Ptah The El Daoud was a leap for Alice Coltrane and the culture of jazz music in general. Recorded at the beginning of 1970 on January 26th, Coltrane rang in the new decade with music that raised the bar for women in jazz and the agency of artists to record at home on their own terms. With Coltrane on piano (except for “Blue Nile,” on which she played harp), Pharoah Sanders and Joe Henderson (who would continue to make great music with Alice later in the 70s) moving between tracks from tenor saxophone to alto flute, Ben Riley on drums, and Ron Carter on bass, the players showcased their musicality.
Her recording studio, on the bottom floor of the Home plays an important role in the recording. Alice explained in the liner notes her decision to have Sanders’ more transcendental performances on the right channel of the stereo landscape, with Henderson’s “intellectual side” occupying the left. This organization of sound aids in the creation of an atmosphere, one of comfort in expression from the home setting and the intimacy in each player’s clear, spacious parts. Coltrane explains the meaning of Turiya, of “Turiya and Ramakrishna,” the second offering on the album, as “a state of consciousness – the high state of Nirvana, the goal of human life.” Within the concrete boundaries of her home studio, Coltrane’s ensemble achieves expansive, far reaching expression.
