ALICE COLTRANE — Lord of Lords (review)

ALICE COLTRANE — Lord of Lords album cover Album · 1972 · Third Stream Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
Sean Trane
Theoretically, the present album should’ve been a trio consisting of Alice, bassist Haden and drummer Riley, but in reality, this is much more a total symphonic experience, rather than a jazz-trio thing.

Right in line with her usual spiritual quest, cosmic theme and search for infinite wisdom, the album opens Andromeda’s Suffering, an overloaded piece with cheesy and way-too-overpowering string arrangements that are limit kitsch and tasteless. The following Sri-Rama piece is more of the same, but slightly less-cheesy and not tending towards Indian classical melodies as its title might indicate but going ever-so-slightly dissonant in its closing section Closing up the a-side is probably Alice’s cheapest and cheesiest works in her discography, attempting to adapt Stravinsky‘s Firebird suite, and one would really wonder why, if not for Alice’s sole gratifications, because I’ve heard better versions in my dad’s classical collection, especially that her organ’s sound (a Wurlie, I think) is definitely a disputable choice.

The flipside opens on the title track with a cymbal crash and moody eerie strings, before Alice’s harp smoothes the ambiance and induces the strings to become more melodious setting, at least temporarily. Her Wurlitzer organ comes back with a vengeance and destroys the melody by overtly flirting with the dissonance frontier. Maybe the less-symphonic track of the album. The closing Going Home is again bordering on the grandiosely cheesy and the ineptly kistchy due respectively to the string arrangements and the Wurlie wailings.

As it might just be, Lords is the most symphonic album from Alice’s works along with World Galaxy, and IMHO, maybe the most insufferable if you’re not a fan of over-powering string arrangements. Nevertheless, besides my own appreciation, one shouldn’t forget that this labour of love is an outstanding example in its own genre, one that would be called much later, Third Stream. Just not my cup of tea.

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