USA, 1971, spiritual jazz / free jazz
It’s a good thing Alice doesn’t compose music the way she writes liner notes, because I’ve never read a bigger load of hogwash in my life. Quasi-religious bullshit in the extreme. One time I was sitting around with a couple of my friends chatting, one of whom happened to be a Buddhist, and he was answering a life question for me. My other friend broke in and said, “We need to make a random generator of the shit you say: Generate Bullshit Buddhist Response”. Buddhist friend got really pissed off. Anyway, so it’s good Alice Coltrane’s music is better than her dumb-as-shit philosophies. To be honest, I feel like she really captured a sense of transcendence and even perhaps spiritual transmigration in the delightful focus she puts on single instruments amid a chaotic swirl of percussion and accompanying instruments. Sometimes she favors the violin, other times the organ or harp, but whatever the instrument is, it navigates the tempest with admirable serenity. “Hare Krishna” is a gorgeous, flawless track.
Museum Musica 