Album of the day (#4691): A Love Supreme by John Coltrane

[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

A Love Supreme by John Coltrane (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1965.
Country:
Overall rank: 74
Average rating: 87/100 (from 1441 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. Part I - Acknowledgement
2. Part II - Resolution
3. Part III - Pursuance / Part IV - Psalm

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[AAL2014]

A Love Supreme is in the top 10 of my main chart, and I don’t see that changing. This album is a mindful journey that balances me between feeling completely present and having my head completely in the clouds as well as any record ever has.

For me it has served the purpose as both a gateway to jazz music and a benchmark of the genre to return to. Beyond jazz though, I feel A Love Supreme is a highwater mark of the album format and music as a medium. The hooks, the flow, the conceptual composition making it much easier for this to be seen as a vessel of communication.. everything about A Love Supreme is spotless and beautiful and, at its very peak, absolutely breathtaking.

Though a cliche it may be, this album is truly a spiritual experience. One that hits me no less hard today than it did upon my first listen a decade ago.
_________________
Attention all planets of the solar federation: We have assumed control.

[Fischman]

Reprint from my jazz diary:

There's really nothing I could say, no insight I could offer at this point that could add to the body of discussion for this album, often cited as the best ever in the history of jazz. While that's a huge claim and I'm not sure I'm ready to sign up to that, if it's not, it is damn close, and I put it above the other most often cited greatest album in jazz history (Miles' Kind of Blue).

I will share that the first time I heard this album, it was a pivotal point in my developing a love for the saxophone, and the first time I realized I could really enjoy the instrument in a free jazz setting.

In my most recent listen here, two things in particular struck me. First, I don't think this album could have been the perfect thing it is without having had McCoy Tyner on the keys. The structure he provides, and his conversation with Coltrane is nothing short of phenomenal. Actually, the same could be said of Elvin Jones, who does a fantastic job on the drum kit, including a wicked introductory solo on the third movement, "Pursuance." Second is that, no matter how often I listen to it, I always hear something new; some interaction between players, some nuance in the music, some perfectly placed harmonic shift.... always something. This is truly music of many layers. It's also shocking (in the best possible way) that a relatively free album can maintain such coherence across its breadth.

I have long wrestled with whether I think of this or Blue Train as my favorite 'Trane album. Last time I listened to it, I was leaning toward A Love Supreme. Now this time, I'm not leaning.... I'm sure; this is it. Period.

[EyeKanFly]

More so than any other album, even Kind of Blue, this was the album that got me into jazz. It's accessible yet still ground-breaking. Easy to take in but so incredibly deep.
_________________
51 Washington, D.C. albums!