''Huntington Ashram Monastery'' is the second solo album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded in May 1969 at the Coltrane home studios in Dix Hills, New York, and was initially released later that year by John Coltrane Records, which was absorbed by Impulse! Records. On the album, Coltrane is heard on harp and piano, and is joined by bassist

Ron Carter Ronald Levin Carter (born May 4, 1937) is an American jazz double bassist. His appearances on 2,221 recording sessions make him the most-recorded jazz bassist in history. He has won three Grammy awards, and is also a cellist who has recorded nu ...

and drummer Rashied Ali. In 2011, Impulse! reissued the album, along with ''

World Galaxy ''World Galaxy'' is the sixth solo album by Alice Coltrane. It was recorded in November 1971 in New York City, and was released in 1972 by Impulse! Records. On the album, Coltrane appears on piano, organ, harp, tamboura, and percussion, and is join ...

'', as part of a compilation titled ''Huntington Ashram Monastery/World Galaxy''.

Reception

The

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review awarded the album 4 stars. Thom Jurek noted Coltrane's "majestically meditative harp" on the first half of the album, and remarked that her piano playing on the second half "bring the free jazz component into focus." Regarding the pieces featuring harp, Chris M. Slawecki of All About Jazz wrote that they "pivot their internal (meditative) and external (exploratory) faces upon the fulcrum of Carter's repetitive, throbbing bass, even though their swirling movements and rhythms, especially from Coltrane's harp, sound static, nearly floating." He stated that, on the works with piano, the instrument's "less heavenly, more temporal sound seems to root them in more earthly styles," and noted that "the spiritual overtones, and multiplicity and sheer volume of her notes" invite comparison with McCoy Tyner. ''AAJs Chris May called the recording a "beautiful, sumptuous album," and wrote that, for the most part, it "suggests rather than delivers astral jazz," noting that "the root of the music is straight-ahead." Author Max Brzezinski singled out "Turiya" for praise, and stated that it "produces mesmeric effects." He commented: "It suspends the listener in a cloud of lush textures, as each instrumentalist begins pursuing their own slow tempos, improvising until they find a shared sense of time... 'Turiya' doesn't develop in the traditional sense so much as it experiments with endless variations on a theme."

Track listing

All compositions by Alice Coltrane #"Huntington Ashram Monastery" – 5:36 #"Turiya" – 4:22 #"Paramahansa Lake" – 4:37 #"Via Sivanandagar" – 6:09 #"IHS" ("I Have Suffered") – 8:50 #"Jaya Jaya Rama" – 6:25

Personnel

* Alice Coltrane –

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

(tracks 1–3),

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

(tracks 4–6) *

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* Rashied Ali –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

References

{{Authority control 1969 albums Alice Coltrane albums Impulse! Records albums Albums produced by Alice Coltrane