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17/06/2004 John Coltrane's A Love Supreme
John Coltrane's 1964 masterpiece, A Love Supreme, is one of a handful of jazz classics that even beetle-browed dadrock fans profess to like. (The other two jazz albums in the dubious Dadrock Top 100 are Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, and Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters; they usually share the listing with, er, The Eagles, Simon and Garfunkel, Patti Smith, Pink Floyd and their ilk. Nuff said). The handful of dadrockers who've played their trophy copy of A Love Supreme more than once will have enjoyed last night's beguiling new documentary, Saint John Coltrane, fronted by Alan Yentob for BBC1 TV's Imagine arts series. Using previously unseen footage (the only live performance of A Love Supreme, at the Antibes Jazz Festival of 1965), and talking heads such as the Coltrane quartet's delightful pianist, McCoy Tyner, Yentob's 45 minute film was an insightful introduction to the work of one of giants of 20thC music, timed to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the release of A Love Supreme. Through Coltrane's contemporaries, it succinctly uncovered the nature of his art. Like most great musicians, he was a driven man, obsessive about his music and keen to follow its dictates. The result is there for all to hear - an unmistakably expressive sax technique, a unique tone, and a body of work which both dominates and transcends jazz. The breadth of Coltrane's musical vision meant that he was well outside the confines of jazz, leaving band members, critics and fans alike well behind, by the time of his early death from liver cancer at the age of 40. Yentob's lively film (it was no hagiography) also delved into the dark side - the cult which has grown up to worship the memory of the canonised sax player. It showed what can happen when music fans start to take musicians just a bit too seriously. Recommended. Catch it when it comes to a TV channel near you. Music for Grown-Ups star rating (/5): 3
Readers interested in samping Coltrane are recommended to start, not with A Love Supreme, which can be daunting to a novice, but with one of the more accessible compilations. Both Atlantic and Impulse (his main labels) issue different The Very Best Of John Coltrane CDs. Both albums sample Coltrane doing what he did best, improvising wildly to transform a trite pop song such as My Favorite Things into an incandescant masterpiece. Then, if you feel comfortable with Coltrane's musical vision, you might be ready for A Love Supreme. I envy you your voyage of discovery.
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