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Carla Bley is arguably the greatest living jazz composer; John Doran talks to the woman fellow musicians have nicknamed 'Countess Bleysie' and 'Bleythoven' about foundational free jazz sessions, the magic of The Liberation Music Orchestra and her epic jazz opera, Escalator Over The Hill. Home page photograph courtesy of Tod Papageorge
In 1975, Alice Coltrane left the Impulse label and moved to less-jazzy more-rocky Warner Bros, where she made three studio albums in three years – Eternity, Radha-Krsna Nama Sankirtana and Transcendence – just remastered and reissued all together as Spiritual Eternal. They mark a key turning point in Coltrane’s journey away from jazz and the music industry – except Alice Coltrane never moved on from anything, she just kept on going and growing
Featuring contributions from Ben Durutti, Penny Rimbaud, Bobby Barry, Jeremy Allen, Ben Myers, Kevin McCaighy, Stewart Smith, Neil Cooper, Matt Evans, Tony F Wilson, Leo Chadburn, Emily Mackay, David Bennun, Phil Harrison, Arnold De Boer, Joel McIver, Russell Cuzner, Jeremy Bolm, John Doran, TV Smith, James Sherry, Jonathan Meades, Tristan Bath, JR Moores, Julian Marszalek, Captain Sensible, Andy Moor, Christine Casey, Nic Bullen and Stewart Lee