John Coltrane (tenor sax), Alice Coltrane (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass) and Rashied Ali (drums). From the album Expression (1967).
Alice Coltrane participated in the last album recorded by her husband Expresion, who passed away a few months later, where the musical structure moved freely between sounds within the band to create an elastic playing field that could turn in any direction at any time. In this work Alice Coltrane’s piano sounds exuberant, wavy and spacious, and Rashied Ali plays the drums in a melodic manner instead of being a simple timer. In 1967 she recorded her first album A Monastic Trio and from 1968 to 1977 she published another 13 albums gradually separating herself from jazz and creating more spiritual music playing the harp and the Wurlitzer organ.
She stayed with Impulse! Records until 1973 and since then she worked with the Warner Bros label until 1978. Since her husband death affected her very much, she went to Swami Satchidinanda for advice and in 1975 she founded the Vedanta Center in California. During the 1990s she became interested again in her musical work and in 2004 published Translinear Light with Verve Records. She died in Los Angeles in 2007 of respiratory failure at the age of 69.
DISCLAIMER
This composition is atonal and have neither established harmony nor rhythm, that is, each musician plays to his free will. It’s hard music to listen to, so I apologize in advance to those who may dislike it.
Coltrane starts playing an atonal but moderate melody, but then warms up and introduces increasingly intricate and intense phrases. Next Alice Coltrane enters with a chaotic and extravagant melodic line accompanied by dissonant chords. Then Coltrane comes back in an unruly and unbridled way showing his most extreme facet. His discourse is ruthless and intransigent without giving a break to the listener, who is wrapped in a whirlwind of vertiginous sounds. After a long time his solo becomes serene until the group stops playing.
