It has always puzzled me that some Sony records can sound terrific and others just terrible - it’s really a “hit and miss” thing with them. As you point out, it’s too bad because their performers are often excellent, they deserve better.
BTW, I never heard a Sony Hi-Fi product that sounded great. Just not my type of sound.
Claude
Cleaned on the Audio Desk and ready to play…
I’ve just bought what is almost certainly an ‘unofficial’ or ‘bootleg’ copy of Alice Coltrane’e Ptah The El Daoud from HHV in Germany.
It’s a record that is at the very top of my wish list but copies now change hands regularly for over £200 which is just too much for me.
I’ve researched this unofficial copy and from what I gather it is well pressed and sounds decent and most importantly for me the cover is very good because I’m looking for one to frame up. So for the money I paid which is the cost of a CD it works as a piece of art even if the music sounds terrible.
Gatefold?
As you say, for the price of a CD…can’t go wrong. It is a lovely, striking cover, worth buying for that alone. Let us know how it sounds…
Not sure if it’s gatefold. I’d dearly love to own an original copy especially now as after the Universal fire it’s entirely possible that those original masters are gone for good which will mean prices will only ever go up.
I’ve no doubt Verve/Impulse will reissue this record and some mastering wizard will do a fine job but it will not be an all analogue remaster taken from those original masters.
I wondered about gatefold because the Alice photo of yours is the back cover of mine.
Just in case yours turns out to be single, here’s a pic of the inside gatefold. Hope it’s clear enough to read!
Mine is the University Series release, so I think a second press… I’d need to check discogs.
Thanks steviebee a very interesting read. It’s strange because apart from the very odd track I can’t really get into Alice, Pharoah or her late husband for that matter but this record is on another level entirely it’s spiritual in a way music never really is in the west.
Music is used as a spiritual transport by many religions in the near, middle and far east but not in a celebratory way like hymns or even Gospel.
I’m not in any way a religious person but this record is still a spiritual experience for me Alices’s playing is immense and immersive close your eyes and it really is spiritual.
Have you heard Alice’s Journey in Sachitananda (think I got that right)? Another beauty.
I’m a huge fan of Alice and Pharoah Sanders. Love em both. Still sometimes find some later John C a bit of a wade, but I’m getting there!
Yes I’ve listened to it a few times and I know this is probably a really unpopular opinion but I think it would be immeasurably improved by the removal of most of Pharoah Sanders playing, for me it just removes you from the trance like state that Alice’s playing puts you into like someone slamming a door when your nodding off.
You would like this. Alice, solo harp… its only 9 minutes long tho, so only a quick trance 
It’s lovely, of course.
@Bobthebuilder
Listening to Mantra on Ptah right now - hard to imagine it without Pharoah or indeed Joe Henderson.
I think I get it tho - I’d love Radiohead if wasn’t for Thom Yorke’s whiny voice! 
On its way from the bay
For some reason I don’t feel the same way about Pharoah on Ptah and my two favourite records feature both him and Joe the least Turiya and Blue Nile, Mantra is probably my least favourite but I can listen to it.
I totally get the Thom Yorke thing though.
Bob
There is another Turiyasangitanada. A 2017 compilation on Luka Bop. It was also called ‘The Ecstatic Music Of Alice Coltrane’. It should be on any streaming service you may use. It is is wonderful IMHO. Maybe that is the one you meant that you couldn’t get on with?
@James_C
That’s a lovely album too. No Pharoah as
it’s a compilation of her Ashram recordings with devotional songs. I agree, it’s great!
I took the Julia Jacklin - Crushing album back to the local HMV and unfortunately they had no more in stock so I got a refund. I was going to order a replacement from the HMV website but the online price was £5 more than I paid in store and £7 more than on the river so I ordered it from there instead. That one is going to have to go back too due to some dreadful surface noise on track 1 on side A even after two cleans on the RCM. Does anybody actually have a decent copy of this album?
Very frustrating when this happens, but worth persevering to find a good copy as its a superb album. There are good ones out there though. I bought the ltd edition green vinyl version from my local record store not long after release and this copy is a decent pressing - flat, entered correctly, and IIRC just a little bit of surface noise here and there, but remedied with a pass or two on the Okki Nokki.
Hope you mange to get hold of a decent copy soon.
Because you lot are a bad influence…but you do have good taste in music! Really enjoying and I can see it getting played a lot. Thanks
Aren’t they all on green vinyl? Both copies I’ve sent back were green and I’m expecting a green replacement tomorrow. The one I sent back today was particularly annoying because other than the noise on the first track it sounded pretty decent. Never mind, fingers crossed for 3rd time lucky
Actually enjoyed that one quite a lot. It’s the exceptionally fast, million note sax playing that I cannot get along with.
I’m a huge Jazz fan but I’ve learned I’m firmly rooted into the traditional.
90% of Coltrane up too and including Love Supreme I love 99% of his output after that just makes my head spin as does Pharaoh though I love Ptah and Harvest time.
And as for Ornette Coleman forget it.
