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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.

The second half of the concert was devoted to music that has only been heard at the ashram ("the Ashram Goes Public" we were jokingly told), with with a large orchestral ensemble (4 cellos, 3 contrabasses, etc...) with conductor, and a chorus from the Ashram gracing opposite sides of the stage with Workman and Drew Gress and Jack DeJohnette centrally located and Ravi Coltrane and his mother out front, stage left and right respectively. It was quite amazing. Future scientist Dr. J.J. Hurtak, founder of The Academy for Future Science , is working with Alice Coltrane on creating a sacred language in avant garde music, a combination of modern jazz, futuristic music, and complex eastern music structures, which is meant to further the understanding of planetary humanity (Washington Post writer Teresa Wiltz hearing Cotrane play at the Ashram coined the term, "Hindu gospel".) Hurtak noted the composition work by Coltrane that evokes the many sacred names of God. Dr. Hurtak used to teach at CalArts with Ravi Shankar and now is at the United Nations. He talked about Alice Coltrane's compositional work as "music for emergent spirituality of the 21st century." Further Hurtak referred to them as "beloved Alice's contributions to the music of ascension."

One of the songs in this set included this video accompaniment. Including video with music is always tricky, a conversation that I had been having with M+K that weekend in part referencing something I'm currently working on that they were kind enough to give me feedback on (but that's another story). Some of the video accompaniment focused the call for transformation that was evident in the prayer-referencing musical idioms in the composition, but much became a distraction for me from the power of the sonic. It was like having been told that you were going to hear this great transformative work, and then being interrupted with cue cards to make sure you understood what was really being referenced.

Also, I can't speak for anyone else, I was in California on 9/11 in 2001, but showing those images repeatedly in the same piece, particularly a piece that operates as something of a visual catalogue of man's inhumanity to man, is still too much for me. The video did move on to images of renewal with the feeding of hungry people and educating of dislocated children, healthcare for those impacted by civil war or with limited access to medical services. Then back to images of the interstellar system which is where it had began. When I focused on the music what I was aware of (despite some serious problems with the house sound system's handling of the bass registers, there was a low rumble throughout much of the second half), was how in the moment everyone was, the relatively inexperienced chorus and presumably conservatory trained classical musicians and the seasoned jazz players, all these different folks from different frameworks coming together to realize this project much like at the Ashram (called "the Land" by many) where apparently people of different cultures come together and live and work together to make the world a better place (they also go to their regular 9-5 jobs). Throughout I was struck by the gracious energy of Coltrane, she was luminous and so appreciative of the audience's warm reception of her work. She continues to be an amazing player, and I look forward to hearing more about her work: I mean if Hurtak is right, somebody needs to sneak a looped recording in a CD-player under the Shrub's pillow at night (mini-amps behind the bedposts? inside the pillow's down fill?), and with a quickness!