A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle (Remastered) John Coltrane

• 1 A Love Supreme, Pt. I – Acknowledgement (Live) 21:53
• 2 Interlude 1 (Live) 02:28
• 3 A Love Supreme, Pt. II – Resolution (Live) 11:05
• 4 Interlude 2 (Live) 06:23
• 5 A Love Supreme, Pt. III – Pursuance (Live) 15:27
• 6 Interlude 3 (Live) 06:31
• 7 Interlude 4 (Live) 04:20
• 8 A Love Supreme, Pt. IV - Psalm (Live) 07:21
• Total Runtime 01:15:28

Info for A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle (Remastered)

For nearly six decades, two reels of ¼” recording tape held the only evidence of a rare and largely unknown 1965 performance of A Love Supreme by John Coltrane. The reels sat in the personal tape collection of Seattle saxophonist and educator Joe Brazil, the man who had made the recording. Over the years, he played it for a few fortunate friends and students. Brazil passed away in 2008. The memory of Coltrane performing his four-part suite during an historic run in Seattle in 1965 remained with a few witnesses who had caught the set and knew of its significance even then. More recently, a few archival sleuths caught the scent of the recording.

After Coltrane first recorded A Love Supreme in the studio in December 1964, once with his famous Classic Quartet and once with a sextet, we know he seldom chose to perform it: once at a French jazz festival in the summer of ’65, which was recorded and later released, and a year later at a fundraiser in a Brooklyn church, which was not. This recording offers the first evidence of the master of spiritual expression performing his his signature work in the close confines of a jazz club.

Of his many musical creations, Coltrane looked upon A Love Supreme in a very special light. He had meticulously crafted the composition, writing liner notes explaining its form and as a listener’s guideline. He had added his own voice to the music, chanting in the opening part “Acknowledgment,” and composed a lyrical poem that he “read” through his saxophone on the final section “Psalm”—“a musical narration of the theme ‘A Love Supreme,’” was how he put it. He called A Love Supreme a “humble offering” to the Divine; no other composition or recording was similarly offered nor did he append his signature to any other work. A Love Supreme was as much an individual testament as it was a public statement—a sermon of universalist belief.

Coltrane was born to a line of preachers. The very few times he chose to perform A Love Supreme in its entirety—“Acknowledgement”, followed by “Resolution,” “Pursuance,” and “Psalm”—one can assume there was a good reason, or reasons: the situation and the venue and the vibe warranted it, and so did the company—onstage and in the audience. This was not just message music, it was community music.

Future bloodhounds are sure to unearth more recordings of Coltrane’s performances like this one, and perhaps yet another take of A Love Supreme will be discovered. For now, we know this for certain: on October 2, 1965, a Saturday, in Seattle, the necessary elements were in alignment: music, players, venue, a spirit of connection, a certain political charge. Coltrane chose to perform it, and significantly, the moment was recorded. This is the story of that moment and the circumstances that led to it. ...

"We’re all human beings. Our spirituality can express itself any way and anywhere. You can get religion in a bar or jazz club as much as you can in a church. A Love Supreme is always a spiritual experience, wherever you hear it." (Elvin Jones, 2002)

John Coltrane, tenor saxophone
Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone
Carlos Ward, alto saxophone
McCoy Tyner, piano
Jimmy Garrison, double bass
Donald Garrett, double bass
Elvin Jones, drums

Digitally remastered

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