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Rating: John Coltrane - A Love Supreme (Impulse! 1965)
Genre: Modal Jazz, Post-Bop
Talking about this legendary album is not easy; it has been reviewed, analyzed, evaluated, even in whole books, by music critics far more qualified than me. It doesn’t seem appropriate, in this context, to delve into an analysis of Coltrane's discography; I want to tell you about my personal approach to this immense work.
I bought it on vinyl many years ago, on a Sunday morning, at Rome's Porta Portese, a youthful destination for procuring used clothes, books, comics, and indeed, records. At that time, I wasn't a big frequenter of Jazz territories; apart from THIRD by Soft Machine, situated nevertheless in a borderland, and Davis's BITCHES BREW, my musical interests were predominantly rock.
Listening to the album was electrifying; it brought me closer to Jazz with more attention, helping me discover a (for me) new and fascinating world.
A LOVE SUPREME is a hymn of love to God (whichever god that may be), a supreme love indeed, intense, a form of celebration and gratitude. In this work, the American musician thanks the Lord, among other things, for freeing him from heroin.
Between '55 and '57, while playing with Miles Davis' quintet, Coltrane sank into heroin addiction, which he managed to overcome only after a long period of solitude and meditation in his Philadelphia home.
«During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening that was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, out of gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted to me by His grace. All praise to God.», wrote Coltrane in the album's liner notes.
The album is composed of four sections: Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm, built on the basis of rather sober phrases, over which the four musicians interweave modal phrasing, although the spirit of free jazz, which would be fully developed in the subsequent ASCENSION, is evident. It is necessary to mention the musicians who accompany him and were part of his historic quartet. McCoy Tyner, author of animated and enchanting piano phrases, Elvin Jones, a hyper-precise and focused drummer, and Jimmy Garrison, a perfect and measured double bassist who magnificently fills the gaps left by his bandmates. Above all, as is obvious, shines brightly and supremely Coltrane's tenor, managing to express all emotional and sonic tones: the propulsive and purifying African polyrhythm, the extended times of modal jazz, the meditative lament of Eastern folk, the torments of free jazz, the arcane energy of blues, and the mystical liberation of gospel.
I don't feel like adding anything more; I hope that many will procure this work to listen to it for the first time or to listen to it again for the umpteenth time.
If you want a single Jazz album, get this A LOVE SUPREME; it's enough. So concluded music critic Danilo Fabbroni in one of his reviews, and I completely agree.
(John Coltrane left us on July 17, 1967, due to liver cancer. R.I.P.)
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