A Monastic Trio is the first solo album by Alice Coltrane

Alice Coltrane

Alice Coltrane, née McLeod was an American jazz pianist, organist, harpist, and composer.-Biography:...

. Recorded in 1968 (the reissue includes one track from 1967), she intended it to be a tribute to her husband, John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

, who had died the year before.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "Musically, the works here move from the deep bluesy modal structures that Alice Coltrane so loved in John's repertoire... All of these works, with their deep Eastern tinges in the intervals juxtaposed against Western blues phrasing, are wondrously droning and emotional exercises".

Track listing

All compositions by Alice Coltrane

1. "Lord, Help Me to Be" - 7:30 Bonus track on CD reissue
2. "The Sun" - 4:01 Bonus track on CD reissue
3. "Ohnedaruth" - 7:49
4. "Gospel Trane" - 6:44
5. "I Want to See You" - 6:42
6. "Lovely Sky Boat" - 6:51
7. "Oceanic Beloved" - 4:18
8. "Atomic Peace" - 5:53
9. "Altruvista" - 6:55 Bonus track on CD reissue
   • Tracks 1–3 recorded at the Coltrane home studio, Dix Hills, New York on January 29, 1968; tracks 4–8 recorded at the Coltrane home studio, Dix Hills, New York on June 6, 1968; track 9 recorded at the Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey on March 7, 1967.
     

Tracks 1, 2 & 9 were bonus tracks on the 1998 reissue; tracks 1–2 were previously released on the Alice Coltrane/John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

 Cosmic Music

Cosmic Music

Cosmic Music is a jazz album by John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane. It was originally released after John Coltrane's death. On this release, John Coltrane actually only plays on Manifestation and Reverend King...

, while track 9 is a previously unissued recording from the sessions that resulted in John Coltrane's Expression

Expression (album)

Expression is an album by jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. The title track was Coltrane's last studio recording; the rest of the album was recorded at about the same time as Interstellar Space. "To Be" features Coltrane on flute, the only recording he made on the instrument for an entire track...

.

Personnel

• Alice Coltrane
  Alice Coltrane
  Alice Coltrane, née McLeod was an American jazz pianist, organist, harpist, and composer.-Biography:...
  
   — harp, piano
• Pharoah Sanders
  Pharoah Sanders
  Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
  
   — flute, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone
• Jimmy Garrison
  Jimmy Garrison
  Jimmy Garrison was an American jazz double bassist born in Miami, Florida. He was best known through his long association with John Coltrane from 1961–1967.-Biography:...
  
   — bass
• Rashied Ali
  Rashied Ali
  Rashied Ali, born Robert Patterson was an American free jazz and avant-garde jazz drummer best known for playing with John Coltrane in the last years of Coltrane's life.-Biography:...
  
   — drums
• Ben Riley
  Ben Riley
  Ben Riley is an American hard bop drummer known for his work with Thelonious Monk, as well as Alice Coltrane, Stan Getz, Woody Herman, Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Barron, and as member of the group Sphere...
  
  — drums

External links

• A Monastic Trio — Impulse! page