The world will finally hear an intimate, spiritual recording made by the godmother of spiritual jazz, Alice Coltrane. Recorded in 1981 and never shared in this form with the world at large, Kirtan: Turiya Sings (Impulse! Records/UMe) is a stunning collection of nine devotional songs, featuring the never-before-heard combination of Alice Coltrane’s voice and organ. Kirtan: Turiya Sings is a part of the Impulse! Records 60th anniversary celebration and you can listen to the album here.
The original recording of these songs, Turiya Sings, was released exclusively on cassette in 1982 for the students of Alice’s ashram. In addition to Alice’s voice and organ, the recording included synthesizers, strings, and sound effects. In 2004, Alice’s son and producer of this record, Ravi Coltrane, found mixes he’d never heard before of just Alice’s voice and her Wurlitzer organ. The album will now be available on vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming.
Though known by many as the musical partner and wife of John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane is revered for her groundbreaking contributions to spiritual jazz with her legendary Impulse! recordings Journey in Satchidananda and Ptah, The El Daoud, among others. Throughout the 1970s, in addition to maintaining the busy schedule of a recording and touring artist, Alice Coltrane was immersing herself in Eastern philosophies, mythologies, and Vedic religious practices. By the early 1980s, she had become a guru and spiritual teacher and began to make music exclusively for her community at The Vedantic Center, northwest of Los Angeles.