Читать книгу The Mojo Collection - Various Mojo Magazine - Страница 48

Record label: Impulse!

Produced: Bob Thiele

Recorded: Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey; December 9, 1964

Released: January 1965

Chart peaks: None (UK) None (US)

Personnel: John Coltrane (ts); McCoy Tyner (p); Jimmy Garrison (b); Elvin Jones (d); Rudy Van Gelder (e)

Track listing: Acknowledgement; Resolution; Persuance; Psalm

Running time: 33.03

Current CD: IMP11552

Further listening: Coltrane Live At Birdland (1963); Crescent (1964)

Further reading: A Love Supreme: The Creation Of John Coltrane’s Classic Album (Ashley Kahn, 2003); Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest (Eric Nisenson, 1993); John Coltrane: His Life and Music (Lewis Porter, 1998); www.johncoltrane.com

Download: emusic; iTunes

Few musicians have asked as much of music as John Coltrane. Fewer still have gotten as much out of it as Coltrane did with A Love Supreme. His musicians had only the sketchiest idea of what they would be recording that December day in 1964, but the tenor saxophone giant had been in preparation for years. After kicking a heroin habit in the late ’50s, Coltrane’s position as a fearless explorer of ‘New Thing’ jazz had been paralleled by a spiritual quest that embraced the wisdom of the Bible, Koran, Kaballah and other philosophical and mystical tracts.

‘My goal is to live the truly religious life and express it in my music,’ Coltrane told Newsweek. ‘If you live it, when you play there’s no problem because the music is just part of the whole thing. To be a musician is really something. It goes very, very deep. My music is the spiritual expression of what I am – my faith, my knowledge, my being … When you begin to see the possibilities of music, you desire to do something really good for people, to help humanity free itself from its hang-ups. I think music can make the world better and, if I’m qualified, I want to do it. A musical language transcends words. I want to speak to their souls.’

He did. From the gentle tenor invocation that opens this four-part suite, Coltrane is in command of something extraordinary – or perhaps it is commanding him. Neither as ‘free’ as the jazz he’d begin making the following year, nor as immediately accessible as Giant Steps or My Favorite Things, this music is distinguished by the spirit that moves through it. So complete was the moment that there is only one known instance of Coltrane attempting to play the piece live. (Another version of Acknowledgement, adding the sax of Archie Shepp and bassist Art Davis, was recorded the following day and was lost for many years. It has now been unearthed and has been added to the expanded edition of the album.)

A Love Supreme is that rare thing: a work of exalted art that also touches the common consciousness. It was an immediate best-seller by jazz standards, indicating that there was a substantial audience for the new music. Certified gold in 1970, it has now sold more than a million copies.