ALICE COLTRANE World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane - Turiyasangitananda 2LP

OPAKOWANIE: GATEFOLD

As  some  of  you  may  know,  Alice  Coltrane  was  a  legendary  pianist,  composer,  spiritual  leader,  and  the  wife  of  John  Coltrane,  the  most venerated  and  influential saxophonist in the history of jazz. In 1967, four years after meeting John, he died of liver cancer, leaving  Alice  a  widow  with four  small  children. Bereft  of  her  soul  mate,  Alice  suffered  sleepless nights  and  severe  weight  loss.  At  her  worst,  she weighed only 95 pounds. She had hallucinations in which trees spoke, various beings existed on astral planes, and the sounds of “a planetary ether” spun through  her  brain, knocking  her  into  a  frightening  unconsciousness.The  critical  event  of  this  period  was  not  that  Alice  fell into the nadir of her existence, but rather that she experienced tapas, a vital period of trial. These tapas  (a  Sanskrit  term  she  used  to  describe  her suffering)  helped  prepare  Alice  for  the spiritual ally  she  found  in  Swami  Satchidananda,  an  Indian guru, with whom Alice made her first trip to India.

On  her  second  trip  there,  Alice  had  a  revelation  instructing   her   to   abandon   the   secular   life   and   become  a  spiritual  teacher  in  the  Hindu tradition  –  so  she  moved  out  West  –  eventually  opening  the  Shanti  Anantam  Ashram  on  47  acres  she’d  bought in Agoura Hills, California.Music  was   the   foundation   of   Alice’s   spiritual practice.  From  the  mid  1980’s  to  mid  1990’s,  Alice Coltrane     self-released     four     brilliant     cassette     albums.  These  cassettes  contained  a  music  she invented,   inspired   by   the   gospel   music   of   the   Detroit  churches  she grew  up  in,  mixed  together with  the  Indian  devotional  music  of  her  religious practice,  and  even  finds  Alice  singing  for  the  first time in her recorded catalog. Originally only made available  through  her  ashram,  they  are  her  most  obscure  body  of  work  and  possibly  the  greatest reflection of her soul.