John Coltrane – Meditations

Shocking that this hasn’t gotten a reissue since 1983. All the other ones did. Why not this? Such an incredible release.

When I first discovered Coltrane it was the late 80's and I was 17. The first Coltrane records I went out and bought was My Favourite Things and Meditations. There was no Spotify or Youtube back then, I had to go by the covers. Needless to say, I was in for a surprise. I managed to choose one of each end of the spectrum. Throughout the years I have built up a nice collection of his music, he is truly one of my all time favourite musicians. Today I found a copy of this pressing, and it was in a really good condition. I put it on and finally I can say that I get this music. The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost is a really powerful expression, and the rest of the music, which he had attempted to record a couple of months earlier but decided to re record, is really dynamic and I think I can understand why he decided to release this instead of the recording that came out posthumously as "First Meditations". This is brilliant music, it just took me 35 years to realise it.

I usually love free jazz but side A just sounds like a donkey getting tortured

"The year 1965 was a turning point in the life of John Coltrane. It was at this point that he crossed the line into the free jazz arena that he had been approaching since the early '60s. Besides his landmark Ascension, no album better illustrates this than the awe-inspiring Meditations. Coltrane's regular quartet -- McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums) -- is expanded here with second drummer Rashied Ali (who assumed Jones' spot after this album) and saxophonist Pharoah Sanders. This conglomeration produces some dense textures, especially in the epic first track "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost." This sonic hurricane is a 13-minute outpouring of spiritual emotion that is at once compelling and exhausting. Elsewhere, the group delicately follows Coltrane's lead on the ionate "Love" and swings with abandon on the raucous "Consequences" as Sanders and 'Trane battle like warriors above the churning rhythm section. Finally, the aptly titled "Serenity" is a swirling free-form improvisation gently touching back down to earth after an adventurous ride through the heavens." Review by Ravi Staff of Allmusic.

'How does one review a group which appears to have discarded all musical values? I don't know what Coltrane and his fellows are up to here but it is not music according to my dictionary's definintion. There are sounds on this record sure enough--harsh, primitive, squawking sounds, a barrage of them...
Jive just about sums up this rubbish. I find it distressing to see musicians of proven ability as Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones lending their names to such drivel. The schrill screeches of Pharoah Sanders, on the other hand, make me wonder whether he can play the instrument at all...
Absolute hokum from start to finish. Coltrane states that he believes in all religions and furthermore declares there "certainly is meaning to life" unfortunetly no coherent, understandable meaning is communicated by his music at this stage. I read he has bought a electric saxophone and is contemplating a period of withdrawal from the scene... I fear though he he has ed the legion of the lost for good.... excerpts of review from Jazz Journal December 1966