A Love Supreme

So happy to have this wonderful album in my collection! It’s truly marvelous.

I was initially surprised. But after researching online and finding that this was a must have 4 your collection - I had to buy it. I was astounded by the sound and originality.

This album came out from John Coltrane in 1965. It is an album that resolves and doesn't resolve at the same time, and subsequently has garnered him much attention. This musical release is a spiritual experience. It certainly is one of the most talked about, listened too and collected jazz records of all time. It is full of amazing musicianship, and an instrumentally deeply dark and barely lit journey through life.The album is at least 180 gram. It feels like 200 gram. The cover is classic. It is a heavy weight, it opens and it's grayscale depiction just captures you in to the experience as much as the music. All around this thing was produced from studio to publishing with amazing skill and attention to detail.Coletrane penned this as a prayer to God and that oozes through each track. Psalm 4 is one of my favorites.

I'm not even really in to jazz music...I have a few albums: Chet Baker, Cannonball Adderley, a couple others. I read the negative reviews on here and just don't get it. I was blown away by this album. I can't really compare it to anything else. I'm not really even a Coltrane fan either. All his albums just sound like he's trying to play super fast with no hooks or anything memorable that keeps you coming back. But "A Love Supreme" is something different, and I still haven't figured it out yet...I just can't stop listening to it. I can't guarantee you'll like it, because all music is subjective, but I like everything from Mozart to Billie Holiday to Elvis to Dylan to The Beach Boys to Led Zeppelin to Bob Marley to Pearl Jam to Jay-Z, and I absolutely LOVE this album. If you're looking for a listening experience that is truly one of a kind, pop this on in a quiet setting, by yourself, and listen to it all the way through. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did/do.

Thank You And If You Can Buy This For Your Collection As Well As Others To Complete Your Jazz Greats Collection.

1. The recording:It is not enough to say this is a classic. It needs to be experienced. This album will take you to another place, like meditation.Praise God for the one-, two- and three-star reviews, because at least these listeners opted to give this a try, even if they didn't fully experience it. You don't need technical knowledge or expertise to appreciate this album. Just sit down in a darkened room away from distractions, shut the door, close your eyes and listen.2. The vinyl:Get this record, and get it now! With all of the flimsy, scratchy, substandard vinyl being churned out these days, the quality of this one is quite impressive. This is a nice, sturdy vinyl that feels like it could have been picked up back in 1964. The sound quality is warm and natural, perfect for this glowing album. It's the way it was meant to be heard.

My Favorite Things is my favorite Coltrane album. Love Supreme is right alongside. One of the greatest recordings ever made.

A Love Supreme is generally viewed as John Coltrane's masterpiece. That clearly seems to be the view of most reviewers here on Amazon. As I write this review, the album has received 118 5-star reviews out of 131 (just counting reviews associated with editions linked by Amazon to this one). So, 90% of reviewers give it 5 stars. But more than that, the titles of the reviews reflect extreme passion and devotion: "The best album ever", "A Jazz Masterpiece by the 'Trane", "Immense and Beyond Category", "A true religious experience", "One of History's Masterpieces", "One of the Greatest Albums Ever Made!", etc. Some reviewers even claim that this album is "proof that God exists".However, I find myself compelled to disagree with the majority view. While I think the album is a very good album that is daring, passionate, and musically inventive, I feel that Coltrane fell short of acomplishing his stated goals of making a humble offering to God and inspiring his listeners to share his faith. In particular, I feel that his playing in the first and third movements is self-indulgent, chaotic, and (at times) both ugly and out of control. While I do not doubt Coltrane's sincerity, his playing does not make me appreciate God's love, mercy, or grace (except in the softer, hymn-like 4th movement). While I listen to lots of jazz and rock music, I also like classical music including symphonies, opera, and even religious works (masses, cantatas) by composers like Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart, and Bach. There are many beautiful works by these composers that convey great sadness, peace, love, and faith in God and stir my emotions much more than A Love Supreme does.That's not to say that I doubt the sincerity of other reviewers who have indicated that the album does stir these emotions or religious feelings in them. But the album doesn't really touch me on an emotional level in the ways that Coltrane intended; at most, the frenetic playing of Coltrane and his talented bandmates inspires feelings of excitement and irritation in me. My first impression on hearing this album was hat Coltrane was full of anger, not love. Perhaps,being an atheist, I'm just not receptive to his message. However, I do feel moved by classical music inspired by God despite my lack of faith. So, I ultimately feel that Coltrane hasn't really communicated (to me) the feelings he seemed to be aiming for, with the exception of the 4th movement.Ironically, I feel Coltrane did communicate peace, love, and beauty much more effectively in his Crescent album from the same year. I consider that album better than this one.One possibility here is that Coltrane meant to depict his struggle to find and stick with God and that the first few movements are supposed to express that struggle and are therefore not intended to convey the feelings of love and peace that I expected. But the titles of the movements and the liner notes do not indicate this. If that was his intention, then I might listen to the album in a different way and come to a different conclusion.