A Love Supreme

A Love Supreme is a studio album recorded by John Coltrane's quartet in December 1964[1]  and released by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse!_Records Impulse! Records] in February 1965. It is generally considered to be among Coltrane's greatest works, as it melded the hard bopsensibilities of his early career with the modal jazz and free jazz styles he adopted later.

The quartet recorded the album in one session on December 9, 1964, at the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Coltrane's home in Dix Hills, Long Island, has been suggested as the site of inspiration for A Love Supreme.[2]



Contents
[hide]  *1 Music  ==Music[ edit] == Coltrane's classic quartet was completed with the addition of percussionist Elvin Jones, who performs various non-traditional instruments on A Love SupremeThe album is a four-part suite, broken up into tracks: "Acknowledgement" (which contains the mantra that gave the suite its name), "Resolution", "Pursuance", and "Psalm." It is intended to be a spiritual album, broadly representative of a personal struggle for purity, and expresses the artist's deep gratitude as he admits to his talent and instrument as being owned not by him but by a spiritual higher power.[2]
 * 2 Reception and influence
 * 3 Other performances
 * 4 Adaptations
 * 5 Track listing
 * 5.1 Deluxe edition
 * 6 Personnel
 * 7 See also
 * 8 Notes
 * 9 References
 * 10 External links

The album begins with the bang of a gong (tam-tam), followed by cymbal washes. Jimmy Garrison follows on bass with the four-note motif which structures the entire movement. Coltrane's solo follows. Besides soloing upon variations of the motif, at one point Coltrane repeats the four notes over and over in different modulations. After many repetitions, the motif becomes the vocal chant "A Love Supreme", sung by Coltrane (accompanying himself via overdubs).[3]

In the final movement, Coltrane performs what he calls a "musical narration" (Lewis Porter describes it as a "wordless 'recitation'")[4]  of a devotional poem he included in the liner notes. That is, Coltrane "plays" the words of the poem on saxophone, but does not actually speak them. Some scholars have suggested that this performance is a homage to thesermons of African-American preachers.[5]  The poem (and, in his own way, Coltrane's solo) ends with the cry "Elation. Elegance. Exaltation. All from God. Thank you God. Amen."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[6] ==Reception and influence<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">A Love Supreme is often listed amongst the greatest jazz albums of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[19] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[20] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-21" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[21] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-22" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[22] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-23" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[23]  It was also quite popular for a jazz album, selling about 500,000 copies by 1970, a number far exceeding Coltrane's typical Impulse! sales of around 30,000.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-24" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[24]  As further testimony to the recording's historic significance, the manuscript for the album is one of the National Museum of American History's "Treasures of American History," part of the collection of the Smithsonian Institution.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-NMAH_25-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[25]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">In 1994, A Love Supreme was ranked number three in Colin Larkin's Top 100 Jazz Albums. Larkin described it as "one of the most profoundly moving records in all of jazz".<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-26" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[26]  In 2003, the album was ranked number 47 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RS500_27-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[27]  The publication called it a "legendary album-long hymn of praise" and stated: "the indelible four-note theme of the first movement, 'Acknowledgement,' is the humble foundation of the suite. But Coltrane's majestic, often violent blowing (famously described as 'sheets of sound') is never self-aggrandizing. Aloft with his classic quartet..., Coltrane soars with nothing but gratitude and joy. You can't help but go with him."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-RS500_27-1" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[27]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The Penguin Guide to Jazz selected this album as part of its suggested "Core Collection" and awarded it a "crown" stating that "it is without precedent and parallel, and though it must also be one of the best loved jazz records of all time it somehow remains remote from critical pigeonholing" calling it "immensely concentrated and rich."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-28" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[28]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The album's influence has been extensive and diverse. Musicians ranging from tenor Joshua Redman<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-29" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[29]  to the rock starBono of U2, who mentions the album in their song "Angel of Harlem",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-30" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[30]  have singled out the influence of the album on their own work. Guitarists John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana have each credited the album as one of their greatest early influences.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-31" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[31]  "Every so often this ceases to be a jazz record and is more avant-garde contemporary classical," remarked Neil Hannon, frontman of The Divine Comedy. "I love the combination of abstract piano that's all sort of 'clang', and weird chords with wailing saxophone over the top."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-32" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[32] ==Other performances<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == Archie Shepp, who played on the sextet versions of Acknowledgement<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">An alternative version of "Acknowledgement" was recorded the next day on December 10. This version, which included tenor saxophonist Archie Shepp and bassist Art Davis, did not feature Coltrane chanting "a love supreme," one reason he chose to issue the quartet version.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-33" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[33]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">The only live performance of the "Love Supreme" suite, from a July 26, 1965, performance at the Festival Mondial du Jazz Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, France, was also remastered and released in a 2002 two-CD set by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impulse!_Records Impulse! Records] with the original album and additional studio outtakes. ==Adaptations<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == Coltrane's original handwritten sheet music for A Love Supremeincludes a note reading "All paths lead to God"<p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Doug and Jean Carn recorded "Acknowledgement" with female vocals for their 1972 album Infant Eyes. John McLaughlin andCarlos Santana recorded a guitar version of "Acknowledgement," which they titled "A Love Supreme" on their 1973 collaboration Love Devotion Surrender. At the time, both were devotees of guru Sri Chinmoy.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Will Downing released an R&B cover version of the main theme, with the co-operation of John's widow Alice Coltrane, which reached number fourteen in the UK singles chart in 1988. Gumball recorded a rock/alternative/jazz version<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1;font-size:11.1999998092651px;white-space:nowrap;">[clarification needed]  of A Love Supreme as a bonus track on the 1994 Japanese release of Revolution On Ice. The suite also forms four tracks on the 2002 Branford Marsalis Quartet album titled Footsteps of our Fathers, and another Marsalis version is on a DVD "A Love Supreme Live in Amsterdam." Branford's brother Wynton recorded the suite in 2003 with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-34" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[34]

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Sections of the suite have been performed by the David Murray Octet,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[35]  the Ballistic Brothers,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-36" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[36]  and the Bob Mintzer Big Band.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-37" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[37]  Turtle Island String Quartet released their album A Love Supreme in 2007, and the album features a cover version of the suite, along with other covers of various Coltrane charts.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">A 1995 album titled Variations on A Love Supreme was composed by Fabrizio Cassol and Kris Defoort.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">In 2007 José James recorded "Equinox" and "Resolution"' as a double A-Side limited-edition 10" for Brownswood Records. James, previously a rapper, added vocals to the tracks in a style reminiscent to some<sup class="noprint Inline-Template" style="line-height:1;font-size:11.1999998092651px;white-space:nowrap;">[according to whom?]  of Gil Scott Heron.

<p style="margin-top:0.5em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">Jazz singer Kurt Elling recorded "Resolution" for his album Man in the Air. In this recording, Elling set lyrics to the music in his style of vocalese. ==Track listing<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == <p style="margin-top:0.5em;line-height:17.9200000762939px;color:rgb(37,37,37);font-family:sans-serif;font-size:14.3999996185303px;">All tracks composed by John Coltrane and published by Jowcol Music (BMI)

===Deluxe edition<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] === ==Personnel<span class="mw-editsection" style="-webkit-user-select:none;font-size:small;margin-left:1em;line-height:1em;display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-family:sans-serif;"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">[ edit<span class="mw-editsection-bracket" style="color:rgb(85,85,85);">] == McCoy Tyner played piano throughout both sessions for A Love Supreme;The John Coltrane Quartet
 * Side one
 * Side two
 * Disc one
 * Disc two
 * John Coltrane – bandleader, liner notes, vocals, soprano and tenor saxophone
 * Jimmy Garrison – double bass
 * Elvin Jones – drums
 * McCoy Tyner – piano
 * Additional musicians
 * Art Davis – double bass on alternate takes of "Acknowledgement"
 * Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone on alternate takes of "Acknowledgement"
 * Production
 * George Gray/Viceroy – cover design
 * Victor Kalin – illustration
 * Joe Lebow – liner design
 * Bob Thiele – production and cover photo<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-nprphotos_38-0" style="line-height:1;unicode-bidi:-webkit-isolate;font-size:11.1999998092651px;">[38]
 * Rudy Van Gelder – engineering and mastering
 * Compact Disc reissue
 * Joe Alper – photography
 * Jason Claiborne – graphics
 * Hollis King – art direction
 * Erick Labson – digital remastering
 * Lee Tanner – photography
 * Deluxe edition
 * Michael Cuscuna – liner notes, production, and remastering
 * Ken Druker – production
 * Esmond Edwards – photography
 * Ashley Kahn – liner notes and production
 * Peter Keepnews – notes editing
 * Hollis King – art direction
 * Bryan Koniarz – production
 * Edward O'Dowd – design
 * Mark Smith – production assistance
 * Sherniece Smith – art coordination and production
 * Chuck Stewart – photography
 * SACD
 * Bill Levenson – reissue supervisor
 * Cameron Mizell – production coordination
 * Kevin Reeves – mastering
 * Ron Warwell – design
 * Isabelle Wong – package design