02 March 2023 Watch

The Strangeness of Jazz - 'ALICE, NINA (SPIRIT I)'

"The discographies of Alice Coltrane and Nina Simone converge around the slain figure of Martin Luther King. In a way, the death of Martin Luther King marked a kind of turning away from America both both Nina Simone and Alice Contrane. For Nina Simone it was the start of an itinerant and troubled self exile. For Coltrane, turning away from America meant an itentification with India, with Hinduism and a new name. Turiyasangitananda, a Sanskrit name whose meaning Coltrane tells us is 'the trancendental Lord's highest song of bliss.' So she literally becomes a song. Turiya describes the 4th state of the soul, saying gita is 'music' and 'ananda' is bliss."

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Edward George is a writer and broadcaster. Founder of Black Audio Film Collective, George wrote and presented the ground-breaking science fiction documentary Last Angel of History (1996). George is part of the multimedia duo Flow Motion, and the electronic music group Hallucinator. He and hosts Sound of Music (Threads Radio), Kuduro – Electronic Music of Angola (Counterflows). George’s series The Strangeness of Dub (Morley Radio) dives into reggae, dub, versions and versioning, drawing on critical theory, social history, and a deep and a wide cross-genre musical selection. Edward George lives and works in London.