#75 A Love Supreme by John Coltrane
The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time
- 2025 Album Rank
- 75
- 2011 Album Rank
- 114
- Total Points
- 815
- Year Released
- 1965
- Billboard 200 Chart Peak
- N/A
- Weeks at #1
- N/A
- RIAA Sales Certification
- 1,000,000 (Platinum)
- Buy Album
- Apple Music Amazon
A Love Supreme Album Details
A Love Supreme is John Coltrane's deeply spiritual jazz masterpiece, recorded in a single session on December 9, 1964, and released in February 1965. Structured as a four-part suite, Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm, the album serves as both a prayer and a declaration of gratitude to God. It marked a culmination of Coltrane's spiritual awakening, blending modal jazz, hard bop, and free jazz elements into a cohesive work that transcended genre boundaries. Backed by his classic quartet of McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums, Coltrane channeled both technical mastery and raw emotional power into a profoundly moving statement.
The music flows as a continuous journey, with each movement representing a step in Coltrane's spiritual path. The album's meditative yet intense quality made it one of the most celebrated works in jazz history, appealing to both jazz aficionados and listeners from other musical backgrounds. A Love Supreme has endured as a landmark of artistic sincerity, spiritual devotion, and creative vision.
Interesting Facts About A Love Supreme
- The opening bass motif in Acknowledgement underpins Coltrane's four-note chant of the album title, which he both plays on saxophone and hums vocally.
- Coltrane wrote a devotional poem that corresponds to the melody of Psalm; in the performance, he plays the words of the poem as if reading them aloud on his saxophone.
- The entire suite was recorded in one evening at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, with all four musicians performing together in the same room.
- Alternate takes and a sextet version featuring additional horns were discovered decades later and released on deluxe editions, revealing different improvisational approaches.
- The composition Pursuance includes an extended, fiery drum solo by Elvin Jones, one of the most celebrated in recorded jazz.
- A Love Supreme became Coltrane's best-selling album and reached audiences far beyond the jazz world.
- The suite has been performed and reinterpreted by artists in genres ranging from classical to hip-hop, underscoring its wide-reaching influence.
- Coltrane performed the complete work live only once, in 1965 at the Antibes Jazz Festival in France; a recording of this performance called Live in Antibes was released decades later.
- Many critics consider A Love Supreme a turning point that led Coltrane deeper into free jazz and more radical spiritual experimentation on later albums like Ascension.
- The album was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999 for its cultural and historical significance.
- In 2015, the album was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.
A Love Supreme Tracklist
- Part 1: Acknowledgement
- Part 2: Resolution
- Part 3: Pursuance
- Part 4: Psalm
