Cosmic jazz stunner. This is one of those upper-crust LPs that easily holds down a spot in any seasoned selector's late night top ten - it's simply that timeless. From the first swirls of the title track, this record just carries you away. Each tune is built on a different hypnotic string bass groove that bores into your mind. "Shiva-Loka," "Stopover Bombay," take your pick. The tamboura (that's the metallic buzz that signals exotica in any B-movie) never lets up, and when Alice Coltrane flings some harp over it (or piano, in the case of "Something About John Coltrane"), you've got a powerful mystic brew indeed. As you’d expect, ace contributions from Cecil McBee, Rashied Ali and the great Pharoah Sanders, who even gets a Cuban Linx-style co-author mention on the front cover. High-quality Acoustic Sounds edition cut from the original analog tapes, recommended.

• 180g black vinyl pressing
• Acoustic Sounds edition remastered from original analog tapes
• housed in tip-on gatefold sleeve w/ liner notes
• limited edition
• featuring Alice Coltrane (p, harp), Pharoah Sanders (s. sax), Cecil McBee (b), Rashied Ali (d), Majid Shabazz (perc)
• original release year: 1971
• music label: Impulse! 2023

reviewed by monk 02/2007

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