John Coltrane

Rare lost live recording of Trane’s masterpiece.

Though universally regarded as his career-defining magnum opus, A Love Supreme was rarely performed in its entirety by its composer. Until now, the only known live recording of the work, which Coltrane described as a four-part hymn dedicated to God, occurred in July 1965 at France’s Antibes Jazz Festival. The recent discovery, however, of a complete version taped in Seattle during October the same year offers a new perspective on one of jazz’s most iconic LPs. What is immediately striking about this later version is the way Coltrane, using a seven-piece band that features a second saxophonist, Pharoah Sanders, radically reworks the music into long, amorphous rivers of sound driven by extended solos, rattling percussion, and Elvin Jones’ thunderous drums. The music’s suboptimal sound quality is only a minor drawback to a sonic experience whose raw intensity is both disquieting and uplifting.