Classics: A Love Supreme

John Coltrane tenor saxophoneMcCoy Tyner pianoJimmy Garrison bassElvin Jones drumsRecorded December 9, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New JerseyEngineer: Rudy Van GelderCover photo: Bob ThieleProduced by Bob ThieleRelease date: January 1965 Of all the words John Coltrane put inside the gatefold of A Love Supreme, the one my ear keeps returning to is our. He wanted to thank God “through our work,” and in that little possessive the other musicians enter a story that began in the spring of 1957, when Miles Davis fired the saxophonist amid his struggles with heroin and alcohol. After quitting the hard stuff, Coltrane spent part of the year with Thelonious Monk at New York’s Five Spot. He returned to Davis the following January and played on Kind of Blue in 1959. Writing about 1957, Coltrane remembered a “spiritual awakening” and asking God to let him make other people happy through music. He also wrote of “a period of irresolution” in which he strayed from his pledge. The…

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