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Articles & Excerpts
New Jersey Concert Reviews:
• JAZZTIMES
• New York Times
• Asbury Park Press
• Blogspot
From JAZZTIMES, published October 2006:
Alice Coltrane Concert Review
By Bill Milkowski
When the curtain came up at magnificent Prudential Hall in the new NJPAC facility in Newark, there was a collective gasp at the sight of a dozen or more empty chairs stage left and a bevy of microphones set up stage right. Clearly, this was to be much more than had been advertised—the Alice Coltrane Quartet in concert. But the surprise wouldn’t be revealed until after intermission.
During the first half of this rare event—the first time in 20 years that the spiritual-seeking Alice (aka Swamini) had emerged from her ashram in Agoura Hills, Calif. to lead her own group—she did indeed perform with a quartet that included Jack DeJohnette on drums, Drew Gress on bass filling in for an ailing Charlie Haden and her son Ravi on tenor and soprano saxophones. The second half of the concert featured the world premiere of material from her upcoming CD Sacred Language of Ascension, a project done in collaboration with Dr. J.J. Hurtak, a worldwide lecturer and expert in Hebrew mysticism. For this ambitious undertaking, the quartet was augmented by 18 string players from around the New York area and a 16-voice choir imported for this special occasion from Alice’s ashram. The impact of the expanded ensemble, when combined with a video presentation on a large screen that hovered overhead, was profoundly soul stirring.
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Excerpt from NEW YORK TIMES Music Review, published October 24, 2006:
Communing With the Astral, Spiritual and Tuneful
By BEN RATLIFF
The second half went beyond music into aesthetically dicier territory. Ms. Coltrane performed two pieces from her forthcoming, much less jazz-related CD, “Sacred Language of Ascension,” a collaboration with J. J. Hurtak, who has variously been described as a social scientist, futurist, anthropologist, archaeologist and expert in Hebrew mysticism. Mr. Hurtak appeared first to introduce the music. Ms. Coltrane, he said, “expresses planetary humanity in its oneness”; the second half would feature “music for the emergent spirituality of the 21st century.”
With an orchestra of around 20 pieces, a 17-member choir and a tabla player, as well as the full band (minus Mr. Coltrane), the music amounted to fairly simple gospel-soul, agreeably modulating upward in whole steps; the religious lyrics were in Hebrew, Sanskrit and Aramaic.
For the second piece, a screen came down, and the audience was shown an accompanying film ? first of computer-enhanced pictures of the planets and the cosmos, then real clips of violence and atrocities, followed by scenes of war relief, peacemakers and religious devotees. This music was conceived with high aims ? not just spiritual and cosmic, but as a kind of therapy ? and presented in a secular concert hall rather than in a place of worship, it quickly diffused.
Mr. Coltrane returned for the finale and apex: “Acknowledgement,” the first part of John Coltrane’s “Love Supreme...”
Excerpt from Asbury Park Review
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2006610240307
Smallest band delivers during Alice Coltrane show
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 10/24/06
BY CARLTON WILKINSON, Correspondent
...Leading a quintet that included the ageless and incredible drumming of Jack DeJohnette, her son Ravi Coltrane on sax with bassists Drew Gress and Reggie Workman, Coltrane played two roughly 45-minute sets that included late husband John Coltrane's "Africa" and the opening of his "A Love Supreme." She also previewed some large ensemble numbers from her upcoming Impulse CD of inspirational music.
Apart from Coltrane herself, one of the evening's highlights included Workman's solo on "Africa" that closed the first half of the program. Workman played with John Coltrane's band in the early '60s and was the original bassist on this track, a recording intended by Coltrane to push the envelope of jazz expression.
Son Ravi played sax
The combination of two bass players here gave Workman room to exercise a deeply skilled imagination and remarkable bow technique. Most remarkable was his ability draw out and structure contrasts of timbre (on an instrument generally accepted as monochromatic).
Ravi Coltrane also gave a memorable tenor sax solo here — not his best of the evening, but virtuosic in marrying expression to context. The compelling ritualistic rhythm of this number let him slow down from his usual frenetic lyricism into some really beautiful, unfragmented long lines.
Blog review from http://audiologo.blogspot.com/2006/10/part-ii-cornel-west-alice-coltrane.html
Alice Coltrane and the lost art of dialogue
...The first half of the concert was pretty much just the Quartet with a bassist named Drew, whose last name I couldn't hear, subbing for Charlie Haden. Occassionally it became a quintet with bassist Reggie Workman doubling the lower registers. Coltrane started with her early favorite "Sita Ram" featuring her organ work and her great rhythmic ability--she moved in front of, behind and on the beat fluidly--and moved on from there with A. Coltrane playing organ, piano and electric keyboards. Can she play, oh yes! The fact that she hasn't been playing out consistently for 26 years hasn't kept her from composing, playing and recording sacred music as part of her spiritual practice—and apparently she's been highly creative in the improvisational aspects of composing new forms of sacred music so the new commercially released work is the result of considerable prior engagement on her part.
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