Cosmic Music

Cosmic Music is a jazz album by John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane released after John Coltrane's death. John Coltrane only plays on two tracks, "Manifestation" and "Reverend King". Background In late January 1966, Coltrane and his group, which included saxophonist Pharoah Sanders, pianist Alice Coltrane (McCoy Tyner had left the group at the end of the previous year), bassist Jimmy Garrison, bassist / clarinetist Donald Rafael Garrett, and drummers Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali, arrived in San Francisco for a two-week gig at the Jazz Workshop, sharing the bill with Thelonious Monk's quartet. During the first week of their visit, Jones resigned from the band, joining Duke Ellington's group, and was replaced by Ray Appleton. Garrett also left for part of the gig. On February 2, the group (without Garrett, and with Appleton substituting for Jones), visited Coast Recorders in San Francisco, where they recorded a number of tracks, including "Manifestation" and "Reverend King." "Manifestation" features solos by John Coltrane on tenor sax, Sanders on piccolo (returning later on tenor sax), and Alice Coltrane on piano. (It was Alice Coltrane's first recording with her husband.) "Reverend King" begins and ends with chants of "Aum-Mani-Pad-Mi-Hum" and features a solo by Sanders on tenor, as well as one of John Coltrane's few recorded appearances on bass clarinet. Tapes of these two tracks remained in the Coltranes' house until January 1968, roughly six months after John Coltrane's death, when Alice Coltrane decided to pair them with two tracks she recorded with her own group, "Lord, Help Me to Be" and "The Sun". These were her first recordings as a leader, and feature bassist Garrison and drummer Ben Riley, with Sanders appearing on tenor sax on "Lord, Help Me to Be" and briefly on flute on "The Sun". "The Sun" begins with a recording of John Coltrane and Sanders chanting "May there be peace and love and perfection throughout all creation," and ends with John Coltrane's voice saying "Alice?" Both pieces were later released as bonus tracks on the CD reissue of Alice Coltrane's first solo album, A Monastic Trio.