Customer Reviews

A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album

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I loved this book. In fact I was just ordering a few extra copies to give as gifts to serious jazz connoisseurs when I came across this drivel from Rich Fontana in the customer reviews section. I felt that as a fan of both the album and the book, I am compelled to reply to his assiduously prepared critique.

In taking the author to task for being a fan, he misses the point of the book entirely: it is intended as a passionate celebration as much as carefully researched study. The author admits it unabashedly, Coltrane himself stated that an "emotional reaction" to music was paramount (in a '64 interview with Leonard Feather) and how else can one measure the effect and influence of a spiritual album without engaging the emotional?

As stated clearly by the author, and Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner - A Love Supreme was indeed a culmination of the quartet's three years together, not a culmination of Coltrane's career. Yes, Crescent was important and the author states that, even proposing it as an effective blueprint for the four-part suite that ALS is. Mr. Fontana's argument that his own perspective on Crescent is significantly different from the author's goes so far into the realm of picayune that - if it were deemed important enough to be published -- the vast majority of readers would end up scratching their heads and closing the book. (And while on the subject of hair-splitting, Crescent was recorded and released in 1964 - not 1963 - as Mr. Fontana maintains, an important matter in the hyper-charged Trane timeline.)

As to Kahn's use (another small matter apparently missed by someone who relishes detail: the author's name is K-A-H-N) of rock n' rollers (and minimalists, and world musicians) in gauging the reach and influence of ALS. One of the primary intentions of the book is OBVIOUSLY to show how Coltrane managed to transcend stylistic and categorical boundaries - and still does. In the same way the old Blindfold interviews in Down Beat - in which say, Coltrane would praise Lester Young, leading certain fans to ferret out and enjoy old Count Basie recordings - today's far-flung media allows a Carlos Santana oreven the dreaded Bono to help point their fans to the music of Coltrane

In the end, Mr. Fontana comes across as one who requires his music writing the same way: dry, analytical, single-minded. Jazz - and music in general - is NOT rocket science and should not be left to the cold, hard interpretation of one person (such as Mr. Fontana's own, opinion-as-fact portrayal of Coltrane's musical path.) In the virtual round-table Kahn has produced in this book, there is life and passion (and a helluva lot of great photographic images), powered by his own perceptions but mostly by the input of others: jazz musicians, jazz fans, even regular (G-d forbid -- non-jazz) listeners. He trusts his reader to figure it all out for him or herself, that somewhere among all those voices sits the general truth of music, Coltrane and A Love Supreme.

I applaud Ashley Kahn for making a very readable, authoritative book that exudes love and respect for its subject. This kind of writing will do more to breathe life into the jazz continuum than the boring tomes that more often pass for jazz writing. I can't wait to see what Kahn comes up with next.

A gorgeous book, it gracefully fuses art and literature into a beautiful form with a most compelling story. Any jazz fan will appreciate the depth of the writers research into the making of this historical album and into the mind of the master. The interviews are fresh and fascinating, the photos sublime. One of the best music books I've read in years.

Kahn's stellar research for this volume on Coltrane's best known album, "A Love Supreme," is undermined by sloppy prose and lack of focus. Kahn does a great job showing just how powerful the album has been for generations of listeners, from Wayne Shorter to Bono. The biographical material on Coltrane is very good, but profoundly impersonal, skipping over key aspects of his life. The best part of the book is his meticulous documentation of the December 9 & 10, 1964 sessions that resulted in this album. Kahn describes the music with vivid language, and includes details about where Elvin Jones' drums were placed and how Rudy Van Gelder lit the studio to create a Jazz Club atmosphere for the performers. After that, Kahn's book loses focus. It's as if he had a 100 page manuscript, but then the folks at Penguin asked him to make it 250, and he had scratch around for any extra material he could find. His assessment of Coltrane's career post-"A Love Supreme" is very tepid, and the chapter on the legacy of the recording, especially from the vantagepoint of JOWCOL publishing, shows promise, but ultimately goes nowhere. Kahn's major problem here is that he doesn't know who his audience is. Is it for die-hard Trane-iacs, or is it for the casual listener that has "A Love Supreme" and no other Coltrane album? Some of this might not be Kahn's fault, as the content suggests this is for experts, but the formating of the book, with its wide margins and coffee-table book size, make it seem as if it's simply for show and tell in some bourgeois apartment. The book could have been better organized, more historically contextual, and filled with glossaries and footnotes for the more casual fans. Also, Kahn's lack of historical grounding makes it seem as though "A Love Supreme" was the only album released in 1965, and that jazz was the most popular music at that time, which is far from the case (just as it is today). Here, his homage to this wonderful album bleeds over into the realm of adulation. If this was a book for the "experts," it would be more critical of the album, instead of an all-out gush-fest. But Kahn's research must be commended (especially since he seems to be responsible for getting the December 10th performance of "Acknowledgment," with Davis and Shepp as added musicians, unearthed and onto the Deluxe Edition reissue of "A Love Supreme).

Ashley Khan did a great job. I first picked up Coltrane's A Love Supreme, in the early 90's while a teenager, in a used section of a Parisian jazz record store, at that time i was only basicly educated about music and jazz. When i first played that album i was spiritualy moved and fell in love with it. I had no idea then of the importance of that record in Coltrane's career or in jazz in general, but the music touched my soul, and took me on a journey, which have been my (still young) life's journey and spiritual quest.

For the past 10 years i have been playing that record before evey major key events of my life... as a way to pray and meditate... i had no idea this album have been such a spiritual listening experience for other people before i started learning more about Coltrane and music. For this, Kahn's book is a very good illustration of the importance of that particular record. It is well written, have beautifull pictures and some precious informations. It contains basic elements about Coltrane's life, but reading Colrane's bio can remain a necessity. The making of a love supreme is a must read. Peace.

A wonderful book that lets you discover more about the classic album. Kahn not only lets us in on the recording session, but his interviews seem to bring out the best in the subject and that is the best part of both his books - The jazz musicians themselves telling us what it was like and what it meant.

As for the previous reviewer who decided not to buy the book because of Bono. Bad move, because Bono is mentioned once or twice for about a sentence each time.

In order to show the reach and influence of "A Love Supreme", Kahn asked some modern musicians what it meant to them. Bono was one of them.

Highly Recommended!

What an amazing book about an amazing album. Coltrane has been one of my favorite musicians for many years. Kahn gives a wonderful, brief biography about Coltrane which I found to be one of the better accounts of his life, (although not an extremely detalied account). Kahn introduced new aspects to the music of "A Love Supreme" I had never thought of. The interviews with other jazz musicians were outstanding in bringing this book to life. If you like jazz, don't go with out this book or the album.

But if you are a long time Coltrane fan, there is nothing new here. And the guy is not a musician, so expect the usual metaphores when trying to describe what is happening when Trane and company play. Since the actual master tape for the session runs a little over 60 minutes, there is not much to tell about the actual session itself, and many pages are devoted to where he was born, when he plays with Miles, what other people think about it (even that guy from the Byrds!) etc. But if you are just getting into jazz and into Trane, it is a good purchase. Good photos as well.

I love stories of how things come to be. There is always a story behind EVERYTHING in the world of form. Things don't just "appear" out of sheer nothingness...there is always an originating point...a seed, if you will and sometimes those seeds that seem so tiny and insignifigant bring forth blooms that are so beautiful and so bright that their beauty seems to echo an eternalness about it.

When I bought my first copy of a Love Supreme on vinyl, I think I was about sixteen or seventeen years old. I heard stories about this fabled record. I heard that it could drive a relatively normal man, crazy with fever. I heard that once you heard it, you would forever echo with a buzz...a hum...that would affect every bit of your life. I wanted to take my chances and as soon as I got home a stripped the cover naked of its celophane dressing, I carefully placed the needle and the shiny, black surface and within moments I had a realization within me that all those stories were true.

I was never going to be the same.

I bought this book because I needed to know more about the magic behind the magic. A lot of people think that words are the end all and be all of creation. Words are symbols. Words can only convey things up to a point. Words are NOT Truth...but they can guide one to the Truth but in the end, one ultimately has to have their own experience with what we so feebly call "Truth". That is why religion fails miserably and why an individual spiritual experience is ultimately necessary.

Ashley Kahn, however, does a remarkable job of articulating his message. A Love Supreme is an open acknowledgement of the Divine...it is a Love Song to God...and even though I really didn't have a clue in my seventeen year old brain of what this musc was ultimately about, I knew on some level I was transcending the mundane. I also believe that I didn't come to the music, the music came to me...somehow from the realms of my unconscious, I was summoned and to tell you the Truth, I still feel very lucky to have been one of those who have been called.

This book has an energy all its own. Just like the recording, the story behind the music vibrates at a very High Frquency. After reading it, it simply validates that NOTHING IN THIS UNIVERSE is ever by accident. There is some kind of beautiful orchestration always taking place and isn't that Love Itself just meeting/greeting Itself in and through and as EVERYTHING?

You are reading this review because something within you called it forth. I really recommend this incredible book for people who love Coltrane as well as for those who just don't understand what the big deal is about Coltrane's music. All I ask you to do is just STAY OPEN and one day, without warning, it'll come to you and you'll remember.

A must have book!

Peace & Blessings,
john, 'the Light Coach'

You KNOW the music. Now learn about the events in the life of John Coltrane that lead up to the pinnacle, the mountaintop of his career.

First of all, let me explain that I have a substantial library on jazz music - mostly about Miles and Trane. I found this book to be very insightful, regardless of what anyone else has written in their review. I don't want to be disrespectful of those reviews but I fail to see how some arrived at a mediocre or low opinion of this book. Not at all! In fact, I've learned so much and enjoyed this book so much that I'm definitely going to purchase Kahn's Making of Kind of Blue and Impulse the House That Trane Built. Personally, I can't wait to read 'em!

Kahn provides first hand accounts of both the December 9 & 10 sessions at Rudy Van Gelder's studio from Archie Shepp, Art Davis, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Bob Theil, and of course Rudy himself.

The book tells us what made recording at Rudy's so special, he describes the studio and even gives a high-level look at Van Gelder's methodology (the details are Rudy's closely guarded secret).

There is a title by title analysis of the suite in layman's terms but he & Ravi Coltrane DO give the listener some sign-posts to listen for each time you listen to the suite. I know that as a semi-professional jazz musician, I've learned new things about this music that I can actually apply to my own playing.

The description of how Impulse started, how they packaged and produced the recordings and took them to market was fascinating (to me anyway). I learned some things that I'd always wondered about. There is some discussion on Billboard and how the news about this fantastic work of art quickly spread 'round the USA.

There is a chapter toward the end "The Unbroken Arc of A Love Supreme" where I felt like Kahn was flirting with becoming trite and a little over-the-top but thankfully, he didn't quite go there... but it was close. That is my only criticism of this book. He just goes a little over-board with the reverence for this music, i.e., he sort of hits the reader over the head again and again with it. Ok, I get it. This is a special recording. Of course, we already KNOW that otherwise we wouldn't be reading a book devoted to a specific recording. Duh? It's not an annoyance but some reader may begin rolling their eyes, let's put it that way.

This book is perfect for the non-musician and a great read for musicians. The only downside (if you can call it that) for musicians is that there really isn't a detailed analysis of the music - no transcripts. If you are a musician you will want to purchase Lewis Porter's John Coltrane: His Life and Music. That book will give you transcripts galore. In fact, Porter is cited often in this book & this book is cited often in the Porter book. I enthusiastically recommend both books and of course, the deluxe edition of A Love Supreme. Buy them all, I guarantee whether you are a musician or just a jazz lover, you are going to learn something.

"A Love Supreme" was already one of my favourite jazz record before I read this, but after having read the book, now I listen to the music in a totally different way.

I'm not a spiritual or religious person at all, but the book helped me understand what was probably going through Coltrane's mind (from a spiritual point of view) when he composed and recorded "A Love Supreme".