Listen to Rare Alice Coltrane Song From Compilation Featuring Flying Lotus Liner Notes

Listen to Rare Alice Coltrane Song From Compilation Featuring Flying Lotus Liner Notes

On May 5, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label will release a new Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda compilation called World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda. The record features music that Coltrane made while she lived at the Sai Anantam Ashram, which she established in 1983; the tracks had previously been available only on cassettes distributed within the community. Following “Om Shanti,” the latest offering from the compilation is the rare song “Om Rama.” Hear the track below.

World Spirituality Classics 1 includes liner notes by Grammy-winning music historian Ashley Kahn, and also interviews with those close to Coltrane. Among those interviewed were Flying Lotus (Coltrane’s great-nephew), as well as her children Michelle and Oran. Below, read their contributions to the liner notes, as told to and compiled by Mark “Frosty” McNeill of Dublab.

Read “Transfiguration and Transcendence: The Music of Alice Coltrane” from The Pitchfork Review.

Steven “Flying Lotus” Ellison:

I am Steven Ellison, also known as Flying Lotus. Alice Coltrane was my aunt. Some know her as Alice Coltrane, some know her as Turiyasangitananda, but to me she was Auntie. I remember the ashram as kind of a journey. You know, you were going to the magical place, it had that feel to it. You know, you were going there on a magical Sunday. And as soon as you arrive it’s just so quiet, you know, and there’s all these people dressed up in white. There’s a little mandir that everyone would go into and all be seated there on these little pillows and there’d be little instruments around. All different races, and I really liked seeing that, you know.

As a kid I was like, “Oh wow, there’s just—everyone’s getting down.” You know, everyone would come in with such a positive energy. You just feel it when you’re there. You’re just like oh, OK, this is—this is the real deal spiritual place. Yeah, and Auntie would come out and say some really inspiring words and then she would start playing music and everyone else would join in and they might go two, three, four hours of doing that and then everybody leaves, wow.

As a child going to the ashram was deep. The music was always crazy. Being um, encouraged to join in the circle of music happening, you know, that was a very cool experience to have. Just be surrounded by these people who are supporting you and you know, picking up an instrument and singing some stuff. You know, you’d be surprised. These people that you’ve been around for so long it’s like, “Oh man, he’s funky. OK, alright. Yeah!” You know, you didn’t see it coming but you know—and then, “Oh, she can sing like that? Wow!”

She always would say that the voice is the most powerful instrument and the importance of playing every note, using the whole instrument for everything that it has. Which can be applied to everything creative. You know, use everything and have an understanding of the tools and when to use them. Someone’s saying something for real here, you know, and I think that lo-fi angle really just gives that good saturation and I think that the funk helps to. You know, when it’s funky and you can just groove to it, you know, it’s like…. Maybe a lot of the music, you know the percussive music that we hear nowadays, this stuff makes more sense now, we’re a little bit more familiar with these kind of rhythms now to embrace it. I think that she felt she had to do it. I don’t think she ever tried to, you know, push it to be a big thing and I don’t think that—that when you record this kind of music you can’t come from that place.

You know, it’s more so like, you know if you—if you are seeking this kind of thing it’s available to you. You know, I never thought that she was trying to make a big splash in the New Age music scene, you know. [laughing] I just hope that when it comes to the music that if people are seeking it they could find it. It should be there for you when you need.

“Sita” Michelle Coltrane:

My name is Michelle Ann Coltrane, spiritual name is Sita. I’m Alice Coltrane’s daughter. This is a black woman from Detroit. She had an ashram in the westernized part of the world, became a guru, and left quite a legacy. She loved the organ because she—she was orchestrating so she had the ability to not only use both hands but she was using her feet. So to sustain those bass notes and then—then now a chord and then with the right hand doing lines and runs. It was just amazing to see that because she’s kind of bouncing around on the organ. Never seen my mother smile so much.

And she would stand up and that’s how we knew the concert was over. She’s got her foot on the pedal and then it would still sustain after, like baaaaaaaahhhhhhhhmmmm [sound effect] you know. That was awesome. It’s like almost equivalent to smashing the guitar or you know, throwing the mic down. When synthesizers came into play we’d encouraged mother to come to the music store to say you should check this out, and she’s like, “No no, I, you know I’m good with—with what I have here.” And when we went to the Guitar Center she started out on like, the basic model. A few people were kind of listening and then she kind of went up to the next model and a few more people started to gather around.

Now she’s at the Oberheim or the top, you know, playing with it and turning the knobs you know. And a crowd has kind of gathered. It was like the Pied Piper. She ended up purchasing it and really, she enjoyed the um, tricks that it could to. You know, the modulations and, uh… she referenced that to what the universe sounded like to her, and when it does the eeeeuuuuuooooooobooom [sound effect], it’s reminiscent of the Om or the breath. It just has a very spiritual overtone.

She wouldn’t have said she was a singer. She just had to do it. She had to be the one to do it. I had never heard my mother sing like that before and all of a sudden this music came along and she added her vocals on it and they’re—they’re pretty sturdy. I just thought it was such a surprise. These are not diaries. This isn’t things [sic] that we found that I don’t—that were not intended to be shared publicly. This music was left here for some to hear and perhaps she knew that. That’s why she left it for us.

Oran Coltrane:

My name is Oran Coltrane. I’m the son of Alice and John Coltrane. I really feel blessed and honored to have been born into this family. Alice was such an incredibly beautiful human being. She had no ego whatsoever. She is a living example of what a person can accomplish when they’re dedicated and true to themselves. That’s what everybody—that’s what we’re striving for and this is a person that really got what she wanted.

The reason this music has that appeal, it transcends language. Somehow you hear the essence behind it. You know there is something special about it. It’s like finding something very unusual on the earth that isn’t supposed to be here. I um, I just really [cries]. I knew there was something great happening with her. She was for real. 18 She really tapped into spiritual living, spiritual thinking and I saw the result of it. [cries] And when she put her— her hands on the keyboard it was like somebody shooting a beam of light through your chest.

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