Alice Coltrane: Ptah, the El Daoud (45rpm) [AUDIO CLARITY]

Why you'll love it

This Audio Clarity reissue comes in a gatefold jacket. AllMusic called Ptah, the El Daoud a truly great album, and Pitchfork heard some of Coltrane's greatest piano playing on record in "Turiya & Ramakrishna."

This edition

• Gatefold jacket

About the album

Few great jazz records were made closer to home. Alice Coltrane cut Ptah, the El Daoud in a single session in the basement of her house in Dix Hills, New York, in January 1970, writing every piece herself and leading a quintet of heavyweights. It was her third solo album, and the first to give wind players a big role.

Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson share the front line, Sanders in the right channel and Henderson in the left; Coltrane described Henderson as the intellectual and Sanders as the more transcendental of the two. The title track, named for the Egyptian god Ptah, rolls out in waves, "Turiya & Ramakrishna" is a slow, bluesy piano meditation, and on "Blue Nile" both saxophonists switch to alto flute while Coltrane moves to harp. Ron Carter on bass and Ben Riley on drums keep it grounded through the closing "Mantra." Jim Evans designed the album's artwork, and the Penguin Guide to Jazz called the paired alto flutes on "Blue Nile" magnificent.

Musicians still cite it, from pianist Cat Toren to Melvin Gibbs, who said it has a Sunday-afternoon-after-church feel. A basement has seldom been put to better use.

Also at Kops: more Alice Coltrane on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Audio Clarity (cat# ACL0075), a reissue of the 1970 album.