Alice Coltrane’s solo music emerged phoenix-like after the death of her husband, initially in trio format, and gradually growing in scope, until it morphed into predominantly string and vocal devotional music. But that came later.
Ptah the El Daoud came after the trio recordings [[ASIN:B001KNQNG6 A Monastic Trio]] and [[ASIN:B005J6Q9WI Huntington Ashram Monastery]], and found her expanding the instrumentation and enlarging the group. barring a little clarinet on one track on A Monastic Trio it was the first time she returned to using horns, which she would soon move away from again later. But here Pharaoh Sander and Joe Henderson make a great ‘front line’, their flute-duo head on the ‘Blue Nile’, for example, being luminously beautiful. The album also has a lot of down-home blues in it, especially in the florid piano lines of the exquisite ‘Turiya and Ramakrishna’ and built into the very form of ‘Blue Nile’, wherein her beautiful shimmering harp takes over the more conventional role of the piano.
Some critics rather shortsightedly write Alice off as having merely carried on in the same vein as Coltrane had left off when he died. I can only think those critics aren’t really listening! The title track, rather than carrying on what ‘Trane had been doing at the end, revisits the rhythm section feel of his mid-sixties [[ASIN:B00006K06N A Love Supreme]] ‘classic’ sound, but with some of the ‘new thing’ vibe spread on top; but it’s on ‘Turiya and Ramakrishna’ and ‘Blue Nile’ that the real magic begins. If anything here could be said to be continuation of late ‘Trane, it would be the final number, ‘Mantra’. This latter is ok, but not as good as the two highlights.
So, not an entirely consistent album, but where it scores highest, it’s pretty much off the scale. It’s also an album of hers where the best tracks happen also to be pretty accesible, making it a good place to start your appreciation of the singular talent of Alice Coltrane.