John Coltrane: A Love Supreme (3LP) [IMPULSE]

Why you'll love it

This 3LP set pairs the original album with a mono reference mix and alternate takes, overdubs and breakdowns, most of them previously unheard, in a gatefold jacket with a 20-page booklet. A Love Supreme ranks among Coltrane's best-selling albums and was nominated for a Grammy in 1966.

This edition

• 3LP set
• Remastered
• Gatefold jacket
• 20-page booklet
• Previously unheard session takes
• Pressed in the Czech Republic
• Stereo mix

About the album

On December 9, 1964, John Coltrane walked into Rudy Van Gelder's studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones and recorded a four-part suite in a single session. It was his gratitude made into music, a prayer for tenor saxophone, and it has been changing people's lives ever since.

"Acknowledgement" opens with a gong and Garrison's four-note bass motif, which Coltrane works through every key before the quartet chants the album's title. "Resolution" surges, "Pursuance" is a blazing showcase for Jones, and on "Psalm" Coltrane plays the words of a devotional poem on his horn without speaking a word. Producer Bob Thiele captured it all, and this edition, compiled by Ashley Kahn and Harry Weinger, adds a mono reference mix on the second LP plus the overdubs, alternate takes and breakdowns that show the suite taking shape. The third LP digs into the following day's session, when the group tried "Acknowledgement" again with extra players.

There's a church in San Francisco that treats this record as its central text, which is a level of devotion even our most committed jazz regulars haven't quite reached. Yet.

Also at Kops: more John Coltrane on vinyl · browse Classic Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Impulse! / Verve, a reissue of the 1965 album.