Alice ColtraneBest Alice Coltrane Albums Ranked

Universal Consciousness

pitchfork

10

“Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we look back at Alice Coltrane’s 1971 avant-garde masterpiece, a furious and unbound collection of experimental jazz and devotional music that ascends to a higher spiritual realm.”

Journey in Satchidananda

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10

“Each Sunday, Pitchfork takes an in-depth look at a significant album from the past, and any record not in our archives is eligible. Today, we revisit a marvel of spiritual jazz, an album overflowing with transcendence, harmony, and grief.”

World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane

pitchfork

8.8

“In the ’80s and ’90s, Alice Coltrane recorded and released an exquisite catalog of ashram music. These devotionals tell a story of womanhood and spirituality through the lens of a peerless composer.”

Kirtan: Turiya Sings

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8.5

“These 1981 devotional recordings for voice and Wurlitzer, meant to guide meditation through chanting, offer an alternate version of the cosmic jazz visionary’s synthesizer masterpiece, Turiya Sings.”

The Carnegie Hall Concert (Live)

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8.4

“This newly issued 1971 set helpfully complicates the iconic harpist and pianist’s legacy, revealing her as not just a spiritual-jazz mystic but also the heir to her late husband’s harshly ecstatic fire music.”

Lord of Lords

pitchfork

8.0

“Alice Coltrane’s newly reissued Lord of Lords capped off a trio of richly orchestral albums in the early ’70s. It is a slow-building, cosmic, unnerving throbbing organism of sound.”