Daughter of a Temple

Following closely on the heels of her previous 2024 album like the sky I’ve been too quiet, New York-born/Tamil Nadu-raised vocalist and multi-instrumentalist ganavya returns with a decidedly more ambitious and expansive project. Recorded over the course of a week in 2022 at the Moores Opera House in Houston, Texas, Daughter of a Temple is an exposition of the devotional musical philosophies of legendary musician Alice Coltrane. Featuring a roster of over 40 musicians assembled by ganavya in a mass gathering, as well as guest appearances by luminaries such as esperanza spalding, Shabaka Hutchings and Vijay Iyer, the realisation of Daughter of a Temple resembled a communal ritual more than a typical album recording. Vocal duet ‘A Love Chant (feat esperanza spalding)’ begins the album in intimate fashion, before gradually blossoming into the closing mass rendition of John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’ – a multi-part climax that serves as the album’s centerpiece. A perfect musical and ideological cross-section of spiritual jazz and South Asian devotion, Daughter of a Temple is a utopian artistic statement against loneliness and despair, with ganavya’s soaring voice sounding as if it were especially made to carry this music to new heights.