JOHN COLTRANE — A Love Supreme (review)

JOHN COLTRANE — A Love Supreme album cover Album · 1965 · Post Bop Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
dreadpirateroberts
Part astounding, part disconcerting, part hypnotic - what more could you ask from music?

Sometimes talking about music seems futile, that words are simply not enough to describe what we hear. Without mythologising this record, I think it's difficult to describe. Not to say that certain genres or styles aren't applicable to 'A Love Supreme' (as post and hard bop, and free jazz spring to mind) but the biography of this album strikes me as its own entity. It has a long critical history, which includes in-depth discussions of the music and techniques, along with its purpose. Why did John Coltrane make this album? What is most fascinating about the question is probably the variations that exist between what we as listeners take from the album, and what Coltrane wanted us to take.

Listen to this cold, and you will doubtless hear those three genres, along with Coltrane's trademark abstract and dissonant soloing, and his grasp of melody. You will also hear a band deeply in sync with him and each other, where Tyner, Jones and Garrison are each given room to solo, while at the same time holding together a suite around an instantly recognisable, often mantra-like theme, one that is developed across four parts and around 30 minutes.

Listen to this with some prior knowledge, perhaps after reading about what Coltrane was attempting to do by creating the album and it's a different record again. Additional layers of meaning are given to notes, phrases and moods that before were more abstract - the way a spiritual journey is abstract. Is 'A Love Supreme' a better album if you know what Coltrane was attempting to do? Or maybe it's worth asking if the notes themselves change? No. It is the same physical moment that has been captured.

But something does change if you treat the album like a piece of biography, rather than a collection of musical pieces. We link the sounds to words. We imagine words, ideas and concepts behind the sounds, and because we think in words (not notes) we can expand what the music means to us. Or what we think it meant to Coltrane. And so in 'Pursuance' for instance, I can really imagine that John is striving for something beyond his self, that he's pushing for that something with his hurricane of tortured notes.

Now, I'm not claiming this is the only album where this kind of analysis is possible (nor am I offering an argument as to whether this kind of analysis is even desirable) but I will say that this is probably the record from John Coltrane where it is most rewarding for me to do so. Four stars.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Stephan Thelen & David Torn : Rothko Spaces, Volume 1 Jazz Related Improv/Composition
STEPHAN THELEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Stephan Thelen & Markus Reuter : Rothko Spaces, Volume 2 Jazz Related Improv/Composition
STEPHAN THELEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Stephan Thelen & Jon Durant : Rothko Spaces, Volume 3 Jazz Related Improv/Composition
STEPHAN THELEN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sky Full Of Hope Nu Jazz
FRACTAL SEXTET
Buy this album from MMA partners
String Quartet #1 Third Stream
JOEL HARRISON
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

No More X
SIMÓN WILLSON
js· 12 hours ago
Dance of the Cranes
THE WATERCOLORS
js· 12 hours ago
Daniel Villarreal featuring Jeff Parker and Anna Butterss - Lados B (Full Album)
DANIEL VILLARREAL
js· 12 hours ago
Badju Mandadu
CARMEN SOUZA
js· 22 hours ago
Lizards in the Reeds
TAMANDUA
js· 22 hours ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed