John Coltrane
A Love Supreme

"Silence. This is the silence before something unique, marvelous, and splendid that one fears just to speak of (the first example that comes to mind is Beethoven's Ninth), something known for its superhuman, celestial and infernal power at the same time, a continuous shiver, a dive into the dark depths of ecstasy breaking the heart, tearing it apart, making it believe, understand, see a tear of life above the sky amid flames, light, again flames, again light.

1. "Acknowledgment"

John, dear old John, humble spirit in your infinite greatness amidst the glimmers and miseries of existence, YOU, a sax, a piano, a double bass, a drum, a cosmic journey to the boundaries of our souls, to their ultimate limit before an ascetic collapse. A thunder. That's how the piece begins. A thunder over everything said above. Notes, no, not notes, words, the finest, from the solemn sax above our gaze there, incredulous, smiling, ecstatic to hear a little of God's music, a bit of that Supreme Love that undresses our fears, our anxieties, our continuous thirst for what we call joy and what others call rains of happiness.

Few notes, two, three, four notes to rid us of our stains of cowardice we are unconsciously forced to. Free, few notes to feel free. The double bass dictates, sings the theme of the piece ("a Love Supreme, a Love Supreme...") amid that orgy of sensations of the thundering intro. Elvin, good old Elvin, lets the cymbal go from his roll, a few seconds, then the piece takes off. Elvin and John, two close souls, the dance starts. The piece is all a dancing thanksgiving (“oh, Lord” it seems to hear) to that God of mystery who saved our musician's life. The drum drives, polyrhythmic, brilliant yet free like only a great drummer such as Mr. Jones could be.

It's a hypnotic, trance-inducing piece. Few piano notes here and there, the essential double bass, the sax exploring the very mystery of the universe, among pauses, reflections, grave and painful closed eyes upon hearing such intense music (but will it be, music?), surges and cries of joy making us fall to the ground to stay there, convulsed, dancing, simply conscious of the millennia each human carries painfully upon their shoulders. And then John sings again, deep voice, in prayer, << a Love Supreme, a Love Supreme, a Love Supreme, a Love Supreme...>>. The piece quiets down, we return to silence, the wandering and solitary bass shows us the way.

2. "Persuance"

A few moments of silence, and again the bass plunges back into the limbo, again throws us into this terrible splendor. A few seconds and then again, seeming to come from light years away, another colossal thunder springs from the sax like blood from a wound. The rhythm, the drums, the piano, the bass, everything here is grave and wrapped in an incredible sacred spirit. Few sax notes of the theme and then off, the piano takes the piece with it. It's a great piano solo by McCoy Tyner, left hand as always heavy seeming almost to compete with the double bass, finale soaring, slow scale in sequence (scale of Hell, of Paradise? No one can tell) and again off with the slow, angular, rough sax like sandpaper on our ears but so melodic it's, like in the whole piece, tear-inducing. The swing of the piece stops. Drum roll. Pause for reflection. Moment of gathering.

3. "Resolution"

Here it is. Now that our soul is purified from our squalor, yes, our hour has come, the time has come to react, to act to escape toward the transcendent reality present in every man. Religious or not. The piece begins. There is no thunder as in the previous ones, no here is Mr. Jones, him, his solo, his style, his “spontaneous drum”, rigid, symphonic, tribal, every drummer cannot but appreciate such a unique and comprehensive style, neither hyper-technical like Joe Morello, nor hyperbolic like Buddy Rich. Does anyone care? No. The skins vibrate, pant, sing their melody. The bass drum is fantastic. When I said this is a symphonic drum I wasn't joking. Hear the cymbals! Hear the drums! Hear, it seems they breathe, they live, in our ears, in our spirits. The volume rises vertiginously as the initial theme approaches. We are transported with such force, such power that, that... It's pointless, Elvin Jones, bow down please.

The solo ends, not a moment to recover (sure these jazzmen are real bastards!) and here he is, HIM, the sax, John takes off, vibrates, yes the sky vibrates, the room vibrates which is no longer a room, no, it's a fire, we are enveloped by psychedelic fires (if someone invented psychedelia, well, that would be John Coltrane), the ashes of the earth are swept away, our ashes are swept away. A few theme notes launch the piano towards the infinite. Yes, Tyner starts, floats, scales up and down, up and down, up and down, the pace is fast, damned, it seems all instruments are out of time but it's just our mortal spirits' fault, we cannot follow such a devilish time. Then there it is, the scale of Hell from Persuance, now very fast while a meteor strikes the earth, now it's HER moment. The sax takes over the piece with authority, the heart stalls dying at its first terrible notes.

And then off, the charge towards the Immense, simply the greatest improvisation of all centuries, forward and forward, phrases interspersed with pauses, impossible scales, very fast, there's also Elvin giving it like a demon, surpassing, surpassing everyone, me, you, everyone. By now there's no awareness of one's body, we move, tremble ecstatic, closed painful eyes, we let ourselves, exhausted, be transported through the universe, through the centuries, through lives upon lives, through THE life, getting ever closer to our own soul, finally. John continues his search, yes, finds what he seeks, FINDS IT and bursts into a scream in the high sax, very high, indefinable with Elvin, he too surely seeking something (the extreme limit of the drums? Probably), who literally goes mad among rolls plates and the sky alone knows what. And it goes on, goes on, continues and no one can keep up anymore, John retreats, Elvin doesn't want to stop <> and so on <> and then <<(thunder)>> and again <<(roll)- CRASH!>>.

He's finished, he said what he had to say. My, how he said it. Now it’s his moment, everything calms down, now there’s him, Jimmy, his double bass, his solo. He's alone, alone with himself, alone with his visceral depths. The bass, his soul. There's no rhythm now, one prays silently, they are lost, desperate, it seems to be with Kerouac in some desolate land, all, angels of desolation. There is the weight of existence in the deep, almost spectral voice of the double bass, as always too, too much. One cries, yes, I'm crying for the umpteenth time. That eternal theme is there <> namely <>. The solo continues, ever deeper into the abyss, ever toward the light.

4. "Psalm"

There is no time to realize the solo has ended (one only hears a few steps of Jimmy who, having left the instrument, walks away), when here comes another thunder (indeed, this is not absolutely a record for the faint-hearted), scattered piano chords, vigorous timpani, cymbals spreading towards the horizon, towards a sun inexorably setting. This is a psalm, this a sax prayer (on the back of the album the original in verses is reported), as usual, endowed with a terrifying beauty, to make one scream, to make one meditate on time, on the meaning of everything, on the real possibilities of life, on our spirituality and of humanity as a whole. The instrument languishes, between high notes, deep notes, amid cries in the night, along the roads of suffering, with the last kiss before climbing the scaffold. And then the sky gathers in the call, in the continuous supplication <>, that towards which all things tend and return. At least according to John.

One wants to say, to shout always <> listening to this piece, so much does it dig into the depths of our eyes, so much drags us forcefully and violently into the remotest locations of our ego. There are seven minutes of anguish, of fear, the double bass is distant, the piano is distant, the timpani are distant, and all that leaves us alone face to face with John and his psalm and his, splendid, immense soul. <>.

We move towards the end, the sax shouts a high note, then another, the timpani grow stronger, then another, everything is about to end, and then, out from the right speaker comes another sax, no one expected it (there are those who claim it’s Archie Shepp, but in reality, it’s an overdub by Coltrane himself), one loses what remains of their self, roll on cymbals, the sax resumes the opening notes of the piece, one discovers happiness, one understands, ONE UNDERSTANDS, nothing is like before, now everything is different. Now everything is much deeper. Now, after the abyss, everything is light.” (from "A Love Supreme", John Coltrane, 1964, Impulse!)