He also eventually incorporated former Coleman bassist Jimmy Garrison (1933-1976) into his band, which would also eventually include Elvin Jones on drums, and McCoy Tyner on piano. These musicians, both still playing (Jones contributed the introduction to Kahn's book) became legends in the jazz world playing with Coltrane.

The Recording Process

Not surprisingly, Kahn does a masterful job explaining the recording process behind A Love Supreme and giving examples of what Coltrane, the other musicians on the recording, and his producer, Rudy Van Gelder were trying to achieve.

Coltrane very much wanted to record a musical prayer to God, thanking Him for allowing Coltrane to dedicate his life towards music. Kahn also thoroughly explains how the album's now famous liner notes, which consist largely of a written prayer by Coltrane, came to be. They would be some of the only written words produced by Coltrane, who otherwise very much put his emphasis on his music.

The first track on A Love Supreme, "Acknowledgement" is what many people think of when mentioned the album title, just as "So What" is Kind of Blue for many Miles fans. "Acknowledgement" sets the tone, and introduces the main themes of the album. It sounds like a cross between a fervent preacher leading a church service and exorcist, as Coltrane just burns on sax, following Elvin Jones' then unusual gong introduction. Coltrane's soloing is followed by the album's equally unusual--almost Gregorian sounding--repeated chanting of "A Love Supreme".

As was typical of many jazz recordings of the day, the tracks that came to make up the original album was recorded almost entirely live, on a single day, December 9, 1964. Most intriguingly, Kahn also writes about the next day's sessions, long considered lost by most jazz fans, when Coltrane brought in a second sax player, Archie Shepp, to collaborate on the album. It's only been very recently that this recording was released, as part of a two CD set containing both versions of A Love Supreme.

It's not surprising that a whole host of mostly white rock musicians would adopt the original album as their own, as Coltrane's instrumental introduction alone foreshadows the overdriven guitar pyrotechnics that would come in a couple of years from such rockers as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, who Kahn quotes as describing Coltrane's music as "assertive, it was strong, and it did have an anger to it, and so did rock and roll":

My initial reaction [to A Love Supreme] was one of physical pain. It sounded like he was going, "I'm not going to take this anymore. I'm just going to do what I want to do, and that's it"...Obviously, he had gone through a spiritual change and was praising God...and I was going through a similar kind of thing at the time, so I could relate to it.