I can't describe in words how amazing A Love Supreme is, both in terms of it's feel and the technical proficiency in playing the horn like that. It tales me somewhere else, every single time. Those long legato runs are out of this world.
My deepest sympathies... But I can't agree with that. There were two albums that turned me on to jazz as a teenager. A Love Supreme was one of them. (The other was the Charlie Mingus album Black Saint and the Sinner Lady.)
A Love Supreme more invigorating than laid-back classics like Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, and the harmonies of the first two cuts are grounded enough that nothing is lost from not knowing the original standards. (A lot of jazz is hard to approach today because the context is lost -- nobody knows the tunes or can follow the chord changes, so you can't feel the tension and everything sounds like undirected noodling. The experience is analogous to listening to a remix without knowing the original).
A Love Supreme is literally the first jazz album I recommend to people.
The melody is very strong. Also when Trane's last solo kicks in is something really strong.
What I really like about him is when he just screams like a total madman through the saxophone. That's why one of my favorite albums from him is the last live The Olatunji Concert with Pharoah Sanders, where the sick man just roars like a lion. Horrible sound quality but I'd say his strongest band and absolutely brilliant music.
I never understood jazz, but one spring years ago forced myself to just dig in and listen until I got it. The artist that did it for me was Coltrane and until this day I highly appreciate the experimentation and spirit he and his band got. He was out of this world.
I find "A Love Supreme" about as relaxing as a Richard Feynman lecture, that is to say not at all, and for essentially the same reason, being a masterpiece of intellect and passion in which there's a new insight on every listening. If "A Love Supreme" is playing I won't be relaxed. I'll be distracted, provoked and probably quite agitated.
As much as I respect Coltrane and love much of his work, I have to agree that some of his more exploratory efforts are what I could only describe as "not relaxing". I like to fall asleep with jazz albums playing from time to time, and sometimes the playlists have gotten into some Coltrane stuff that tends to pull me awake.
Although I have to admit I’m not so much an avowed Jazz aficionado as I simply enjoy it as background atmospheric “pairing” when I’m working or reading.
Post-"representational" Painting is also strangely like this as well, even, strangely enough, with a certain time pressure: the first mark/stroke will, most of the time, be be better than the marks that come after that, and a corrected stroke almost invariably worse. Plus, as time continues, the surface ages.
Holy crap. This track Untitled Original 11383 is a real treat for aficionados of A Love Supreme. Stylistically, it sounds like it could have been an out-take from that album, except that McCoy Tyner's piano style isn't quite as heavy yet, and the form still retains some traditional elements (it's a blues) which are completely purged on A Love Supreme.
I stumbled upon the first of these tracks on Spotify today (linked from Four Tet's awesome unicode heavy playlist [1]). The track is called "Untitled Original 11383" [2]. Great stuff.
When playing it on mobile there seems to be either a new Spotify feature or some kind of easter egg that triggers, showing a pretty funky visualization (could also be an animation).
For those outside the area, they stream their broadcast online: https://kcsm.org/jazz91/listen.php