Monastic Trio

Jimmy Garrison, Alice Coltrane | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 6, 1998)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Grp Records
• ASIN: B00000DD1V
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #120,994 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Free jazz with a harp?, December 29, 2004

By 

Matt Stephens (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monastic Trio (Audio CD)

1. Lord, Help Me To Be 7:30
2. The Sun 4:01
3. Ohnedaruth 7:49
4. Gospel Trane 6:44
5. I Want To See You 6:42
6. Lovely Sky Boat 6:51
7. Oceanic Beloved 4:18
8. Atomic Peace 5:53
9. Altruvista 6:55

Alice Coltrane, piano
Pharoah Sanders, tenor sax, bass clarinet, flute
Jimmy Garrison, bass
Ben Riley, drums (1-3)
Rashied Ali, drums (4-8)

This is Alice Coltrane's first album as a leader, made a year after her husband's death. Even though you can tell that she was still developing her own style at this point, it is still a great record. The first 3 songs are especially good, I think; this is probably because of the additon of Pharoah Sanders. Alice is great with a trio, but she had incredible chemistry with Pharoah.

"Lord, Help Me To Be" is just classic. I really like Jimmy Garrison's bass playing on this one. He may not have been as technically developed as other bass players of his time, but he could really swing, which is something that other bass players sometimes lacked. "The Sun" is wonderful, too. It is basically a 4 minute Alice Coltrane solo in free rhythm, colored by bells and sparse bass. Although Pharoah is listed here, he is barely audible, playing flute in the left channel. The drums are very quiet as well. "Ohnedaruth" is a chant that the last John Coltrane group used to perform. It features a rare Pharoah Sanders solo on bass clarinet!

"Gospel Trane" and "I Want To See You," a swinging freebop-ish tune and a ballad, repectively, are cool trio performances with Garrison and Rashied Ali. The next 3 songs are with the same trio, but Alice plays harp on them instead of piano. I love Alice's harp playing on Ptah The El Daoud and especially Journey In Satchidananda, but there is something different about it here. It is freer and looser. I didn't realize until listening to this what a modal instrument the harp is, not to mention beautiful and highly spiritual. The 3 harp songs may be difficult to enjoy at first, but they are very rewarding in time.

"Altruvista" is a solo piano piece that actually came from a session with the John Coltrane quintet. If anyone doubts Alice's virtuosity as a musician, they should hear this. The song seems to be based on wholetone scales, which are very difficult to master, but she runs up and down the keyboard with an amazing facility.

A Monastic Trio may not be as good as Ptah The El Daoud or Journey In Satchidanada, but it is definitely worth buying nevertheless. Check it out!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alice Coltrane's first album was a stunner, September 10, 2009

By 

The Dude (N. California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Monastic Trio (Audio CD)

Alice Coltrane's first album was a stunner that has stood the test of time well. The album opens with the moving piece "Lord Help Me to Be" and Alice's beautiful, fluid piano work. Add in the unmistakable Pharoah Sanders and the music just gets better. "Lovely Sky Boat" adds harp to the roster of jazz instruments; Alice plays it better than anybody. Along with the other early albums
"Huntington Ashram Monastery" and "Ptah the El Daoud", "A Monastic Trio" should be in every jazz collection.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The first album after John Coltrane's death., November 7, 2005

By 

Michael Stack (North Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Monastic Trio (Audio CD)

"A Monastic Trio" is Alice Coltrane's debut album as a leader, recorded in two sessions in 1968 in the year following John Coltrane's death, and it finds her continuing the work of her husband.

Coltrane is heard on piano and harp on the record, and is joined by Pharoah Sanders on reeds on three cuts, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and either Ben Riley (the three pieces with Sanders) or Rashied Ali (the rest) on drums. Musically, it's in the same idiom as John Coltrane's later work, but a bit less dense and without the presence of John Coltrane's solo voice, the music tends to have a much lighter feel to it.

The three pieces from the session with Sanders, recorded in January of 1968, are all fairly dark-- "Lord, Help Me To Be" is a midtempo blues with a heavy swing and Sanders boiling on tenor sax (but somehow restrained) with Riley, fresh off a four year stint with Thelonious Monk, absolutely captivating on the drum kit. "The Sun" is a meditative piece, somewhat reminiscent of Sanders' opening motif to "The Creator Has a Masterplan", with Sanders nearly inaudible on flute, and "Ophnedaruth" is a bleak and mournful piece with Sanders on bass clarinet. To hear Sanders on this horn is a rare treat, he bubbles, burbles and cuts loose, testing the register of the instrument and falling a bit outside the piece, but with Coltrane's superlative accompaniment (certainly being the pianist for her late husband set her up to take on anyone), she was able to keep the piece coherent.

The second session, from June of the same year, is a bit less exciting-- three cuts find Coltrnae on piano and three on harp, with the last John Coltrane rhythm section reunited. Two of the piano pieces-- "Gospel Trane" and "Lovely Blue Sky", quite frankly sound like inferior versions of the material from the earlier session, with the same moody sound captured (although "Gospel Trane" is a bit more rhythmically inclined and Ali's solo is astonishing on it). "Altruvista" is a solo piano performance and finds another side of Coltrane's playing-- shades of Taylor and Monk come forth. It's a nice performance, but ultimately it's not as engaging as other stuff on the record. Of the three harp pieces, "Lovely Sky Boat" is the most satisfying, with Coltrane cascading and soaring and Garrison and Ali striking a tight groove. By and large the other two are not quite as exciting.

It's not a perfect debut, but the "A Monastic Trio" is well worth investigation. Those interested in exploring Alice Coltrane's catalog would probably do better to start with the downright superb "Jounrey in Satchidananda".