Few artists possess the rare ability to transform their primary instrument, bending it entirely to their will and pushing it beyond its natural limits. The pedal steel guitarist […]
Spiritual and ambient jazz from our collection: Getting lost in Picture Music, Alice Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Nala Sinephro and more

Many deep listeners and hi-fi heads have been inculcated into the Church of Spiritual Jazz through prominent disciples including Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Sun Ra, all travelers who explored music and the meaning of it with equal vigor. Working within the eternal sanctuary of organized sound, they crafted oft-wordless worship music and invited everyone into this gloriously nondenominational realm.
Those who absorbed that spirit include inheritors who tapped the spaciousness and hypnotic aspects of spiritual jazz to create the cool West Coast-born ambient jazz scene.
On Monday as part of our weekly deep dive series at our New York City location, we’ll be focused on spiritual and ambient jazz records from our collection by artists including Alice Coltrane, Charlie Haden, Matthieu Beck and the trio of Pino Palladino, Blake Mills and Sam Gendel. The records will be played at proper volume and attendees will be asked to abide by our respectful mantra “to hear more, say less.”
As we noted in an earlier post:
The Monday series is inspired by listening sessions we experienced this past year at Chee Shimizu‘s Physical Store in Tokyo. Similar to his highly influential Obscure Sound disc guide, Chee wrote detailed and highly informative descriptions behind each selection played during the listening session. The write-ups were printed out on beautifully designed card stock and proved to be the perfect listening companion allowing attendees to dive deeper into the music with minimal speaking or lecturing. It was all about the music…
In the queue for Monday afternoon (2-5 p.m. ET)? Read more about the records by clicking on the link.
Alice Coltrane ft. Pharoah Sanders – Journey In Satchidananda
Charlie Haden – Closeness
Lemon Quartet – Crestless
Pino Palladino, Blake Mills, Sam Gendel – Live at Sound City
Nala Sinephro – Space 1.8
Kevin McCormick, David Horridge – Light Patterns
Picture Music – Picture Music
Matthieu Beck – Here Alone
Not in New York? Take some time to get lost in the above guided meditations.
Programming note: On Monday, Aug. 28, we’ll be inaugurating a regular series of sessions called Labels We Love. Based on our online column of the same name, the first deep dive will be with the great reissue label Numero Group.