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John Coltrane: A Love Supreme - Live In Seattle

By Mike Jurkovic
November 22, 2021
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John Coltrane

saxophone
1926 - 1967

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane was moving faster than the speed of sound in 1965. Besides divining his place within the music, the world, his God, he was touring; a two week gig with

Thelonious Monk

piano
1917 - 1982

" data-original-title="" title="">Thelonious Monk at the Village Gate led to Newport then into a frenetic week in Europe. With the classic quartet plus

Archie Shepp

saxophone, tenor
b.1937

" data-original-title="" title="">Archie Shepp,

Art Davis

bass, acoustic
1934 - 2007

" data-original-title="" title="">Art Davis and

" data-original-title="" title="">Freddie Hubbard he had just completed the mind-bending sonic assault Ascension (Impulse!, 1966). That anyone could keep up with him or think one step ahead of him was Herculean. Few did. That is why we are still fascinated to listen when they do. To discover. To be some small part of something larger.

A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle memorialises for only the second known time; the first full performance of this holy suite was in Antibes, France, on July 26, 1965 released masterfully—after decades of bootlegs, variations, and augmentations galore—as part of A Love Supreme: The Complete Masters (Impulse, 2013).

Discovered in the private collection of Seattle saxophonist and educator Joe Brazil, this blistering October 2, '65 performance culminated a week's residency at The Penthouse, where the fiercely difficult and unapologetically atonal Live In Seattle (Impulse, 1971) was also recorded. Here, we find Coltrane moving singularly beyond the structures and strictures of the summer, expanding the live sound to include not only

McCoy Tyner

piano
1938 - 2020

" data-original-title="" title="">McCoy Tyner,

Elvin Jones

drums
1927 - 2004

" data-original-title="" title="">Elvin Jones and

Jimmy Garrison

bass, acoustic
1934 - 1976

" data-original-title="" title="">Jimmy Garrison but also fellow rogue sax visionary

Pharoah Sanders

saxophone, tenor
1940 - 2022

" data-original-title="" title="">Pharoah Sanders, second bassist Donald Raphael Garrett and also on sax

Carlos Ward

saxophone, alto
b.1940

" data-original-title="" title="">Carlos Ward.

Despite the lack of contemporaneous fanfare, and given the fact that the night was recorded with two microphones, A Love Supreme -Live In Seattle is not only a performance for the ages but a marvelous sounding one as well. Intensely immersive, the music builds upon the original template until it becomes something startlingly original yet again: A revived prayer, a bold logistic, a howling tribute to the soul. Each man is a force of indisputable nature (check out Tyner and Jones especially on "Pursuance: Part III," Coltrane and Sanders free, shrieking energy throughout.) Wheeling, keening, pleading, the music implores the higher power to reveal himself/herself/itself to the club's capacity crowd (275 very lucky souls) and now it implores us, compels us, to pay reverent attention to every moment. To every breath. And pray.

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Track Listing

Part 1 Acknowledgement; Interlude 1; Part 2 Resolution; Interlude 2; Part 3 Pursuance; Interlude 3; Interlude 4; Part 4 Psalm.

Personnel

John Coltrane

saxophone

Pharoah Sanders

saxophone, tenor

Carlos Ward

saxophone, alto

McCoy Tyner

piano

Jimmy Garrison

bass, acoustic

Donald Garrett

bass, acoustic

Elvin Jones

drums

Album information

Title: A Love Supreme - Live In Seattle | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: Impulse! Records

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