The public is fortunate that it was recorded and now 30 years later it is being made available as a single, historical, rare harp performance. Moving seamlessly straight into Blue Nile, lush melodies bled into moments of frenetic energy, which seemed to hint at the spiritual journey Alice went on throughout her life. Alice Coltrane’s harp expression/cadenza was improvised, invented and shared with the audience at the Festival. The shift in sound was immediately notable from the opening notes of Alice Coltrane’s solo harp piece Wisdom Eye, which has an almost mystical quality. She always said that “music is an expression”. She was constantly readjusting the tuning mostly through the pedals seeking the most consistent sound that it could make.Īs Alice Coltrane’s fingers deftly traveled over the strings creating sparkling notes of music that seem other worldly and ethereal, her signature sounds on harp could be heard emerging with each adjustment. The actual harp, as one can note from the video recording took a lot of effort on the part of Ms. Slawomir was a ardent fan of Alice Coltrane’s music and very instrumental in securing the invitation for her to play at the Jazz Jamboree Festival. She was asked to lend it to Alice Coltrane by her friend the late jazz pianist Slawomir Kulpowicz. Which during the time Poland was under the communist system, was very hard to find.Īnna’s harp was taken to the venue as the only available and more playable harp in Warsaw. Anna, said the harp had a great tone but was mechanically very hard to play, because it was not in very good shape but it was a pedal harp. On the 23rd of October 1987 in Warsaw, Poland at the Jazz Jamboree festival, Alice Coltrane played a improvised harp solo that lasted over 9 minutes. It was made in Russia she had acquired it in a most unusual barter bags of white potatoes in exchange for a Russian pedal harp. Alice Coltrane’s Harp performance in Warsaw,Poland HAND NUMBERED ETCHED EDITION. Chet Baker / Piero Umiliani ~ Italian moviesĪlice Coltrane’s Harp performance in Warsaw,Poland ~ HAND NUMBERED ETCHED EDITION.Jazz on Film… Sidney Bechet – French Movies CD.