Customer Reviews

Cosmic Music

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album features two tracks by the John Coltrane group, i.e. tracks # 1 & 3. This recording is especially interesting because it features the first recordings of the new John Coltrane group after the departure of McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones. And from the first note, you hear the difference. This is not meant to degrade the truly great work of McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones, but Coltrane's music on this record sounds as if it has been freed, in some way. I really love the preceding studio recording, "Meditations", but this record sounds much freer in some ways, and that is because McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones had different musical conceptions, which were incompatilble with the direction Coltrane was going to take. And this recording is the perfect example. "Manifestation" features a freely pulsating rhythm which provides the two tenors with a ground from where to start their flight. And what a flight it is! Alice Coltrane's piano solo is really capturing, also proving that she is more suitable for this kind of music than her predecessor. Then, the two tenors pick up again, this time both at the same time. Pharoh Sanders can also be heard on piccolo on this tune, which adds an interesting note. Track #3, "Reverend King", is a real gem: it features John Coltrane on bass clarinet. While he may not have mastered this instrument as perfectly as all kinds of saxophones, it is most fascinating to hear him play it. The song starts with an incantation by Coltrane and Sanders, then the theme is played by Coltrane on bass clarinet, and then he pauses, giving room to excellent solos by the other players, only to return towards the end of the piece, playing one of his most intense performances ever. The piece closes with the repating of the theme and the incantation from the beginning. Those two pieces of music are only 22 minutes long, combined, but they're absolutely worth the price of this CD, especially considering that it has been long out of print. The other two tracks were recorded by Alice Coltrane in 1968, after the death of her husband. It features Pharoah Sanders, and I also like these two tracks, but the main reason for buying this CD is constituted by the tracks by John Coltrane. There are said to be more pieces from these sessions, still unreleased and, unfortunately, buried somewhere in some archive, so that they haven't been found yet. One can only hope that they will see the light of day sometime, so that these stunning sessions can be released in their entirety.

I paid thirty bucks for this used after listening to the first song, "Manifestation." I admit I was a little disappointed when I brought this home and realized that two of the tracks - "Lord, Help Me to Be" and "The Sun" - where recorded by Alice Coltrane's group shortly after the death of her husband. Furthermore, I already had these recordings on Alice Coltrane's album A Monastic Trio. This is not Alice Coltrane's best, but works well enough in the context of this album. What really stands out for me are the tracks featuring John Coltrane, "Manifestation" and "Reverend King," which are good enough to make me forget any feelings of disappointment.

"Manifestation" is basically as good as the late-sixties group got, which to me is pretty damn good. This song goes a lot of different directions, with everyone involved taking interesting solos. Pharoah Sanders plays the piccolo with a ton of intensity. The other track with John Coltrane, "Reverend King," was a revelation. Similar in feel to Alabama in its quiet building intensity, this tune is a moving tribute to Dr. King. This track is, I think, unique in that this is the only time Coltrane played the bass clarinet.

It's unbelievable to me that these two John Coltrane recordings are out of print and not available on any domestic release. I believe that Impulse should package these perhaps with other rarities instead of the Alice Coltrane tracks. Oh, and the sound quality here is 20 bit remastered and is flawless.

This CD consists of four tracks, two from a John-led session from 1966, two from a session led by Alice in 1968, a year after John's death. And since the quality of the four ranges from very good to superb, that lukewarm *** rating isn't meant to reflect badly on the music itself. The problem isn't what's on the CD, but what was left off. First, the opening track "Manifestation." I first heard this almost unbearably intense recording 10 years ago on an old Impulse compilation called "His Greatest Years, Vol. II" This collection featured a number of Trane's recordings edited for time, and I assumed that "Manifestation" was one of the cut ones due to a particularly sloppy edit about 9 minutes into it's 11 minute-plus length. This left me rabid to hear the full length version. So you can imagine my disgust, then disappointment to discover the same shortened version here; apparently the original has never been released! Second complaint: Why no bonus tracks? The fact that the formerly prolific Coltrane (12 studio sessions in '65!) made only ONE visit to the studio in '66 (due to failing health?) was bad enough; the fact that only two of the four tracks recorded that day ("Manifestation" and "Reverend King"; "Leo" and "Peace On Earth" being the other two) are included here is inexplicable & even insulting, considering the short disc length & exorbitant price! Having said this, let me reiterate that the music included here is excellent. Again, "Manifestation" (yet another in an amazing series of "-ion" Coltrane titles!) contains possibly Trane's most intense, frenetic soloing ever, and his tenor duet with Pharoah Sanders was their finest moment together. The stately "Reverend King" is also fine and features Coltrane's only recorded use of the bass clarinet. (Eric Dolphy's, incidentally, given to him by Dolphy's parents after his death.) And "Lord Help Me To Be" and "The Sun" are more or less typical Alice Coltrane efforts; if you appreciate her style, you'll like them. I personally am glad to own this, but I'll be gladder still if someone at Impulse is shaken awake & ordered to re-release this domestically, with "Leo" and "Peace on Earth" included.

Cosmic Music was originally released on John Coltrane's own label (Coltranr Records)during 1967. If memory serves me correctly, Mr. Coltrane was becoming increasingly more enthralled with drums and the rhythmic diversity offered by complementary polyrhytmic drum combinations. On this particular recording the two drummers (Rashied Ali and Ray Appleton or Ben Riley) combine to provide a soloist with more rhythmic options against which to craft his or her statement. It is because of this and several other devices at work that John Coltrane's music sounds so free, and open to endless expressive possibilities. It must be noted however that this music's lesson illustrates the Principle (also vividly articulated by SUN RA) that it takes a highly disciplined musician to to suggest the stucture of freedom in a musical context.

As much as one is drawn to the delicate but insistent and strong playing of Alice Coltrane and the tonal beauty of the Tenor Saxophone playing of Mssrs. Coltrane and Sanders, to me, they pale in comparison to the tonal revelation of John Coltrane on Bass Clarinet. I've been listening to the music for forty years and have heard many of the best, but Coltrane's tone is so rich and round and full , even in the higher registers, that this recording's unique testimony to the expressive skills of creative musicians makes it a true gem and icon of the musical genre.

If you listen carefully, during Manifestation, you will hear one of the most truly remarkable, and close to suggesting the devine, moments in any music when Mr. Coltrane, Mr. Sanders, and Mr. Garrison converge on a single note with individual and intense permutations of texture and timbre and then hyper-quickly diverge into the deeper reaches of inner space.

This is truly an album you don't want to miss hearing if you are a seeker of new possibilities and new food for spiritual contemplation and development.

This is really an outstanding Trane recording. It is quite unique as there are really only a handful with Alice and this group with Pharoah. It is much more spiritual, more free, and beautiful. I also love some of the later Alice Coltrane recordings, particularly Journey in Satchadanda, Ptah El Daoud and others. Those two in particular are a couple of my favorites. I think that it stands right up against any of the later McCoy, Jones recordings and is a must buy.

I'm an admitted enthusiast of John Coltrane's relatively aggressive recordings of his last years. Fans of 'Trane's post-Classic Quartet work will find the two cuts on which he appears to be quite satisfying. There weren't too many opportunities to document the musical exchanges between Trane, Pharoah Sanders, Alice, Jimmy Garrison, and Rashied Ali, so this album definitely fills in a much needed gap. Needless to say, those performances are quite spirited. Unfortunately two of these cuts also appear on the U.S. release of Alice Coltrane's "Monastic Trio" album, thus making this release seem somewhat redundant, especially given its steep price tag. Worth acquiring for devoted fans of late-period Coltrane. Others might want to skip this release and hope that the album in some form or another is given a proper U.S. release.

There is a special continuity in this "collaborative effort" which includes two unreleased tracks from John Coltrane that were pulled from the vault and a pair of tracks recorded by Alice Coltrane, which also appear on her initial solo effort, "A Monastic Trio."

The personnel is constant - Pharoah Sanders (tenor sax, piccolo), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Rashied Ali (drums) - with percussionists Ray Appleton (JC) and Ben Riley (AC) providing additional punch to the rhythm section. Recorded in February 1966 in San Francisco, California, Manifestation and Reverend King - tracks one and three, respectively - provide stunning space for John Coltrane and Sanders to excel as one, while taking their spiritual exploration to the mountaintop on the latter. Lord, Help Me To Be is a wonderful venue for Garrison to deliver an incredible performance, while Sanders has a picturesque power on tenor sax as he launches off the subtle piano of Alice Coltrane. Sanders - on piccolo - and Alice Coltrane are a perfect pair on The Sun. The Alice Coltrane numbers were recorded in January 1968 at the home studio in Dix Hills, New York.

Though the album remains out-of-print, it has the potential to become a real gem for collectors if - for example - a future issue includes additional material from the John Coltrane recording session and/or a dusty vault is found to have unreleased cuts from the home session led by Alice Coltrane.

John Coltrane was almost obsessively recording in Rudy Van Gelder's studio from about 1965 until his death in June 1967. When he passed, there was a lot of this work left in the ABC Impulse! vaults, and the label spent the late 1960s releasing a good deal of it.

Cosmic Music is one of those albums: this was not an album Coltrane conceived-the last one he did was Expression. Rather, ABC combined a few very late 'Trane tracks with material Alice Coltrane recorded in '68

Alice had a whole different approach and you need to check out her early-70s Impulse albums. But for understanding very late John Coltrane, Cosmic Music is informative.

With Rashed Ali replacing Elvin Jones, Coltrane began to play with free time, and his tenor tone actually got sharper. Notes splatter like hand fulls of fast thrown dice, and against Ali's more flexible backdrop, the sound is incredible. He also experiments with bass clarinet here, also in amazingly free settings.

You get the sense listening to this and Expression that Coltrane was retooling his sound but was probing what sound he wanted. He was working from the ground up and had gone so far as to record an album called Interstellar Space, just to see what sax and drums alone would sound like. His use of other reeds here indicates that Coltrane was opening up to new textures, new tastes for the palate.

His new sound was--I feel--in the formative stages in Spring 1967, and not getting to hear it bloom full is tragic--a word too often used but here it fits. Jazz would have been a much different music had Coltrane lived.

Well, at least we have this. The tracks are more than enough, but not nearly enough

the first 2 songs are incredible with track 2 being the standout. amazing. John is a revelation here. the final two songs are already released on Alice Coltrane records. why are they here? sure, they are good songs, but i don't see much point in grouping them together. but the music contained is great.

OK, So what if John plays on only half the tracks? This is prime Coltrane, right up there with 'Meditations' and 'Live at the Village Vangaurd Again' for inventive harmonic strength and melodic beauty. If you disagree with that evaluation of His music from this period, then this isn't for you. But if you can get into the higher spirituality of His later years, then stop denying yourself the pleasure of this magical recording.