6. Alice ColtranePtah, The El Daoud
I got it and I burned it and listened to it on the plane a lot. That one, for her, it goes back to trying to play more old-style jazz and she’s playing incredible piano on it and the drummer’s incredible. It’s just a sick record. When you listen to an incredible jazz record, it’s just undeniable, nobody else can touch it, no white dude – and if they can, it’s too schooled. That’s why I like that one – I can reference the later, freer ones, but I listen to a lot of older records. There’s obviously Love Supreme, but that’s obviously a transitional record from [John Coltrane’s] earlier ones, Soul Train and Giant Steps. This is more advanced than that: they’re definitely alluding to older jazz and taking it to another place, but they never go too apeshit, they never start squealing, but that’s a special record.
