Joseph Benzola

Madonna is completing a tribute album to John Coltrane entitled: " The Father, Son, Holy Ghost & Madonna...the Blessed Virgin. As what must be viewed as a curious career turnaround, Madonna explains to Phil Schaap: "The further I get into the spirituality of the east, the more respect I have for that guy Coltrane. I mean, he really changed a lot of things with just a sax...you know what I mean....I mean I feel that this is my humble attempt as a tribute to a great , unknown artist from a well known great artist; you know what I mean." Madonna is exploring the most demanding portion of the Coltrane Canon, from late 1965 until 1967. The album opens up with her version of OM, produced by Babyface: " Yea....Babyface understands the Trane vibe really well. He's an African-American and I'm like an Italian American which is close to being an African -American in a very cultural sense. We begin with the original chant from Om taken form the Bhagvad-Gita. I also interpolate other texts from other traditions including the Diamond Sutra, Zen Koans, the Kabbala, and texts from Dr. Andrew Weil. I feel that we really capture the feeling of the original "Om". My personnel statement is replacing the original instrumentation with a pipe and drum corps from Glasgow, Scotland on the left channel and some original electronica on the right channel. I think that the results are very intense." No less intense are Madonna's original lyrics to Tranes Sunship: You know, I've been told that Trane was trying to liberate music from the tyranny of the written note. He was going towards a music of sound and rhythm. I believe that I arrived at the same conclusion years ago in my dance music so he and I are a good fit. Sunship is a duet with myself on vocals, Elvin Jones on drums, and Don Moye on Sun percussion. It is just the sound of my voice against the sound of percussion. I wrote the original lyrics while I was lying in my thermal salts bath: "Sunship.......Oh Sunship baby You bring light to the Bardo Plane It's plain to see Sunship the ancient lotus of our zazen ways the crystal burning on the digital dance floor burning love in our dharma eyes Our dharma eyes baby... Our dharma eyes Incense filling the sunship so it crashes the cosmic music in Jasmine myrrh reality Dance with me Sunship Dance with me beneath the beat of meditations breath the pulse of Om......... Ommmmmmmmm... OMMMMMMMMM Om..the first word you said to me Sunship as I kissed you beneath the Sutra light" Madonna plays Welcome on solo kazoo, something which she says she did after reading " Chasing the Trane": Yea.....I use to play drums but I wanted to play an instrument which you could play harmonically/melodically advanced music on without practicing. In Chasing the Trane, there was a section where Trane's friend Gerald McKeever would play the kazoo to Trane's ballads. I was influenced by that." Madonna also sings a medley of Meditations: " I did not know what part to do so I decided to do a medley like I do with my hits. I incorporated some Sufi texts and I also wrote some original lyrics for "Love" section: " Love.............Love........... this love is different from the other love but is is the same don't feel the shame you don't have to be tame Love...............Love.................. Carnal or Spiritual it not right or wrong there's nothing wrong with porn You can even do it with corn Love....... Love...... Love......" The musicians on the track include Prabuddha Kenny G, Sri Shiva Eric Clapton, Ma-Po-Set ( Phil Collins ), and Brain Eno. Needless to say, this will be a landmark record for Madonna and a very fitting tribute to the great John Coltrane. The release party will at at Nirvana on Central Park West in NYC sometime in late November. Says Madonna: " I'm beginning to like King Fisher and Lamb Vindaloo. In honor of Trane, we will also be serving Sweet Potato Pie."