Review: Journey in Satchidananda was the fourth solo album by Alice Coltrane and it might be her best-known work. Some of the tunes here were recorded live at the Village Gate while the rest were recorded at her home studio in Dix Hills in New York, and all of them were released in 1971. The album has grown ever more mythical in status and store since then with its transcendental spiritual jazz sounds with layered-up bells, tambourine, tanpura and more into a sound that leans heavily on Coltrane's love of Middle Eastern and North African music and culture. Earthy, bluesy, steeped in musical mantra and utterly absorbing, it's one of the most enthralling records of the era.
Review: The great Alice Coltrane was already widely revered by the time she released her third solo album Ptah, the El Daoud. It was written and recorded in 1970 in the basement of her house in Dix Hills on Long Island, New York and is noted for being the first record she made with horns. They are split between the two channels with Pharoah Sanders on the right bringing his abstract and transcendental sounds and Joe Henderson on the left bringing the intellectual vibe throughout. The post-bop sounds find Coltrane playing piano and harp receptions at the time were warm critically and with fans. The otherworldly sound is drenched in blues and perfect for some mindful meditations.
Review: Here's a classic from The Oscar Peterson Trio - a coll-headed slice of traditional jazz from 1963 which is enjoying its 60th anniversary as the clock ticks over to 2023. It's an understated masterpiece, made up short performances written with commercial radio broadcast in mind, but even within tight time frames Peterson creates subtle, elegant movement which has rendered this record an enduring influence on successive generations of jazz musicians. Repressed on heavyweight wax and presented in a gatefold sleeve, it's sure to inspire a new wave of jazz artists as it gets a fresh airing.
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