Alice Coltrane, John McLaughlin, Carlos Santana and friends - March 14th, 1974
Kabuki Theater, San Francisco, CA, US
Source: SBD FLAC files
Setlist:
--- John McLaughlin and unknown accompanist
01. Devotion (9:27) [guitar, zither, vocal]
02. As and So - poem and song (10:37) [guitar, zither, vocal]
03. Guru (10:01) [guitar, harmonium, vocal]
--- Carlos Santana and wife Deborah (introduced by another name)
04. song intros - Four Eyes (4:11) [guitar, harmonium, vocals]
05. God Then (3:44) [guitar, harmonium, vocals]
06. God Now (1:51) [harmonium, vocals]
--- Alice Coltrane solo
07. Wurlitzer organ improv (7:20)
08. Harp improv (4:43)
--- Alice Coltrane trio
09. Africa (14:39) [Alice Coltrane on Wurlitzer with drums, bass]
--- Electric band with Alice Coltrane (no McLaughlin)
10. The Angel of Air (4:38) [Alice Coltrane on harp]
11. The Angel of Water (6:20) [same as above]
12. The Angel of Sunlight (15:52) [Alice Coltrane on Wurlitzer]
--- Electric band (no Alice Coltrane or McLaughlin)
13. Let Us Go into the House of the Lord (27:32)
14. Band intro (1:59) [John McLaughlin]
--- Ensemble
15. A Love Supreme (7:33) [cut - Alice Coltrane on Wurlitzer]
Total time: 130:27 min.
Personnel:
Alice Coltrane: Wurlitzer organ, harp [07-12, 14-15]
John McLaughlin: guitar [01-03, 14-15]
Carlos Santana: guitar [04-06, 10-15]
(unknown accompanist): the first 6 tracks include female vocals, zither, and harmonium. This could be one person, two, or three. We are guessing one. At track 04 Deborah Santana is introduced though by another name, not found in preliminary research. We believe she is an additional vocalist on tracks 04-06.
--- Trio (personnel presumed, as they are introduced at the end. However this is not confirmed. Note that Workman played on the original recording of Africa.)
Reggie Workman: bass [09-15]
Michael Shrieve: drums [09-15]
--- Electric band:
Armando Peraza: congas [10-15]
Reggie Workman: bass [10-15]
Jules Broussard: saxophones, flute [10-15]
Michael Shrieve: drums [10-15]
Tom Coster: keyboards [10-15]
Notes:
Light mastering, tagging, circulation and these notes by Tyler RH aka Mr. Completely in 2023. Source material provided via, and research by, Key Man Jesse Jarnow. Extensive and insightful setlist and instrumentation parsing by Jeremy Erwin. Many thanks to both of them.
About the performance:
- Per the SF Examiner listing, billed as "an evening of spiritual music."
- A fascinating progression of pieces, some of them seemingly unique to this performance.
- We would love any information about the accompanist(s) described above, or any other aspects of the show.
- God Then also appears in the Illuminations sessions
- The two Alice Coltrane solo pieces do not correspond to any composition or existing track we can find. We believe them to be improvisations and have labeled them thus.
- Africa is of course the John Coltrane song of that title.
About the recording and mastering process:
- Provided in a lossless audio format with no information beyond a mildly incorrect date and location. Jesse corrected the date; the SF Examiner listing he found is provided.
- Presumably from the quality of the recording a reel to reel master was made from the soundboard and at least one, possibly a few, analog generations exist between that master and the digital transfer.
- The files provided contained many minor flaws. Due to the historic nature of this fileset I have chosen to correct very few of them, using minimally invasive methods, for this initial version. The recording merits and could benefit from professional remastering. So I tried not to do anything that would get in the way of that.
- I joined all the files together using very minor splices and overlaps. No music was edited.
- I fixed the many clipping errors, but did nothing else to the levels.
- The pieces in the first half of the show are introduced by the artists.
- Jeremy and I figured out the rest of them.
- Details of instrumentation were determined by Jeremy. Thanks again for that excellent work.
- The original fileset came with the studio sessions for the Illuminations album, which we will circulate as a separate fileset. The recordings are at least approximately contemporaneous and together represent a significant addition to the available archival material relating to this era of Alice Coltrane's career. It has been our honor and privilege to work on this historic material.
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