'A Love Supreme,' John Coltrane (1965)

The cover of "A Love Supreme"

Iconic jazz saxophonist John Coltrane hit his creative peak in his 1965 album “A Love Supreme,” released two years before Coltrane died in 1967 at age 40 of liver cancer.

Many in the jazz world believed Coltrane was recording his best records when he died early, after a decade-spanning career, notably playing sax with Miles Davis’ “First Great Quintet” from 1955 to 1958.

That group famously added Cannonball Adderley as a second sax player, thus becoming a quintet in 1959 to record “Kind of Blue,” viewed by many as the quintessential jazz album in what came to be known as the “Year of Jazz.”

But by then, Coltrane had become a leading man himself and recorded several of his own albums, driven by his uniquely articulate and sometimes frantic to the point of abrasive saxophone playing. To offset his erratic playing, Coltrane’s music – like Davis and other figureheads in jazz at the time – began to incorporate looser rhythms than traditional bebop and influences from other genres like rhythm and blues.

The result was what became known as the “Blue Note Sound” named for Blue Note Records which released much of this genre-bending, post-bop jazz in the 1950s and ‘60s. It began with earlier Coltrane albums like “Blue Trane” (1958), which coupled this new take on jazz rhythm with Coltrane’s increasingly dense sax phrasing, filled with countless notes and scales, that became known as “sheets of sound” by critics.

On a “A Love Supreme” all the elements come together to make possibly Coltrane’s best and most cohesive album. The masterpiece of his career was released on Impulse Records where he’d been since 1961 after leaving Atlantic Records which he joined from Blue Note in 1960 with the release of "Giant Steps,” another favorite.

“A Love Supreme” is made up of four tracks or movements in a singular composed suite, two on each side of the LP. The movements are similar in tone, and refrain, but focus on different instruments and dynamics.

The opening movement “Acknowledgment” begins the album with Coltrane’s signature explosive saxophone and groovy, four-note bass line. It’s simple yet intricate as the sax weaves in and out of the central bass part, and the drums rise and fall in intensity, driven by cymbals that evoke and almost liquid sense of energy. “Acknowledgement” also includes a vocalized chant, repeating the name of the album for several minutes at its closing.

The second movement “Resolution” begins with an improvised baseline, and Coltrane’s sax refrain returns from the first song. This track feels more improvisational, and sees the band flex its instrumental muscles more after defining the space it will occupy for the duration of the record in track one. “Resolution” also features an interesting piano solo that rivals the hectic nature of Coltrane’s sax as he temporarily steps into the background in support but cuts back in with renewed intensity minutes later.

The liner notes of "A Love Supreme" contain the poem that inspired its final movement "Psalm."

The second side combines the third and fourth movement, “Pursuance” and “Psalm” into one seamless track that continues the improvisational feel of the first side. “Pursuance” opens with another solo, this time on the drums, until Coltrane fights his way back to the lead with the refrain that opens each movement, and the band launches back into the avant-garde style established earlier on. "Pursuance" ends with another rapid-fire drum solo followed by an improvised bass line leading into the final movement of the record.

“Psalm” brings the record to its climax. Coltrane’s sax lines take center stage as the band gradually edges out of the recording, and the music morphs into an almost poetic recitation, which Coltrane called “musical narration” as he attempts, and succeeds at wordlessly reciting a poem he wrote, declaring his devotion to the Christian God he’d become more connected to in his later years. The density of the earlier movements fades out, and the listener is left with a hypnotically tragic sax solo as the band thunders away in the background, rising and falling in intensity and a sonic sense of foreboding.

Coltrane lived a challenging life of drug addiction, failed relationships and immeasurable artistry. The struggles and triumphs of his life are full explored through the powerful, tortured and at times vulnerable sounds of “A Love Supreme.”

Personnel:

The John Coltrane Quartet

John Coltrane – tenor saxophone, vocals

Jimmy Garrison – double bass

Elvin Jones – drums. Percussion

McCoy Tyner - Piano