My Top 100 Albums: #84 - Alice Coltrane, ‘Journey in Satchidananda’
84.
Alice Coltrane, ‘Journey in Satchidananda’
Impulse!, 1971
Having been one of the dominant cultural forces of the 1940s, 50s and early 60s in its various forms, jazz music had found itself, by the late 1960s, at a crossroads. Many of the greats of the genre had either retired, died, or reinvented themselves. This was the most experimental era of jazz, as some artists explored the genre’s roots in African folk, some followed popular trends into more rhythmic, funk- and rock-inspired music, some took classical inspiration, and some rejected form and function altogether. Then there were the new guard, who stopped asking “where does jazz go from here?” and simply focused on defining their own sound. In Journey in Satchidananda, Alice Coltrane carves out a truly unique part of the jazz canon for herself. She had played piano on some of her husband John’s greatest records towards the end of his life, and after his death in 1967 became a bandleader in her own right. Mourning her husband’s untimely passing, she undertook a spiritual journey in the late ‘60s, apprenticing herself to Hindu yogi Swami Satchidananda Saraswati, which would ultimately result in this accomplished record: an exploration of Indian spirituality, of death, grief and ascension. After John’s death, Alice took up the harp, the instrument which would form a singularly special centrepiece on her magnum opus. The harp’s incomparable texture often makes it a foil for representations of extra-sensory states; it generally provides the soundtrack for dream sequences and out-of-body experiences. On this record, Coltrane makes it feel supernatural and serene as she traverses musical genres: from Indian raga to Middle Eastern and North African music to her musical upbringing in modal jazz and hard bop. Journey in Satchidananda is a musical journey through cultures and belief systems that explores a variety of low and high musical concepts whilst somehow remaining almost uniquely accessible and listenable. As both an expression of grief and a celebration of life, this record remains unmatched.
Hidden Highlight: Stopover Bombay
Journey in Satchidananda
Shiva-Loka
Stopover Bombay
Something About John Coltrane
Isis and Osiris