October 22, 2021
Impulse!
2xLP
What more is there to still be said for A Love Supreme at this point? It’s well known that John Coltrane bridged jazz and the divine and the accessible with the avant-garde to create something that has had an incalculable impact on jazz and music in general and is rightfully remembered as one of the greatest albums ever made. But for all the praise and commendation of the album that is as endless as it is deserved there has been a curious lack of live recordings of material from the album. This recording, captured in Seattle in October 1965, showcases an expanded version of the quartet from the studio version of the LP and adds Donald Rafael Garrett and none other than Pharoah Sanders into the mix. With these added players, the album is blown out into gargantuan size with this live edition clocking in at over twice the length of the original LP. Despite the massive scale of this show, the material never verges into self-indulgence and does it’s source material justice by staying every bit as riveting as the studio version and makes for an excellent companion to one of jazz’s high musical achievements.