Turiya and Ramakrishna

The second track on Ptah, the El Daoud, recorded on 26 January 1970 in the Dix Hills basement. The horns sit it out: it is a trio, with Coltrane on piano, Ron Carter on bass and Ben Riley on drums. She defined turiya as a state of consciousness, the high state of nirvana and the goal of human life; Ramakrishna was a 19th-century Bengali Hindu mystic. Turiya later became part of her own name.

It is a blues. Bill Hart of The Vinyl Press heard it as the most traditional piece on the album, a repeating riff that opens out around the two-minute mark, and named it the place to start with her music. Grammy.com called it a worshipful blues, and Pitchfork's Mark Richardson heard in it some of her greatest piano playing on record.

Other voices

Saxophonist Lakecia Benjamin plays it in her daily practice before sunrise, said it puts her in a place of worship, and recorded it on Pursuance: The Coltranes in 2020. Harpist Brandee Younger hears it reach a state close to nirvana. WhoSampled lists samples of it by Flying Lotus on Rest EZ (2005) and Domo Genesis on Hood Famous (2018), among others. The upload in the hypersongs web is a fan-made slideshow of still pictures set to the original album recording.