The Church of St. John Coltrane: Recorded Live, San Francisco
Author: Daniel Spicer
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Wanika K. Stephens (b) |
Label: |
ExploreSound |
Magazine Review Date: |
March/2018 |
Catalogue Number: |
ESLP-001 |
RecordDate: |
date not stated |
The address may have changed a few times, chased around town by relentless gentrification, but for 50 years, since John Coltrane left this world, there’s been a church in San Francisco dedicated to venerating him as a saint and using his music to instigate ecstatic states in its flock. Up till now, you’ve had to drop by in person to experience it but, perhaps inspired by the critical success, last year, of Alice Coltrane’s ashram recordings, this new vinyl LP offers the chance to eavesdrop on what the celebrants call a “sound baptism”. And what a messy, glorious, uplifting blast it is. Gospel is, unsurprisingly, a major influence, with tambourines, handclaps, foot stamps and massed vocal harmonies rising above the background chatter of an excited congregation. But, once the old-time call to prayer is out of the way, the band – led by the Church’s founders, Archbishop Franzo King and Supreme Reverend Mother Marina King – barrel straight into raggedly exuberant jams plucked from Coltrane’s oeuvre. A Love Supreme is a touchstone, with the vocal chant of ‘Acknowledgement’ becoming a communal mantra, and ‘Resolution’ is a joyous exhortation driven on by Frederick Harris’s high-energy piano pyrotechnics. Now, that’s what you call High Church
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