John Coltrane & Alice Coltrane: Cosmic Music Vinyl LP

17 years ago, around the time I first started making beats, my roommate came home with a box of thrashed old records he picked up in an alley for me. He knew I was looking for this sort of stuff to sample (what a guy, still a very good friend of mine to this day… fuck knows what ever happened to the other knob we lived with). The condition of most of the records was pretty piss poor; they were discarded less than a block away from a record store that probably wouldn’t take them. Among seminal records which quickly became close personal favorites (Kool & The Gang’s Love & Understanding, George Duke’s Master Of The Game, Tony! Toni! Toné! “Whatever You Want” 12-inch), this record was in that box. Being only peripherally familiar with Trane (John that is, Alice - forget about it) I tried it out, and was terrified. So many questions… like… what is all this atonal screeching? Is this the guy that everyone props up as the greatest jazz musician of all time? Who decided to cut this to vinyl? I filed it away and didn’t listen again for years (note, it was the 1969 repress with John’s face on the cover; superior in my opinion). Fast forward to today and this shit just sounds normal to me, having taken the time to fully absorb Ornette, Dolphy, Mingus… “It’s about the notes they’re not playing blah blah blah" - Forget all that; this one’s a direct transmission from John, Alice, Jimmy, Rashied and Pharoah straight to the heavens; John blowing at peak spiritual dexterity, Alice spawning entire galaxies with her fingers. Check out the inside cuts “The Sun” and “Lord Help Me To Be” if you need to be eased in; dive straight into “Manifestation” if you want your wig blown back. 2017 gatefold black vinyl edition released by Superior Viaduct, recommended.

• black vinyl pressing
• gatefold sleeve
  
• music label: Superior Viaduct 2017

reviewed by nick nightingale 02/2020