Awhile back I suffered food poisoning from dinner at what used to be my favorite Mexican restaurant and as I reclined in my easy chair feeling awful the next morning I put on some quiet music to help get me through it, including Bill Evans on "Sunday Morning at the Village Vanguard" and Miles Davis with his "Sketches of Spain." It's a testament to the healing power of music that I felt much better, or at least to the power of music to give me something to concentrate on other than how bad I felt.
Next time I'm sick, I may put on "Translinear Light," Alice Coltrane's first recording in a quarter century. This is (with the exception of "This Train") mostly quiet, spiritual and peaceful music, which doesn't give up anything in intricacy for all of that. She's a very good pianist, organist and electronic keyboardist and her son Ravi, who accompanies on tenor and soprano saxophones, sounds a lot like his father here. (I intend that as a big compliment.)
With Charlie Haden along for the ride on bass and Jack DeJohnette and Jeff "Tain" Watts doing drum duty, it's an impressive CD and I understand why many reviewers raved about it when it came out last year. Like "A Love Supreme," it's not something I'll want to play every day, but I wouldn't want to be without it.
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