.., A Monastic Trio) on essentially equal footing as not just the Sanders albums

Tbf that was my experience too but when I would talk to older friends, like the people who had hipped me to Ornette and Coltrane in the first place, they went out of their way to express how much they hated AC

Fair enough xp

Not mention her new age/spiritual tape-era was also seen as confirmation by those same people that her music didn't have any merit

My first encounter with her wasn't even about her music, it was clips from her public access show and she was just presented as some kind of weirdo cult leader. It was several more years until I heard her music, first Journey... and Ptah, because as has been mentioned they were the ones to get reissued. Then a few years later limited edition mini-LP CDs of Universal Consciousness and World Galaxy came out, and I got those, and eventually the double live album, Transfiguration. I remember the pump being pretty well primed (the Wire cover story helped) by the time Seraphic Light was announced and released.

The album it took the longest to find — Lord of Lords — is probably my favorite of her Impulse! run now. I don't think it was ever even reissued on its own, just paired up when Impulse! did a bunch of 2-albums-on-one-CD reissues a while back.

I've probably posted this here before but I really wish someone would press this on vinyl, even just her amazing version of Giant Steps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8xAAX198Pk

I feel like in this interview she articulates the disinterest the jazz industry has in her music.

'Journey in Satchidananda' was a game changing record for me. It was HUGE in Glasgow in the late 90s / early 2000s.

The owner of Glasgow's FOPP Records chain, Gordon (who was Terry Hall's brother in law) was a massive and lifelong Jazz fan. He realised in the mid to late 90s that many seminal Jazz labels had stopped doing vinyl releases and couldn't imagine ever doing any again (how wrong that turned out to be!). As a result they were happy to give him the vinyl license to many classic releases for a very low fee. Thus he licensed hundreds of titles and pressed up copies that were only available in the FOPP chain. He put these albums on sale at £5 which was very, very cheap even then.

This is pretty much how I got into Jazz as at £5 one couldn't really go wrong and I discovered a ton of incredible albums. Lots and lots of Glaswegians took advantage of this wild deal and as a result a LOT of people started listening to a lot of amazing Jazz records for the first time in their lives. The breakout hit by far was Alice Coltrane's 'Journey in Satchidananda' album. I believe FOPP shifted well over a thousand copies of it in the city. It was ubiquitous and I'd seem to see it at everyone's house I ever visited. I remember going into my local newsagent one Sunday morning and he was playing (a tape of) it. My newsagent was no hipster, Jazz aficionado or even a big music fan but this record had become such a cult Glasgow album that somehow this didn't seem strange at that time.

that's so awesome.

i found my copy for $20 in a williamsburg junk store around 2013. it seemed to me like an *insane* amount of money to pay for a used record at the time

I love that story - that even in the late-90s you could still have a regional cult record seems quaint in the streaming era.

xp

I had the 180g reissue of Journey for forever, prob since early 2000s. Recently ponied up $100 for a sweet friends deal on a 1972 pressing, no regrets.

My gateway was this cool comp, scored for like $15-20 in the late 90s:

https://www.discogs.com/release/23813663-Alice-Coltrane-Reflection-On-Creation-And-Space-A-Five-Year-View

love that comp -- great cover art

I listen to jazz records but have had no contact with jazz fandom etc. so a bit surprised at the gatekeeping bullshit detailed above. I would have thought Alice was jazz royalty.
I got into buying random jazz records from a stall in Leicester market in the 90s, which would usually be £5-10. One that I picked up early on was Karma by Pharaoh Sanders, and I immediately knew this was the stuff for me. The orange Impulse spines then became a mark of quality and I'd buy any that the stall got in - the Alice ones in particular became huge favourites.

Picked my vinyl copy up from FOPP in London a decade or so ago for £10! But got the Impulse digipak back in the day for £££s, no regrets.

Oh man that 5 Year View comp is (one of) my white whales

When Impulse was doing those digi-pak cd reissues in the 90s a few of them they pressed on extremely nice heavyweight lps, with gatefold covers and bumper stickers inside, (I proudly drove a white Toyota Camry with a "The New Wave of Jazz is on Impulse!" sticker for long time), I don't recall amy AC but I have a few very nice Sanders and JC lps

Early in the pandemic, I had older friends give me about 200-250 records that had been in their garage for 30 years. Among a ton of other stuff, it included OG copies of Journey and Ptah as well as Pharoah Sanders, Thembi, none of which I had heard. Needless to say, my mind was blown.

Sanders' Thembi

Woah!

Thembi absolutely rules and that is a hell of a steal! As I get older, Alice's devotional music moves me the most. It's crazy that it remained obscure for so long.

Need to get on and listen to this new one.

^ same

or, more accurately, buy this disc(s) (liner notes by EM being, i think, what's pushed me over)

love stirmonsters story, thats so amazing

I was at a funeral of a friend of 40 years standing yesterday. An incredible person with incredible taste in books, music and films. A life long devoted anti-fascist too.

He is one of a small number of people I know who truly loved Alice Coltrane. in his last days i hope i gave him a little joy by sharing some Alice bootlegs with him.

At the funeral he had requested Turiya & Ramakrishna be played in its entirety. Hearing that in a room full of his nearest and dearest in such a highly chaged emotional environment was quite a moment in time!

I’m sorry for your loss. (And that’s an awesome idea for a homegoing service, one that probably helped everyone process their grief.)

thank you.

I'm also sorry for your loss, stirmonster. Whenever I hear "Galaxy In Turiya" I think to myself, "I want this played at my funeral." Glad to know there are others on the same wavelength.