Something was in the air in 1965. Bob Dylan plugged in his guitar and alienated much of his folk-music base. And John Coltrane headed off into the stratosphere of sacred, free playing and left most of his base, which was most jazz fans, in the dust. Most of them had forgiven him for his 1961 adventures with Eric Dolphy, and had come to revere the early '60s Quartet with Jones, Garrison and Tyner. But following A LOVE SUPREME, Coltrane set off in pursuit of an ecstatic vision that could not be contained in traditional jazz structures. I'll never forget the first time I heard this record in 1976, along with OM. I loved Ornette Coleman, but I found these records to be impenetrable, loud and ugly. Keep this in mind if you haven't heard music like this before.

Today, I find it beautiful, even the long opening track, "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost," which is nearly 13 minutes long, and culminates in a section that sounds like the tocsin being sounded by an atonal spiritual army. But that track affected my reception of the rest of the recording (LP, in those days) at first, and I never realized that the rest of the album isn't nearly as harsh. Pharoah Sanders on tenor and Rashied Ali on percussion are added to the Quartet. The second track, "Compassion," is more like the 1961 Vanguard material, with a very funky rolling drum beat. "Love" and "Serenity" sound as serene as you would expect, more like "A Love Supreme," interrupted by the intense, dissonant "Consequences."

MEDITATIONS is the single greatest work of Coltrane's late (post-LOVE SUPREME, 1965-1967) period. I feel that ASCENSION, with a large ensemble, is not nearly as effective, nor is OM. The others I recommend are SUN SHIP, an overlooked recording from the fall of 1965, the last with the Quartet, INTERSTELLAR SPACE, duets with drummer Rashied Ali, and LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD AGAIN, with an unbelievable solo by Pharoah Sanders.

"Meditations" is John Coltrane's 1966 album which indeed has a divided opinion amongst devotees. The album can easily be dismissed as 40 minutes worth of random noise however, after several listens, "Meditations" can be quite extraordinary ranking high with works such as "Ascension", "Kula Se Mama" and "Interstellar Space".
For "Meditations", Coltrane is augmented by a sextet featuring himself and Pharoah Sanders on tenor sax, pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and the dual drums of Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali. Like Coltrane's timeless classic "A Love Supreme", "Meditations" is an album-length suite with spiritual overtones. Unlike "A Love Supreme", the music is largely full of dense atonality and fiercely performed free-form improvisation. This music definitely cannot be categorized as 'easy listening'.
The opening track, "The Father and The Son and The Holy Ghost" is a nearly 13-minute excursion into dissonant realms with Coltrane and Sanders using their horns for a variety of sound effects. Sanders solo which enters nearly seven minutes into the track is especially effective with its use of tones that are beyond the highest notes of the instrument.
This track segues into "Compassion" in which the music becomes calmer and more listenable. McCoy Tyner's piano playing is a big highlight here as is Coltrane's lyrical sax lead towards the end.
After a brief pause, bassist Jimmy Garrison introduces the next track "Love" with a somber unaccompanied solo. Coltrane then joins Garrison two minutes into the track with an soaring lead line as the rest of the band joins in gradually crescendoing to an explosive climax which leads into the next piece "Consequences".
"Consequences" is a slight revist to the dense atonal runs which opened the album. Sanders and Coltrane introduce the track with a dual-sax conversation which Sanders winds up taking over. Once again, his playing is expressive, difficult to describe yet perfectly in context with the music. Coltrane rejoins Sanders briefly but Tyner's piano enters in as the rest of the band (except for Garrison) drops out. Here, Tyner's piano spotlight features some his best playing on a Coltrane album veering off into Classical realms.
Tyner's extended piano improvisation paves the way for the album's closing piece "Serenity", a meditative epilogue that features a beautifully executed sax lead line by Coltrane with a dynamic accompaniment from the other musicians - a calm finale to what is otherwise an intense album.
While it doesn't rank amongst Coltrane's best-loved works, "Meditations" is still undoubtedly a classic. Its explosive musical interplay along with its emotion-filled expression is unlike anything else Coltrane has done (except for maybe "Ascension"). It is a pure statement from one of Jazz music's legendary musicians.
Not for the faint of heart but still very recommended!!!

I'll just start by saying that if you think Coltrane's music peaked with GIANT STEPS or with his work in the Miles Davis band then you probably don't want to purhcase this cd. Straight-ahead, in-the-pocket jazz this is not.

This cd is The Anti-Giant Steps. Whereas Giant Steps is mainly just a display-piece for Coltrane's technical virtuosity, MEDITATIONS is nothing but ensemble improvisational exploration and emotional outpouring. Quite simply, this cd is Coltrane at his very best, and yet it is certainly not for everyone.

For me, the first 15 minutes or so of this cd may very well be the most engaging and emotionally fulfilling music that Coltrane ever made, and that is due in no small part to the "added" musicians, Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali. Pharoah's playing seems to either be loved or hated. One thing is for sure though, his soulful improvisations are not for the faint of heart. Though his detractors will just say "He can't play, he just squeaks". This is due to some listeners having a hard time understanding and accepting alternate visions of personal expression. It takes more than just a shallow, superficial listen to understand Pharoah's playing. Pharoah is as deep and emotional a tenor player as has ever existed, and he and Coltrane connect wonderfully on this cd. I also think that McCoy Tyner (pianist) is better on this cd than on any other late-period Coltrane recordings.

There are no words I can use that would give you a feeling of the music contained on this cd, I'll just say that everything Coltrane had learned about himself, music, and the deep importance of nurturing the Human Spirit comes out in this music.

For many years, those of us who couldn't find the original album (which seemed to go out of print right after it was issued) had to content ourselves with a less than 5 minute excerpt from FS&HG on "The Best of John Coltrane, V.II." And as fine as the rest of Meditations is, this album's reason for existence is The Father, Son and Holy Ghost--one of the supreme mastepieces of modern music. There's certainly nothing in all of Energy Music that reaches a higher high, and the towering climax that Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali thrash out under Coltrane's frantic, rising solo immediately before Pharoah Sanders enters is, to the best of my knowledge, unique in all of music. People who liken listening this to a religious experience aren't being pretentious in my opinion--if any music is capable of punching a hole in heaven and bringing the listener to the next level, it's got to be this. It's still unbelievable to me that music could rise to this level of intensity without completely coming apart. I could wax poetic about the effect this piece had on a bunch of teenage jazz lovers in 1972, but what's the point. This is really the type of music that takes up where words leave off. A lot of avant-garde jazz is just noise, loud or quiet, but not this time. As we used to say, John Coltrane didn't die, he just got too heavy for the world and fell off. Before he did, however, he broke through to the Other Side, if only for a few seconds. Get this disc and listen to one of the most amazing performances in all of music. And the rest of it ain't bad either.

Rashid Ali. Elvin Jones. Playing together. Here's where all tonality starts to break down. Coltrane and Sanders finally get into the studio to record the new sounds they'd had on the road and took it all to another level that was never really matched in the studio. And Coltrane goes totally into the sprit in music, never looking back. This was the band he wanted, and sadly couldn't keep, Tyner and Jones took off after this, with different stories as to why depending on who you ask. This music is rarely gentle but can be, The Father The Son and The Holy Ghost becomes Sacred music of another culture, it at times reminds one of the master musicians of Jajouka, this is pagan ritual music, the rites of pan, the terror of man who was at the mercy of storm and horn gods, and the spirits of the ancestors, . This is the music of Ancient Africa, rediscovered. For a time I was losing sleep over the extincition of so much sacred music in our world, Cante Jondo for instance, Jajouka for another, Kurdish and Armenian folk musics,etc. But the great sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan (may god be pleased with him) pointed out in his excellent book "the music of life" that all music had to be originally discovered by intuition, or was given to man by gods (which really amount to the same thing if you look at it from a certain perspective). So nothing is lost, it can always be rediscovered. And that is what happens here, a sacred music lost for centuries, maybe millenia (it sounds as primal as jajouka, which is pre monotheism, maybe 4000 years old!) is found again by the master musicians and mystics John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, may god be pleased with them. This is some of the truly Sacred music of the twentieth century, I have found non jazz afficianados to be more receptive to this atonal revolutionary music, they don't have the prejudices of what Coltrane should or should not be. Deep music, as deep as it gets. It is the shamanic experience, the listener can be violently torn apart and then put back together with a new sense, this music is an initiation, once through it you will hear music in a different way for the rest of your life, and you will be thankful for Meditations for this. But it is by no means for the weak of heart, some find it violent, which is absurd, Coltrane was the most gentle man who lived since Percy Bysshe Shelley. I cannot recommend it enough, if it scares you then chances are you need to be scared. If you think it's just noise, slow down, read "silence" by John Cage, open your mind and your ears. You are missing more then I can ever tell you if you don't let this music take you away. Compassion. Love. Serenity. It's all here, this is the music of life, and if it seems violent, so would the sight of our hearts pumping blood, of our mothers giving birth to us, but this is life, and it is beautiful and essential, so is this music.