Customer Reviews

Ptah the El Daoud

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4 star:		(3)
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Just another person who felt the need to add their voice to the acclaim that the other reviewers have already given this beautiful work. Like most of the other reviewers, I am a looooonnng time jazz listener and collector. Any music collector will tell you that there are certain albums that hit you dead on in all your chakras the first time you hear them. That depth of response sometimes stays with you forever. You never stop loving the experience of hearing that music as it helps you to get thru, to understand, to enjoy new periods in your life. This is one of those albums for me. From the opening notes of Ron Carter's bass walk that starts the album to the final notes, this is music of remarkable beauty, group interplay, and sophistication. There are too many highlights to enumerate, most of the other reviewers have already hit upon them, but I do want to add my voice in favor of the alto flutes played by Henderson and Sanders on Blue Nile. These are not their best solos on the CD. However, the beauty of that range of flute against Ms. Coltrane's harp is unique in my listening experience. Every one of the songs on this album offers pleasures like that, all unique and all worth the price of admission. Read all the other reviewers. Can this many oddballs be wrong? I think not.

You have lived a good life, seen beauty in many forms, and occasionally you feel you have been significantly altered by momentary experiences. Real beauty is deeper than skin and when it hits you, it can be very powerful. You are afraid to grasp to hard for fear of loss. Sometimes my greatest fear as a jazz collector is becoming too familiar with my collection of nearly 3000 albums, mostly LP's with the complementary continuance of the CD format. It's not a big collection, but representative and evolutionary. With this one album, I was afraid to listen too much for fear of it becoming too familiar, but realized that it was probably not possible. This record is what collecting jazz is all about, the momentary experience of true beauty. I have a ton of Trane, had a number of LP's by and with Alice Coltrane, and almost all of Pharoah as well, but this recording, after 20 years of collecting, was like buried treasure. Together with Journey in Satchadanda, which I feel equally passionate about, these are the best Alice has to offer. Listen over and over without fear, but total surrender.

I rank Ptah the El Daoud up there with Kind Of Blue and A Love Supreme as perfect modal jazz recordings. This is quite amazing for a record made in 1970, when almost every major figure in the jazz world was going fusion.

Instead of following this trend, Alice Coltrane stuck to her guns and made this astonishing record with horn players Joe Henderson and Pharoah Sanders, bassist Ron Carter, and the underrated drummer Ben Riley.

The two horn players play tenors on two tracks, and alto flutes on a third. (They sit out on a fourth.) The twin-horn attack is rather like a right-brain/left-brain exercize. Henderson's approach is cerebral, while Pharoah Sanders is emotional. Pharoah's playing is surprisingly lyrical and restrained (two words I would never expect to associate with him!).

Alice Coltrane's piano playing is something like a gospel-tinged McCoy Tyner; she lacks some of Tyner's chops, but makes up for it with her overall conception. And unlike Tyner, she is a virtuoso harpist. The one harp/flute track ("Blue Nile") is a standout; it is ethereal, and ferocious all at the same time.

Highly, highly recommended!

I think Ptah The El Daoud was my first exposure to Alice Coltrane, as I would pick up Stellar Regions (fantastic late Coltrane) just a few weeks later. I liked this one right from the start though! She's got a wicked good lineup to help her out too. Herself on piano and harp, Pharoah and Joe Henderson on tenor and alto flutes, and Ron Carter and Ben Riley (taking a break from his long gig with Monk? )

Four songs. Ptah The El Daoud is very march-ish. I read somewhere that it was almost Mingusish. Maybe. Ron Carter's bass is thumping but juicy-good. And Ben Riley supplies that great marchish beat. Alice's piano playing to me has always been more about colors. I really love the way she plays and I think she's just so much differnt than any other jazz piano players. It's a shame she's so underatted. She's so unique. I can't off the top of my head think of anyone alse like her. And she fit perfect with her husband in '66 and '67.

And to round it off, Joe Henderson and Pharoah Sanders really make a great (if not extremely interesting) pair. It's amazing to hear the two solo back to back. Henderson is almost as if not more intense then Pharoah! Turiya and Ramakrishna is a strange name for such a bluesy tune! The name itself if fine, but you'd almost expect to hear tanpouras and sitar's not this dark, blues number (with just trio of piano-bass-drums and some bells for good measure) that you hear on this second track. The Third number is my favorite. Blue Nile feautures Alice's beautiful, sweeping harp playing that she's so well known for (too bad she never got the chance to play harp with her husband!) But, it's Pharoah and Joe Henderson playing alto flutes that really steal the show. Ignore amazon.com's biased and stupid review of this album. Their flute solos are both interesting and enjoyable. Get into this song, it's a good one. The last song, Mantra is ok. Kind of different. Kind of formless in the beginning like something you might hear on one of Pharoah Sanders's albums, but then the clouds blow away and you've got a relatively avante-garde song, complete with some heavy blowing by both Joe Henderson and Pharoah (who lets off some mean purrs).

Ptah is a great cd. Could someone tell me how to pronounce it though? And the sound is fantastic. Impulse did a good job here. Good album. Get it!

The musicians hereon are accomplished, and they have space in this music to ring out. The compositions are naturalistic and well-done. Other reviewers here have done a wonderful job at reviewing this album; I want to add one more sound of approval to the chorus. This LP/CD has a lovely sound and it is a lovely work of art.

...it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this is great jazz/not jazz. Greats Ron Carter, Pharoah Saunders, Joe Henderson join with bandleader (John's widow) Alice Coltrane and the results are mindblowing. Everyone I feel has some kind of GENIUS going for himself/herself, what ever it is. This is not mere genius, this is near to divine... My cut: "Turiya and Ramakrishna".

After a pair of exploratory albums that almost feel like testing the waters, Alice Coltrane entered the studio for the third time as a leader in January of 1970 to produce what would be her first really superb record, "Ptah, the El-Daoud".

Musically, Coltrane has taken her late husband's last bands as a starting point, albeit without the explosive extended improvisations, and moved on from there. The music is spritually informed, albeit with a decidingly Eastern bent to it, and features fierce and passionate playing. Coltrane (heard on piano and harp) is joined by reedmen Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Ben Riley. Carter and Riley prove to be a fantastic rhythm section-- both have a pedigree in adventerous but somewhat more straight-ahead bands-- Carter played with seemingly everyone but noteworthily in Miles Davis' mid-60s quintet and Riley performed extensively with Thelonious Monk. The two of them provide a solid foundation less bounded in free association and moreso in adventerous rhythmic playing. Henderson and Sanders make for interesting parallels of inside and out-- the former plays more inside but seems to be reaching, the latter more outside but seems to be restraining. Coltrane, for her part, provides remarkable frameworks, sticking wit the recipes of her work with John Coltrane but adding in a more overt influence of Monk and even to a lesser extent Bill Evans.

The album opens with hte extended title track-- Carter and Riley set up a deep groove, Coltrane throbs on piano, and the solos are superb-- Henderson is agile and exciting, Sanders is adventerous and explosive, filling your ears with his deep round sound, but both are trumped by the leader, who solos in a manner reminiscent of Herbie Hancock, and by Riley, who puts forth a remarkable inside-out solo. "Turiya and Ramakrishna" settles down a bit into a lovely piano ballad with the Sanders and Henderson playing bells, Coltrane's playing is fantastic with an odd (Monk-like?) use of space and Carter takes a simply fantastic, patient solo, where he really lets the performance come to him rather than forcing it. "Blue Nile", related to Coltrane's "Spirits", sinks into another deep Carter/Riley groove with Coltrane framing on harp and lovely alto flute playing from Henderson and Sanders. It's a rare treat to hear the latter on flute-- his playing isn't as technically able as Henderson, but he's remarkably inventive. The closing track, "Mantra", I find kind of a letdown though-- it's not bad, it just doesn't live up to the rest of the album. The theme is darkly stated by two tenors with Coltrane providing rather round framing before the piece moves into a pretty straight swing for soloing.

All in all, it's quite an album, well worth investigation-- it's not quite the masterpiece "Journey in Satchidananda" is, but it's quite a good record. Recommended.

Alice Coltrane put together a great work here. Pharoah is terrific, though not in overblowing mode and this might be Henderson's best work. She had a way of playing that I would desribe as rolling, meaning the music constantly rolled forward. There is a "groove" that has nothing to do with funk but more with meditation, though that's not an entirely fair assessement since this music moves forward.

What more can be said about this masterpiece, obviously not much.
Still, I must offer up my praise & gratefulness...

This, along with "Journey in Satchidananda", (& a few months later, "Kind of Blue"), were my first introductions, & became my pathway into the world of Jazz. The unmistakable beauty, spirituality, & truly primordial aspect of the musicians & their performance on this album impact me just as much today, as nearly 40 years ago, when I first heard it!

The dual saxes, and especially alto flutes, added to the impact of this great set, and turned me on to the haunting sound of the alto flute. Pharoah's playing, in particular, inspired me, and inspires me, to this day, being mentor & major influence upon my 30+ year career as a sax & flute player.

Alice's playing, her soloing, and her comping, along with the rest of the rhythm section, create a perfect mood for the flights of Sanders & Henderson, their contrast in flavor, adding even more spice to this cosmic gumbo.

OK, enough, obviously this album is a classic, one far too "under-the-radar", and if you don't give this a listen, it will be your loss...

Another reviewer wrote that they preferred Alice Coltrane's music to John's, and while them's fighting words, this album provides the best imaginable support of that opinion. Even for a time as artistically fertile as the shift from the 60s to the 70s, this album would easily make my top 3 list alongside Bitches Brew (for the 3rd, who could decide between the innumerable awesome rock albums?)

Ptah, the El Daoud is an unstoppable 4-song trip best heard in a single sitting; while the tracks are formaly quite different, they share an emotional and spiritual - and I use that word quite rarely - base rivaled only by the most fantastic moments in John Coltrane, Mingus, and Roland Kirk. The greatest similarity between Ptah and Bitches Brew is that both albums consist only of such moments.

The opening track is a steady march carried by Ron Carter's memorable bass line; he doesn't get a solo, but his presence is crucial. Coltrane hits chords percusssively and sparely, creating a dark, dramatic tone. Sanders and Henderson each take a phenomenal solo; it's amazing how close two so different players sound here. They both shriek, squeal, and moan in a manner rarely heard in either straight or free jazz. Coltrane's solos always reveal to me her primary instrument, the harp; she travels up and down the keyboard with masterful fluidity, stopping to deliver literally painful stabs. While she was never the melodic and rhyhtmic virtuoso like, say, Herbie Hancock, she has a uniquely emotional approach to the instrument.

This is nowhere more effective than on the blues "Turiya and Ramakrishna", which rises and falls like a wailing human voice. There is no saxophone on the track, and the percussion is spare, leaving room for Coltrane's breathing, dynamic playing and a brilliantly subtle solo by Carter.

The next track changes the lineup considerably, with Coltrane using the harp in a way that makes it seem like the most obvious jazz instrument; Pharoah and Sanders switch to flutes, but you may not even notice, as they stay recognizable. This creates a lighter, more airy feel for the tune, but it carries forward both slowly and dizzily as the harp fills the space with streams of notes. It's the most obviously Eastern-influenced track on the album, and I caution you against dismissing it for that like I did.

The closing track is the darkest, most tense one. It's repetitive and, well, mantra-like. Sanders and Henderson weave through together, creating a discomforting, dizzy sound; it's a wonder that the track still grooves on. It's brought to a dramatic stop as Coltrane starts a long, minimalist solo that finally descends in an almost cinematic fashion; it's In A Silent Way's ominous, brooding sister.

While the performances here are absolutely flawless (and not easily traced to anything else), Alice Coltrane did more than put together a jazz dream lineup. Her writing is rarely formally complex, but she gets more out of it than one would think possible. Most of her "traditional" jazz tunes stay away from Brubeck- or Monk-like or Coleman-like experiments while sounding very much unlike anything your jazz radio station might every play.

Some wrote that they like Journey in Satchidananda better; it's a fine album, but Ptah is a more uniform, conceptual effort. Best to get them both, though.

P.S. On the soundtrack to Michelangelo Antonioni's classic movie Blow Up there is a Herbie Hancock track called The Hidden Camera; it sounds to me almost like an outtake from an Alice Coltrane album from this period.