A Love Supreme

Some of the most enduring masterpieces, whether in the fields of art, literature or music, coincided with the details & demands of one's daily life. That's true inspiration in a nutshell: balancing one's creative impulses with the usual routines that one goes through on a daily basis.

In 1964, for John Coltrane, as Ashley Kahn would put it in June 2002, "...inspiration coincided with dirty plates and diapers." No surprise then that Trane, trying to balance family matters with his own creative urges, took some breaks in the action to come up with one of jazz's (& popular music's) most enduring masterpieces of all time, A Love Supreme.

As his best-known album ever, A Love Supreme remains an ever-ascending pathway which Trane himself continued to take up to his passing, the high-water mark of his work with the Classic Quartet of pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison & drummer Elvin Jones. At the same time, if you want to know about the man himself, this album is a perfect self-revealing statement: well before hip hop stars gave God the glory & lots of shout-outs to the Almighty in their liner note credits, Coltrane stepped outside of the box of jazz elites to give God credit where credit was due. In his own words, he wrote: "I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music...I feel this has been granted through His grace." This is a seminal gift to God, a 4-part song of praise which has stood the test of time in more ways than one.

And from the first opening notes of Part One, "Acknowledgement," Trane & his bandmates confirmed their place in the annals of jazz history once & for all. Near the end of this particular track, Trane's chant of "A Love Supreme" makes its presence felt & still leaves an impact long before the last notes of Part One fade away & Garrison takes up a double-stopped bass solo which serves as a segue into Part Two, "Resolution."

Part Two is where Tyner gets a chance to step out into the spotlight & deliver as always a cooking solo; then Coltrane re-enters to drive the point of this particular section home. As has almost always been the case with his Classic Quartet recordings, this shows us just how tightly linked Tyner & Trane were solo-wise, but that would be an understatement: this also reveals how closely bonded the Classic Quartet was as a unit of stellar musicians.

Part Three, "Pursuance," starts off with Elvin Jones getting things in order (when it comes to awesome drum soloists, Elvin is one of the more explosive around!!). Then Trane establishes a theme, Tyner again delivers a brilliant solo; Coltrane returns at full throttle, never letting up the steam for 2 & 1/2 minutes. And like a spent runner, he jumps into the restatement of the theme; Jones closes things off with a fusillade of snare & cymbals, then Garrison takes over with a solo of his own. If there was any jazz bassist who could go it alone on a solo & keep things interesting, Jimmy Garrison was always the man for the job & for roughly a few minutes he proves his case as one of the top bass players of all time.

Garrison's presentation leads up to A Love Supreme's last section, "Psalm." And does Trane ever sound as urgent as he does reflective & serene in his incantatory delivery. In fact, he's baring his soul on tape in a way few artists have ever done. This is an awesome point of closure for an already awesome album, as good as dramatic performances could ever get.

For over 40 years, the general public & music industry have continued to speak superlatives about A Love Supreme & whoever hasn't heard this album yet needs to get this CD. Yes, it's that powerful but it also reveals John Coltrane & his quartet at the height of their powers & yet it reveals Trane taking another immense step on a continuing spiritual journey, giving God the glory as he went along.