A Love Supreme

The Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album

by Ashley Kahn, foreword by Elvin Jones. Bringing the same fresh and engaging approach to music that characterized his critically acclaimed Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece, Ashley Kahn has written an even more illuminating celebration of saxophone legend John Coltrane’s 1964 spiritual opus and masterwork.

A Love Supreme is a passionate and revealing portrait of a timelessly resonant musical statement, artfully balancing biography, analysis, and a palpable enthusiasm that anyone from the casual listener to the avid fan will enjoy.

A Love Supreme was written with the full cooperation of Coltrane’s family and features the voices of more than a hundred musicians, producers, and witnesses, including the surviving participants in the album: Elvin Jones, pianist McCoy Tyner, and engineer Rudy Van Gelder. With unpublished interviews with Coltrane and bassist Jimmy Garrison and scores of never-before-seen photographs, A Love Supreme weaves a rich historical backdrop to the 1964 recording and examines the questions and myths surrounding the album.

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