Recorded between April and June of 1971, Alice Coltrane's Universal Consciousness
stands as her classic work. As a testament to the articulation of her
spiritual principles, Universal Consciousness stands even above World
Galaxy as a recording where the medium of music, both composed and improvised,
perfectly united the realms of body (in performance), speech (in the utterance
of individual instrumentalists and group interplay), and mind (absolute
focus) for the listener to take into her or his own experience. While
many regard Universal Consciousness as a "jazz" album, it transcends
even free jazz by its reliance on deeply thematic harmonic material and
the closely controlled sonic dynamics in its richly hued chromatic palette.
The set opens with the title track, where strings engage large washes
of Coltrane's harp as Jack DeJohnette's drums careen in a spirit dance
around the outer edge of the maelstrom. On first listen, the string section
and the harp are in counter-dictum, moving against each other in a modal
cascade of sounds, but this soon proves erroneous as Coltrane's harp actually
embellishes the timbral glissandos pouring forth. Likewise, Jimmy Garrison's
bass seeks to ground the proceedings to DeJohnette's singing rhythms,
and finally Coltrane moves the entire engagement to another dimension
with her organ. Leroy Jenkins' violin and Garrison's bottom two strings
entwine one another in Ornette Coleman's transcription as Coltrane and
the other strings offer a middling bridge for exploration. It's breathtaking.
On "Battle at Armageddon," the violence depicted is internal;
contrapuntal rhythmic impulses whirl around each other as Coltrane's organ
and harp go head to head with Rashied Ali's drums. "Oh Allah"
rounds out side one with a gorgeously droning, awe-inspiring modal approach
to whole-tone music that enfolds itself into the lines of organic polyphony
as the strings color each present theme intervalically. DeJohnette's brushwork
lisps the edges and Garrison's bass underscores each chord and key change
in Coltrane's constant flow of thought.
On side two, "Hare Krishna" is a chant-like piece that is birthed
from minor-key ascendancy with a loping string figure transcribed by Coleman
from Coltrane's composition on the organ. She lays deep in the cut, offering
large shimmering chords that twirl -- eventually -- around high-register
ostinatos and pedal work. It's easily the most beautiful and accessible
track in the set, in that it sings with a devotion that has at its base
the full complement of Coltrane's compositional palette. "Sita Ram"
is a piece that echoes "Hare Krishna" in that it employs Garrison
and drummer Clifford Jarvis, but replaces the strings with a tamboura
player. Everything here moves very slowly, harp and organ drift into and
out of one another like breath, and the rhythm section -- informed by
the tamboura's drone -- lilts on Coltrane's every line. As the single-fingered
lines engage the rhythm section more fully toward the end of the tune,
it feels like a soloist improvising over a chanting choir. Finally, the
album ends with another duet between Ali and Coltrane. Ali uses wind chimes
as well as his trap kit, and what transpires between the two is an organically
erected modal architecture, where texture and timbre offer the faces of
varying intervals: Dynamic, improvisational logic and tonal exploration
become elemental figures in an intimate yet universal conversation that
has the search itself and the uncertain nature of arrival, either musically
or spiritually, at its root. This ambiguity is the only way a recording
like this could possibly end, with spiritual questioning and yearning
in such a musically sophisticated and unpretentious way. The answers to
those questions can perhaps be found in the heart of the music itself,
but more than likely they can, just as they are articulated here, only
be found in the recesses of the human heart. This is art of the highest
order, conceived by a brilliant mind, poetically presented in exquisite
collaboration by divinely inspired musicians and humbly offered as a gift
to listeners. It is a true masterpiece. The CD reissue by Universal comes
with a handsome Japanese-style five-by-five-inch paper sleeve with liner
notes reprinted inside and devastatingly gorgeous 24-bit remastering.
(by Thom Jurek, All
Music Guide)
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