My favorite album for 2008 was not released in this year. My favorite album was not reissued in this year. Unfortunately I am over forty years too late for the release of this album, and how it has not touched my life in so long a time, I can not explain.
The album is "A Love Supreme" by John Coltrane. You don't need to be told by me the unnerving talent that was in the heart of Coltrane. His praises have been sang for over half a century by writers far greater than myself.
I have heard this album in the past. I most certainly heard it in my days working as a technician in a consumer electronics store during the 1980s. Most of my exposure to jazz created prior to the Fusion period of the 1970s came working in that environment. The yuppies of the time needed to piss cash that they were making hand over fist, and consumer electronics was one of their favorite piss pots. I just happened to be working for one of the elite consumer audio/video establishments of NYC at the time in Brooklyn Heights, Innovative Audio. If you get a chance to visit them in their latest location on 58th Street you should. The environment itself is a treat. The yuppie tastes in music would go to 50s and 60s jazz and classical. Monstrous sized components singing with horns and sax would make the yupsters hair stand up on end (not to mention the chills that would go up my spine). Here is where these sounds would permeate my heart. I was a victim of arrested development most of my life as far as my maturity and taste is concerned. In my early twenties, I was just beginning to get out of my "that shit sucks" mentality. I have always had a love of music. I have always had a love of powerful music. Back then I was just beginning to discover that the requirements of powerful music were not exclusively loud, or lead by piercing, screaming electric guitars (even though they usually are a plus). I first heard Coltrane in this atmosphere.
As mentioned in prior posts, I have recently returned to complete my Bachelors degree. I needed to take a course to fulfill my Humanities Requirement with a course that had a heavy writing component involved with the course. My last bout of schooling in the 90s had developed a mild appreciation of poetry. So in looking for a course to meet the requirement I found English 140 W (the w stands for writing), Introduction to Poetry. The course is an intro to poetry and every week we must write an essay on various poems and topics related to them. In this course I was introduced to the poem "Dear John, Dear Coltrane" by Michael Harper. Harper's poetry lit a spark in me with it's incorporation of "A Love Supreme" in it's theme. I had the rhythm throbing in my mind for days. After being tormented, I had to run out and buy the CD. I was enthralled upon the first listening of my purchase.
Coltrane referred to this album as a gift to God. I don't know about that directional flow. I think it may be more accurate to call this collection of music one of God's many gifts to humanity, with this gift being delivered via his vessel that was named John Coltrane.
The opening fanfare of sax lines in "Acknowledgment" seem to announce the arrival of joy. Then starts that enveloping rhythmic theme coming through the fingers of Jimmy Garrison on Acoustic Bass. You can here the words "a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme" pumping through in all their low frequency glory from the bass. Music as replacement for voice. It sounds like a heartbeat. McCoy Tyner's piano underscoring the soaring sounds of Coltrane's sax playing accentuated by Elvin Jones' tink tink of the cymbals and the sharp rap of his snare create what may be one of the most perfect layered constructions withing a recording studio. Towards the end of the piece, Coltrane's chant of the album title accentuates further the theme now entering in to crescendo and the final ending throbs of the bass at the conclusion.
The next selection "Resolution" soars for another seven and a half minutes. It begins with a slow bass introduction and then from out of nowhere, Coltrane jumps in with a sax line that is nothing but uplifting and sets the melodic tone for the rest of this composition. Once again, the sound is layered a base block carrying the next block carrying the next block supporting the topping, which is the sheer genius of Coltrane's playing.
The third piece, "Pursuance" opens with Elvin Jones performing a drum solo that must have been outstanding in it's day. I am not denigrating his talent, but after being bombarded with 30 minute arena rock drum solos in so much of my formative years, I have to say drum solos can get heavy handed and I usually shy away from listening to them. Jones though had great taste in the delivery of the feel from the solo and then cut it at just the point that it was about to lose effectiveness of holding my attention. I guess that makes him a damned good artist besides a damned good drummer. And that gets topped off by Coltrane's entry in to the piece, once again on top of Tyner, who then goes in to his own piano solo while Coltrane stands down. McCoy Tyner's playing really is great. I have not heard enough of this man. I have to put him on my list. His movements through the piece are exhilarating and then the final build of his solo seems to elevate the reentry of Coltrane to the piece. It's flying to the sky feel is simply exhilarating. Then we return to Jones doing a brief solo that segues in to Jimmy Garrison once again reintroducing the "love supreme" melodic theme with his bass while taking a solo that introduces us in to the climax of the album.
Psalm is a tone poem. The English language of the poem are written in the liner notes, but there are no English words on the recording. All verbalization is performed by John Coltrane's saxophone. Once again, a layered underscoring of the music by his accomplices in this masterpiece. Jones on drums is adding deep rolls of thunder and majesty that Tyner's piano swells upon. Garrison thumping in the layer while Coltrane sings his praise to an ever enveloping deity whom has given his life such meaning. All with his saxophone. At at the conclusion he closes with the same saxophone theme that he opened the album with.
Of the four pieces, my personal favorite is "Resolution". The melodic theme that Coltrane plays at the beginning just lifts me up. It forces me to just internally sing with it's flow. I could just imagine myself following it with a guitar (I play guitar and relate to music by imagining myself performing in the music). The smooth rising sensation that I get from hearing the melody makes me imagine a person dancing with arms outstretched in joy and fulfillment. Not too many musical passages make me contemplate images like that. The passage of music, to my soul, smacks of euphoria. It feels like lovers at climax. It is as if you have entered in to paradise, and all that is about your senses is pure joy and elation. I could write more sentences. I could use a greater selection of adjectives. I would still miss hitting the nail on the head. You would do yourself great service to listen, and then you most likely would understand my lack of description. So I will stop here.
And with the joy, I get sad thoughts. An artist dead before I could revel in the midst of receiving their arts whilst new and fresh. Unable to discover it while in it's proper context of time and place in history. Unable to know if this alters my perception of something I already feel is just joyful. I was three years old when Coltrane et al. were recording this masterpiece in late 1964. John Coltrane would be gone from this plane of existence within another four years. Dead at the age of forty, it is already longer since the recording than the man had years.
Trane, you died long before I knew who you were. I can only thank God for recorded music so I can hear you forty four years later in what must have been your prime. Thank God that you were thanking God in such a grand way that has just filled ears with joy for years. And with great optimism for the survival of humanity, you will fill our ears with joy for eternity.
