The record Alice Coltrane made at home

John Coltrane died in July 1967. Alice went through a very hard stretch after that. She lost weight and had sleepless nights. A friend in music introduced her to a yoga teacher, Swami Satchidananda, and she started studying with him.

In November 1970, she recorded most of this album at her own home studio in Dix Hills, New York. Pharoah Sanders is on it. So are bassists Cecil McBee and Charlie Haden and drummer Rashied Ali. Under everything runs a tanpura, an Indian drone instrument. One track, "Isis and Osiris," was recorded live at the Village Gate that July.

Pitchfork wrote that the album's "very texture ... is defined by transition, process, and flow." Rolling Stone ranked it number 446 on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums.

Where it leads: Pharoah Sanders's Karma is the next stop, and it is in our free guide. After that, try Kamasi Washington's The Epic. It came out on Brainfeeder, the label of Flying Lotus, who is Alice Coltrane's grandnephew.

Heard it? Come talk about it in the listening room.