Coltrane, Alice - Journey In Satchidananda

Recorded in the fall of 1970, is a serene, composed meditation on the lessons of the 1960's, a mystical work of enduring sweetness and spiritual longing. The concluding cut "Isis And Osiris" (recorded earlier that summer at the Village Gate), is a global village of texture and song, animated by Pharaoh Sanders' gently wafting soprano and Rashied Ali's quicksilver brushwork, as Vishnu Wood's feathery oud, Charlie Haden's woody bass and Coltrane's sweeping harp combine to create a dreamy vortex of sound. The title cut and "Shiva-Loka"-centered around Cecil McBee's sonorous, lyric bass vamps and Tulsi's droning tambourine-are gorgeous evocations of modal jazz and Indian ragas, again exploiting the contrast between Sanders' reedy chants and Coltrane's blissful arpeggios. And then there's "Stopover Bombay" and "Something About John Coltrane, " which reveal the melodious symmetry of Alice Coltrane's piano playing, a singular style deeply imbued in the old time testimonies of the spirituals and the blues.