World Galaxy

Released

Alice Coltrane had planted her spiritual-jazz roots so deep by 1971 that her identity as a visionary improviser, bandleader, and musician had clearly transcended her status as jazz’s most notable widow. Still, this is the one album where Alice invokes John Coltrane’s presence most movingly, bookending this November ’71 session with radical reinterpretations of two of his most renowned selections. The intense sweep and towering dynamics of the 16-member string section that accompanies her gives a dizzying breadth to the funky, fluttering organ playing with which she gloriously discombobulates the swing of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things,” and her vision of “A Love Supreme,” featuring narration by Swami Satchidananda, toys with grace and dissonance with all the weight of remembrance and mourning. And her three originals — the bop-disassembling “Galaxy Around Olodumare,” the gorgeous harp-led “Galaxy in Turiya,” and the weightless, symphonic vertigo of the almost entirely rhythmless “Galaxy in Satchidananda” — run a stunning gamut of tonal experimentation and post-modal unpredictability.

Nate Patrin

Suggestions
Ultraviolet cover

Ultraviolet

Nick Mazzarella Trio
The United States of America cover

The United States of America

The United States of America
Cosmogramma cover

Cosmogramma

Flying Lotus
Of Light cover

Of Light

Shabazz Palaces
Decay cover

Decay

Steel Tipped Dove, Fatboi Sharif
ISM cover

ISM

Junius Paul
Fearless Movement cover

Fearless Movement

Kamasi Washington
Kudu cover

Kudu

Anteloper