If there is one thing I know about most music fanatics, they are list makers. If there is another thing I know, it is that those lists are subject to change. Favorite artists, albums, and songs are all subject to the whims of time and circumstances. This is largely true of me with a single exception. John Coltrane's A Love Supreme has been my favorite album for more than twenty years.

When I was in my mid-teens I attended a summer camp in St. Louis for high school students interested in jazz. We played in big bands. We played in small groups. We learned about a lot of things including modal improvisation. One of our teachers told us that if you wanted to learn about modal improvisation, you should check out A Love Supreme, so I dutifully bought a copy that very week. In retrospect the fact that I could find it easily suggested just how remarkable the album was because the early 80s weren't a great time for finding classic jazz albums in print.

That teacher was right. A Love Supreme is a great example of modal improvisation. What he didn't tell me is that it is also a profound spiritual statement and at the tender age of fourteen or so, listening to it was an unexpected, wrenching, and revelatory experience.

For all the fact that Coltrane is remembered as a soulful, spiritual man, he suffered from the all too human demons that plagued his contemporaries including heroin additiction. He quit the junk cold turkey and experienced an awakening that would inform the rest of his career. It was an experience he tried to communicate through his masterwork A Love Supreme.

Recent reissues of A Love Supreme as well as Ashley Kahn's excellent book A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album tell the story far better than I can hope to. I offer up my own observations of the album as a heartfelt endorsement of music that truly rises above the ephemera that surrounds it.

Now Playing: "Dat Dere" Rickie Lee Jones Pop Pop (Geffen) <-- Okay, yeah, you might have been expecting A Love Supreme, but it's hard to listen to it and concentrate on something else at the same time, y'know?

That's a great post LT

I'm new to this album, just got it this weekend, and am a little hesitant to discuss what I think of it in any detail because it's still just too fresh...but I'll add my first thoughts on the album.

The key to it working as well as it does (and it works really, really well) is the piano. From the liner notes that Coltrane writes himself, to the music itself, it is clear that Coltrane had a lot invested in what he was trying to put down on this album. When someone is as eager to create, especially to show the glory of faith in God, as Coltrane is doing here I believe, he or she can easily become overwhelmed and lose a bit of focus, which I think is an important component of great albums. While Coltrane is soaring to great hights, clearly giving everything he's got to the music, I think the piano playing on the album keeps him tethered to the earth in a way that is absolutely brilliant.

Oh yeah-- and the playing is just jaw-dropping technically too.

So much for holding off on my two cents. I will add as a final reminder that I am new to this album, as well as new to the whole world of post ww2 jazz, so I'm not totally clear how one is supposed to go about discussing jazz in its own terms. If there is anything I can add to clear this or any other jazz postings of mine up, I'd be to find out.

Yes a sublime spiritual connection. Not to forget that amazing drumming in Pursuance!

My favourite Coltrane however is Sun Ship. That's pretty soulful too and yet still retains a remarkably high free jazz content.

Coltrane, for his short period of making (and playing as a side-man) music, made several stunners.

Please, if you dig Love Supreme, check out some of Coltrane's other works. The popular ones like "My Favorite Things" and "Giant Steps" are fine, but if you connect with LS, I'd recommend pushing it with some of his later period stuff. First Impressions- though it has a cheesy album cover, is the last thing the same quartet on LS played together as a quartet, and is killer in a very similar way. I also recommend Interstellar Space- a duets album Trane made with his next drummer Rashid Ali. Never has anything sounded so wild and yet almost liturgical. It rocks hardcore!

Interstellar Space is fascinating and certainly well worth the time and effort. For my part, though, Ascension is probably the last of the late Impulse! recordings that really resonantes with me. I don't feel like the late ensembles were ever really captured all that well in the studio or in the handful of late, live Impulse! releases as they were in the array of bootlegs that have appeared over the years. The post-1965 Coltrane I turn to most of all are the Affinity pressings with the trade off that the pressings and recording quality are pretty sketchy.

Oh, but those ensembles. If they're that profound and breathtaking on a poorly recorded LP, I wonder if I could have surived hearing them live.

Now Playing: Well, it was Richard Hawley, but I think I'm getting a hankering to go in another direction all of a sudden like...

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LinnTate,

Oddly enough I like Ascension as much if not more than the albums I mentioned, but judging by the heavy indierock readership of these forums I thought the two albums I mentioned might be a little easier to digest.

quote:

Originally posted by J_Deighton:
Oddly enough I like Ascension as much if not more than the albums I mentioned, but judging by the heavy indierock readership of these forums I thought the two albums I mentioned might be a little easier to digest.

Then I guess we really ought to be chatting up whether you prefer the first take or second. I had a bear of a time tracking down the second take before it was reissued on CD in Japan in '87. I think it's the superior of the two.

What's that old saw about books and their covers?

We'll try not to take your initial assumption about our delicate sensibilities too hard, and I am honestly curious if you've yet heard Roswell Rudd's latest.

Now Playing: "Time Waits for No One" Eddie & Ernie <-- R.I.P. John Peel and thanks...

A Love Supreme has been in my library for about 15 years, and Coltrane has inspired me to look into others' works in jazz across that time. I still don't consider myself a 'technical' expert when discussing jazz, but I'm slowly getting it. I haven't listened to all his works, but A Love Supreme has led me to, in order, Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue, Best of Coltrane, The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings Boxset (amazing) and the new Monk/Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. My next choice looks to be Blue Train, but if there is something I should definately grab I would love the input!

Note: My favorite Things and India are two of my all-time fav tracks.

Also: introduced myself to Mingus this year (The Black Saint And the Sinner Lady) and if anyone has suggestions where to go from there would be great too.

Also, I have tried to order Interplay For Two Trumpets And Two Tenors (with pianist Mal Waldron, tenor Coltrane and Jaspar) but has been out of print, and cannot order. I heard the track Soul Eyes, and I have to get this. Anybody listen to this recording and what do you think???

quote:

Originally posted by The Furnace Is Fiery:
My next choice looks to be Blue Train, but if there is something I should definately grab I would love the input!

That's a lot of good listening already, TFiF. I think you should go ahead and get a copy of Blue Train. It's a great album and you'll be happy to have it in your collection. After that, I would be inclined to recommend his Atlantic years for a while starting with Giant Steps. It's the groundwork for the experimentation that would characterize his Impulse! years.

While you're at it, you might want to track down a copy of Sonny Rollins' Tenor Madness. It's not a bad introduction to Rollins' and features the single, titular recording of Coltrane and Rollins together.

quote:

Originally posted by The Furnace Is Fiery:
Also: introduced myself to Mingus this year (The Black Saint And the Sinner Lady) and if anyone has suggestions where to go from there would be great too.

TBS&TSL is a great introduction. You have a lot of good options from there because for such a mercurial individual, Mingus' recorded output is remarkably consistent from the time he joined Atlantic in the 50s right up to the time of his death in the 70s. A few you might consider:

Pithecanthropus Erectus - Given your affinity for Mal Waldron, this is a good earlier recording featuring great work from both the pianist and alto saxophonist Jackie McLean.

Mingus Ah Um is a good example of his Columbia years and features some of his best-known compositions including the Lester Young tribute "Goodbye Porkpie Hat." It also serves as a good companion to my single favorite Mingus recording...

Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus - The aforementioned Mingus Ah Um features a track titled "Fables of Faubus," which was originally written to include lyrics lampooning the segregationist southern governor. Columbia nixed the lyrics, but Nat Hentoff had no such compunctions when Mingus recorded the song for Hentoff's Candid label under the title "Original Faubus Fables." That track alone would make the disc worth owning, but I think it's great to hear Mingus in such a small group setting. For all his considerable skills as an arranger, what he was able to draw from this short-lived pianoless quartet always gives me chills.

Let My Children Hear Music - I have only come back to this album recently after many years of leaving it on the shelf. I have no explanation for why it was gathering dust for years because when I happened upon a random track while listening to a mix I made, I was reminded that it might very well be his best large group album and given the strength of session like TBS&TSL, that's saying a lot.

quote:

Originally posted by The Furnace Is Fiery:
Also, I have tried to order Interplay For Two Trumpets And Two Tenors (with pianist Mal Waldron, tenor Coltrane and Jaspar) but has been out of print, and cannot order. I heard the track Soul Eyes, and I have to get this. Anybody listen to this recording and what do you think???

That's a pretty great session and a terrific recording of the song.

Mal Waldron is one of my favorite pianists in jazz and a terribly overlooked talent. He also has a fascinating story in that after years of working through the 50s both as a leader and accompaniest for musicians like Billie Holiday, he suffered a nervous breakdown in the early 60s and had to literally relearn the piano. If you listen to his recordings before and after that episode, you hear two very different musicians.

One of my favorite Waldron recordings is his early 60s collaboration with Eric Dolphy The Quest, which features another of his wonderful compositions that Dolphy would go on to make a part of many of his live performances, "Fire Waltz."

Now Playing: "Fire Waltz" Mal Waldron The Quest <-- Of course.

Hey LT!



the first 10 seconds of a love supreme are ... well. you know.

id love to talk about it. but. whats to say? is it his voice who sings ' a love supreme"?

what are your thoughts on the other takes? especially the intros.

on the marsalis take? you seen the dvd?

on my favorite things...there are some intense moments that serve as instant transportation to somewhere transcendent. and i often find myself more moved at moments than on anything else. but ...maybe my ear is just lacking. up until johns second solo, i always catch myself thinking that its mccoy's solo that steals the show. perfect control and presence. but then john articulates otherwise with his soul searching solo.

in a sentimental mood is still my favorite. im such a sap. but ...he is so ON.

tell me about the recording jupiter. i find it to be as intense as anything else he did, save olatunji perhaps...though perhaps a bit ...unstable? like the planet i suppose.

do you know anything about "i didn't know about you" ??? by...is it duke and hodges??? oh my god that song sings almost as much as stardust.


you may be pleased to know that i found my heart again...it was in jazz. and this beautiful asian girl.


who has over 20 coltrane records. Records. has 100's of jazz records...

we play naima every night before we doze off. its beautiful. leaves me woozy.

id write more, but she just called. : ) gotta go.

now listening to: All I Want by Joni Mitchell


say hi to Mark F and PE

oh and Chasin the Trane at the village vanguard. thats just as intense.


in a love supreme, that bass outro is so quirky. can you say anything on that?


been listening to a lot of Ayler as well...truth comes marching in, for john coltrane...love cry.... beautiful.

any recomendations?

quote:

Originally posted by Machols:
Hey LT!

Hey backatcha, M.

quote:

Originally posted by Machols:
the first 10 seconds of a love supreme are ... well. you know.

Yes, I do.

quote:

Originally posted by Machols:
id love to talk about it. but. whats to say? is it his voice who sings ' a love supreme"?

Yes, Coltrane and the other members of the quartet.

I'd like to talk about it, too. You pose a lot of good and interesting questions. I'm swamped on a project over the past, current, and next 24 hours, but I'll try to get back with you by the weekend.

Congratulations on finding a beautiful lady with excellent taste in music.

Now Playing: "Easy Street" Head of Femur Hysterical Stars

I'm not too into Branford's take on ALS, but it is waaaaaaay better than the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra version with Wynton and infinitely better than Greg Dulli's stupid ass two minute version on the Twilight Singers covers album. I would stick with Trane when it comes to Trane.
I know it sounds like a crazy recommendation, but I agree whole heartedly with LT. Mingus from the mid 50s on is pretty much unstoppable. So let me list the three albums from those years I would avoid if you are just getting started.
Mingus Moves, Pre-Bird, and Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus... the first two are not his best, the last one is much beloved, but does not have Danny Richmond on drums on most of the tracks, and Danny was Mingus' heartbeat. Mingus is my absolute fav- so I say dive in there. He's great.

Yeah, LOVE SUPREME is rightly a jazz classic and is the ne plus ultra of Coltrane oeuvre. Anything post LS, is catch as catch can, though. He started to go way out after that, particularly after Elvin & McCoy left the band.

Giant Steps and Ole remain my personal faves for Coltrane - however I only bought Love Supreme at the end of 2006. I held off b/c I thought it was part of his wild free jazz later years (I like SOME structure with my chaos) - but I am loving it more with each listen.

Mingus comes only second to Coltrane for me - but again, I prefer his 55-65 period to later explorations - esp 'Mingus Ah Um' and 'Mingus, Mingus, Mingus'.