Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana

Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is an album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded in California in August 1976, and was released in 1977 by Warner Bros. On the album, Coltrane is joined by students from the Vedantic Center, who sing, clap, and play hand percussion, and by her daughter Sita Michelle Coltrane and son Arjuna John Coltrane Jr.[1][2]

Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana
Studio album by
Alice Coltrane
Released1977
RecordedAugust 1976
StudioThe Record Plant, Sausalito, California; The Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California
GenreJazz, Devotional
Length37:46
LabelWarner Bros
BS 2986
ProducerEd Michel
Alice Coltrane chronology
Eternity
(1976)		 Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana
(1977)		 Transcendence
(1977)

Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana was the first album on which Coltrane featured her students.[3] In a 1988 interview, Coltrane was asked if she was aware of the album's "black, soul, gospel feeling." She acknowledged the students' diverse backgrounds, and replied: "When those chants are sung I don't tell them, if you don't sound like India, forget it. I don't say such a thing. Sing the chants the way you feel about singing them. Sing from your heart and spirit and that's what you get."[3]

Reception
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz[4]
The Vinyl DistrictB+[5]

In a review for AllMusic, Thom Jurek wrote: "This album was all but ignored upon release. If reviewed at all, it was (usually) met with undeserved chauvinistic male scorn. The music on Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana is wholly original (as are all Alice Coltrane's works), complete as a document of spiritual devotion and musical acumen."[1]

The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings called the album "deeply personal and profoundly felt, but hard to contextualize" within a jazz framework.[4]

Colin Buttimer of the BBC singled out "Om Namah Sivaya" for praise, calling it "a gorgeous nineteen minutes that stand a mile out in terms of event, exploration, inter-communication... music that makes you sit up and take notice."[6]

Joseph Neff of The Vinyl District stated that, with the album, Coltrane "move[d] away from the jazz core in earnest," and suggested that "Om Namah Sivaya" may bring to mind Ornette Coleman's recordings with his son Denardo.[5]

In an article for Spectrum Culture, Daniel Bromfield noted that most of the album's "sparks of genius come in the background: odd chords backing the Sanskrit chants, canny moments when the call-and-response repetition of the Hindu music starts to tangle limbs with black church music." Regarding "Om Namah Sivaya," he commented: "The sound of her instrument changes in sudden, eerie, ramshackle ways, as if she's accidentally switched the settings—or maybe something else has descended on the room and done it for her."[7]

Track listing
  1. "Govinda Jai Jai" – 5:44
  2. "Ganesha" – 2:42
  3. "Prema Muditha" – 4:32
  4. "Hare Krishna" – 5:53
  5. "Om Namah Sivaya" – 18:59

Personnel
  • Alice Coltrane – organ, electric piano, harp, percussion
  • Sita Michelle Coltrane – tamboura (track 2)
  • Arjuna John Coltrane Jr. – drums (track 5)
  • Students of the Vedantic Center – backing vocals, percussion, handclaps (tracks 1, 3, and 4)

References
  1. Jurek, Thom. "Alice Coltrane: Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana". AllMusic. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  2. "Alice Coltrane - Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana". Jazz Music Archives. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  3. Berkman, Franya J. (2010). Monument Eternal: The Music of Alice Coltrane. Wesleyan University Press. p. 102.
  4. Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz. Penguin Books. p. 284.
  5. Neff, Joseph (May 15, 2019). "Graded on a Curve: Alice Coltrane, Eternity, Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana, Transcendence, and Transfiguration". The Vinyl District. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  6. Buttimer, Colin (2002). "Alice Coltrane in devotional mood on this reissue from Warner Jazz". BBC. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
  7. Bromfield, Daniel (April 30, 2019). "Alice Coltrane: Eternity/Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana/Transcendence/Transfiguration". Spectrum Culture. Retrieved October 21, 2022.
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