Who's Afraid of A Love Supreme?｜Vinyl Monday 

what’s your love supreme? comment below ❤️

I want to be honest, Abby. I clicked on this expecting my "Abby is in waaaaay over her head now" moment. But no, you stood your ground, faced your fear, and served it up: Coltrane as you see it, articulated beautifully. Respect. applause applause applause

Eleven years ago, my mother was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. Between her diagnosis in May, 2013 and her passing in October, 2014, John Coltrane's music provided me with spiritual comfort and direction. To this day, whenever I feel lost, A Love Supreme and everything John recorded afterwards returns me to solid ground.

please keep doing jazz reviews, as a (mostly) non-musician I've struggled with interpreting jazz and your creative/poetic descriptions are evocative and inspiring :)

A love supreme A love supreme A love supreme

Great job, Ms. Devoe! Seriously, for someone who doesn't know the technical side of music, from someone who also worships music without the technical knowledge, you described this album beautifully. Thank you!

I just wanna say that, as a black viewer, it’s refreshing to see you cover more black artist on your channel. Hope theres more to come in the near future.

And with this, Abigail has officially levelled up. Just picked up the vinyl version of the Complete Masters version of this. Perfect timing. Seriously though - you are "must watch" content every week, no matter which album. Your research, presentation, and enthusiasm are top-tier. You should be truly proud of what you've given us today. Thank you. And mark my words: someday, you're going to do Talk Talk's Laughing Stock (and maybe even do Spirit of Eden along with it; trust me, you'll make an amazing episode of this duo). I'm calling it now.

Much respect: you took on a challenging and difficult subject and didn't get your ass kicked. Or be boring.

You did it. I'm impressed. I've been listening to this since it came out. To see it reverberating across four generations like this almost makes the state of the rest of the world bearable. (You're going to make me finally break down and listen to the MC5.)

Don't be scared. It's only music. As you say in the video, just go with how it makes you feel. Incidentally that group is one of the greatest and transcendent in the history of music. Personal opinion.

Fun fact: it took years and years before it was publicly known that the poem in the gatefold were the words for Psalm. Somehow nobody put the 2 and 2 together. It must have been mind-blowing to those who figured it out by themselves. I think it only became common knowledge in the 1990s with the advent of CD liner notes. And if you read the words and listen to the music it‘s easy to follow, as every phrase he plays matches every word perfectly.

In the late nineties I became obsessed with the sound of the traditional Japanese flute, the shakuhachi. I studied, I researched, I practiced everyday and I built 3 shakuhachi from scratch. In 2003 a friend of mine gave me a photo, from a magazine, that featured John playing shakuhachi on an airplane, taken the year he died. I have the photo right over there.

My sister and I used to sit at the piano and put our fingers as far an apart as possible and call it dad’s music. He was a a jazzer, and quite enjoying our mockery. Made me a better listener in retrospect

Wasn't sure what a jazz-centric VM episode would be like, but I loved it! I can definitely hear the influence it had on acts like Can (RIP Damo Suzuki) and Mark Hollis, even when Talk Talk were still a synth-pop group, Hollis always envisioned them eventually becoming something way more expansive and expressive, and he ultimately succeeded in doing so, and it's thanks to works like A Love Supreme. Even I was put off from this album at first, and I'm a sucker for experimental stuff, but within a handful of listens I was hooked, it's so sad that we didn't get much from John (Or should I say, "Saint John" lol), afterwards, but what he left us is more than enough. RIP to Damo, Mark, and John, hoping that they're all making wild stuff in music heaven...

the makeup and look and hair is perfect this time

Inspired analysis Abbey - so well thought out and researched! I'm a pretty seasoned jazz listener and you brought out so many interesting qualities and beautiful facts about this piece of music. Loved your Naima vocalisation! 😀 Well done Abbey!

Yet again you’re the person with the most interesting record content I’ve found in the wild

This is probably my favorite jazz album. I wasn’t expecting you to do a jazz album but I’m very glad you’re doing it.

Absolutely love this video. The psychedelic rock content is always amazing but it's so much fun to see you dive into jazz and talk about it so passionately.

Your writing and descriptions continue to get better and better.

An incredible album from John Coltrane with a fantastic personnel. What an awesome review for Vinyl Monday! Kudos to you Abigail🙏. Always look forward to and enjoy watching each episode- all artists and reviews of their albums are very informative, truly inspirational and highly entertaining. Much gratitude😊🙌🎵🎼🎵🌏

As it‘s lovingly called among us jazz fans, John Coltrane‘s „I Love the Supremes“ ❤

I'm with you here. Elvin Jones is THE MAN!... and obviously a major influence on one o' my other favorite drummers Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull.) McCoy Tyner is so fantastic on keyboards (check out his album Fly With The Wind.) When you quote "You have to come to the music yourself gradually. Not everything can be received with open arms."...I am reminded of my first negative reaction to Captain Beefheart. It took multiple listens 'n states o' mind to finally "get" Trout Mask Replica 'n Lick My Decals Off, Baby. But once it clicks you have a revelation! Thanks for this insightful journey into John Coltrane-A Love Supreme. The timing is perfect as I just purchased the 2 cd version.

Kind of strange, but my 6th grade math teacher had a poster of John Coltrane in his room. Being 12 years old and just getting into music I didn’t know anything about Jazz and definitely nothing about John, but the image of him fascinated me. It had this dark and mysterious vibe that really drew you into the picture. I think I might’ve paid more attention to the poster than to whatever I was learning in math at the time lol.

Wow. Singing Giant Steps. Iam impressed. Not easy to do. You go girl!!😮

your channel works! deeply impressive background work and compelling delivery. another old music buff subscribed

Hearing you talk about music as spirituality, I'm reminded of stone-cold atheist Frank Zappa: "Music is the only religion that delivers the goods."

Another great post. As a fellow rock fan, so glad to see you connect the dots with the MC5 and their jazz influences. Also agree 100% that your analysis is about context and can't avoid politics, religion etc. Thanks for keeping it real. RIP Brother Wayne.

Very courageous episode, Abby! I think you did it justice. This was my starter album for Coltrane; I ended up getting most of his catalog. I think you're right that it pretty much started psychedelia, and inspried a lot of introspection. Enjoyed this one, thanks.

Good job, Abby! I like how you take the music out of its context. Art is born in a context, but lives in many others. I think the most valuable thing in your stories is the feeling and understanding of the old music by a young and smart listener. Just tell us why to listen to this music today, and it will be a gift. 😉

Congratulations on conquering your fear and producing an excellent episode, Abby! Nicely done. Once again, your ability to mix humor in with analysis - and on a serious subject - stood you in good stead. I laughed a lot, but I also found your insights, well... insightful. I played jazz live (keyboards) for some years, but never at the level of a McCoy Tyner or a John Coltrane. But this is a great album and you did it justice, I think. I found myself agreeing with your points and giving you a thumbs-up for various things you said (you saw me doing that, didn't you?). There was only one point where I thought you might have missed the point. It's my belief that "Resolution" is not about resolving (i.e. finishing) anything; it's more aligned with resolving to accomplish something, akin to a New Year's Resolution but hopefully a bit more solid than that. Such an interpretation might explain why the music does what it does in that movement. Also, if you ever cover "Close To The Edge" by Yes, you'll have a shorter track listing (three songs!) than A Love Supreme. And if you cover Yes' "Tales From Topographic Oceans", you'll tie A Love Supreme - four tracks over two records, one for each side. There is an entire book about the Coltrane Church; I'll be honest, I've not been able to get through the whole thing. I'll accomplish it eventually ("resolved" to do so). If you want to become more comfortable with keyboards in jazz, I'd recommend two albums which contain my two favorite jazz tracks of all time. Monty Alexander's "We've Only Just Begun" (BASF or MPS records) and the opening track "It Could Happen To You" (piano trio); and Jimmy McGriff's "The Way You Look Tonight" (Solid State records) and the title track (organ trio). I first heard these tracks in 1972 on a Philadelphia jazz radio station (WWDB) and eventually found used copies of the vinyl. Discogs lists both at pretty low prices. And now I can't wait for next week's album, as I find it fascinating. It was the first album from that artist that I bought (though I'd heard "Smash Hits" from a library copy, I think). I will say that the box set from a couple of years ago has a few better performances than those on this album, but ONLY a few. Keep up the fantastic work! Thanks!

I look so forward to Mondays!! Thank you so much Abigail!!!

A Love Supreme (and a lot of 0:33 0:34 free jazz) is actually very accessible to a rock audience that grew up with groups like Cream and other late 60s rock. Jimi was very influenced by jazz, and there was an explosion of jazz players in rock bands-especially drummers-in groups like Procol Harum, Fairport Convention, Jefferson Airplane,as well as more overtly jazz oriented bands of the period like Hendrix, Soft Machine, Manfred Mann and many more. (I forgot the Mothers of Invention, Spirit, Miles Davis, Gary Burton, Brian Auger and even Charles Lloyd and others who were straddling both worlds of music at

Wow we are truly kindred spirits when it comes to Music & the love of it for music's sake. It was an honor to send those albums to you. I think of got more for you & thanks for doing Coltrane for us.

This episode is your best yet. ♡

THEE GREATEST ARTIST TO EVER WALK THE EARTH!!! 🙌🙌 Trane is my biggest hero! Sun Ship is my personal favourite album of his, but man is A Love Supreme ever important to me 🖤🖤

This was so cool, Abby! And you needn't have been afraid to speak on this record, you have done so far better than I ever could have attempted!

Elvin (Fucking) Jones. Absolutely right! Great video. I could not have said and done this any better myself. My "love supreme" is probably Charles Mingus' live version of "Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting" on his "Mingus At Antibes" album. Ted Curson spits fire on his trumpet solo. Booker Ervin is incredible in his tenor sax solo. Then, Eric Dolphy brings the house down on my favorite solo of all time. And I've seen footage of them performing this. How are they just standing there motionless in front of a microphone? It sounds like the rapture is upon us and Dolphy's just singing from the pulpit. (No, I'm not really religious, either, but I was raised Catholic.) Either that or Rahsaan Roland Kirk's "Saxophone Concerto" on "Prepare Thyself To Deal With A Miracle." That said, Coltrane's output from "A Love Supreme" thru "Meditations" is probably the greatest output by one artist over a year's time...including Dylan's '65-'66, the Beatles' 1967 (or...any other year of theirs), or Mingus's 1959.

Wonderful episode, thanks for covering this true masterpiece in every sense of the word. What a "supergroup" and what an incredible monument to all that is sacred in life, love and art. Any honestly creative endeavor is an uncertain journey the artist embarks upon to seek out, embrace and fully celebrate that which is holy and resides within one's soul. In this performance, Trane and the band deliver what is undoubtedly one of the most vivid descriptions of that sacred journey to the heart of divinity in man ever captured in the history of recorded music. Well done, Abby!

Alice's solo records are exceptional works. I did manage to see her live and she was extraordinary. Modal jazz is, in simplest terms, different ordering of the scales beyond major and minor scales. The modes are considered to have origins in Greece and they can simply be described as treating a scale as originating at different points from the key. Miles Davis is usually credited as introducing these, but they are based on concepts, in jazz at least, by George Russell and in classical music, extensively used by Olivier Messian much earlier. You can think of things like an Indian scale or middle eastern scales as examples of different modal scales, but there are many, many modes. I don't know if that helps.

I remember the first time I heard this album… I was hypnotized until the very end, and to this day whenever I put this album on it feels like the first time. This album is something unique!

Coltrane was a genius that would not be denied! and all of his bands were amazing! I have a more rock-centric than jazz collection, but I have Trane, Miles, Duke, Tyner, Sun Ra, Hancock, and an assortment of the UK, Chicago, and NYC avant garde scenes. A Love Supreme is such a consuming listen that I do it rarely. but it's so memorable it stays with you for a long time, like Miles' Kind of Blue. speaking of Miles Davis-my favorite jazz record of the 60s is Filles de Kilimanjaro (1968). my favorite track is the closer, "Mademoiselle Mabry" named for Betty Mabry, his muse the future Betty Davis who put out some classic funk in the mid 70s. the band plays Gil Evans' arrangements for a jazz reworking of "The Wind Cries Mary." it's such a thing of beauty.

One of my supremely favorite albums. What a nice surprise !

Wow! I'm very impressed with your review of this album. Great title too.

I love that you did a jazz episode! I'm never sure whether or not to cover the jazz albums, because it'd be so easy to get too technical, and because it can be a divisive genre. Thanks for going there!

"A Love Supreme" looms large in my life and I was shocked and so excited last week when I saw that you were going to cover it. You did a great job on a record that means something different for everyone. The beginning of "Resolution" was the theme to my college soul radio show and is now my ringtone. I've been known to listen to this record 3 times in a row and get something different out of it each time. I've tried to meditate, but can't relax my mind enough, but THIS RECORD is the closest I get to meditation. Jazz (mostly hard bop) is how I relax and I guess, meditate. "A Love Supreme" is in my top 5 records of any genre of all-time and I just loved seeing you cover it and give it love and attention. It's easy to see how a religion built itself around such an amazing work of a mortal man and his love for his god.

Coltrane was a huge influence on Jerry Garcia. They both tend to play in paragraphs. This being the case, Bob Weir looked to McCoy Tyner to develop his techniques. There are times on this album that I hear Bobby and Jerry play.

This is my favorite Jazz Album. You did a fantastic job covering the great Album. I am a Jazz musician , you get this album.

well, ya hit a home run kid! I loved this episode, as a Coltrane and jazz fan, I must say, it took me a lot of plays to absorb this album. and that made it so much more of an experience for me. I own most of Coltranes discography, and yes Crescent is so overlooked. Thanks for all the work you put into these vids.

This was my first Coltrane album i got into jazz back in 2022 after discovering miles davis and i bought a love supreme not to ling after it blew me away great video abby ❤❤❤ keep it up

Vinyl Monday? John Coltrane? That's just a couple of my favourite things right there. Also, love the final comment about poor journalism! Go Abbi!

Thanks! This record holds so many memories for me! I worked at a music store in high school circa the 1990s and was surrounded by jazz and jazz players. I was a punk rock kid. My friend/mentor Bill M. (A former H.S. English teacher) took me under his wing. He was the best saxophonist I have ever met. So I got introduced to jazz and Kurt Vonnegut and it was a life changing experience. I'm from Philadelphia so I always felt a huge connection to Coltrane. Anyway back in the 70's Bill met Naima Coltrane on a bus. He was gushing saying how great her ex-husband was! So Naima said..."He was a wonderful musician. But he never took out the trash!" 😂 R.I.P Bill! One of the truly greatest persons I have ever known.

Super interesting review of an album (or suite) everybody should listen at least once. I personally think of it as a challenging piece of music that moved the dial forward in tonality, modality, and other technicalities... One should never be afraid of records like Kind of Blue, Smokin' at the Half Note by Wes Montgomery, or this one. Jazz is NOT music for the "musically educated" or the "elites". The only thing jazz snob people achieve is driving potential fans away. So congratulations on this one. Great analysis.

An especially enjoyable edition of Vinyl Monday. Because of its spontaneous nature I usually prefer to witness jazz live at a gig rather than listening to recordings. However, when it comes to the albums of the great and the good who are no longer with us, it was Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue and John Coltrane's Giant Steps that first got me interested and excited by jazz and without them I could never have gone on to appreciate more 'challenging' albums like Coltrane's A Love Supreme.

I love this album! Really loved your take as well

I’m a big fan of Coltrane . Love this episode of vinyl Monday

Probably the greatest spiritual jazz album. Excellent, heartfelt review. More jazz, please.

Really enjoyed this review. Tongue in cheek entertaining and approachable as well as deeply insightful & respectful. 👍

I can't offer much for this week, but did come across this quote: Duane Allman: "I listen to Miles Davis (early Miles) and John Coltrane and Robert Johnson, Junior Wells, Muddy Waters; see, you get a goal in mind, a note that you want to hit with your band and then you gotta go out on the road and your spiritual battery runs down. You get home and you listen to that stuff and say “Ah, there it is, I have it before me, I know what to do” and you go out and do it.”

This was a really great review. Only two albums have this complete transportation to another realm for me. A Love Supreme and Wish You Were Here.

Superb job of sharing intelligent thoughts on a close listening to a jazz classic. I have not listened to A Love Supreme in a while and there is no escaping it after listening to your commentary, I will be relistening soon. BTW, for another dip into Coltrane, a personal favorite is his Ballads record. Thanks for the inspiration.

And that’s it. You did it. Well done you, not only that you did it justice, you did it well. The most important thing being your obvious passion along with your advice that anyone can understand this, that this is not elitism. My takeaways? Who knew that there was some kind of church of Coltrane that had him down as God? What next? Sky church? New ground, new era same old insightful and illuminating presentation. As a long time passenger of the ‘trane who’s love supreme is music I loved this presentation. Well done 👍.

You did a fine job. Music is about feelings and if it continues to speak to you then you and John both made points. Keep exploring and pushing the music. If have a large audience and I hope it reaches one person to listen. Thank you

Great job, Abbie. “A Love Supreme” is a masterpiece. Some people - even those who listen to a lot of jazz - find this album difficult. I never did, though. Much of the music he did post-ALS might not be for the faint of heart, but I always found this record to be just stunning. This was without a doubt one of the best small jazz groups ever, even if it was about to fragment (McCoy and Elvin left the year after this was recorded). Elvin was a master. His use of poly-rhythms had me convinced there were two drummers playing on some of the early sixties Coltrane recordings. As genius as his work with Coltrane was, I also love the sessions he did on Blue Note records in the mid-sixties. He’s not as aggressive and his drums just seem to dance (check out his playing on “Wives and Lovers” on the Grant Green “Solid” album). And you’re right - “Crescent” is also wonderful.

I love this album and Coltrane's music. What a beautiful analysis. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I loved what you had to say. A lotta great insights and some great research and writing (and improv! I assume you work from a script, but it doesn't feel like it).

Thank you for educating me on this great music. ♒️🙋‍♂️

"a love supreme....a love supreme... a love supreme..." It took me until I was 60yrs old to enjoy and not be afraid of it, you'll get there.

I always enjoy that the presentations are like little plays, with structure, costumes and information . Coltrane did play with a singer on only one album , a guy with a mezzo bass tone, Johnny Hartman.

First time viewer to this channel. Abigail, I'm super impressed by your vast knowledge of music. I thought I knew a lot after 64 years, but you have me beat. Thanks for your take on A Love Supreme. I learned a lot.

Amen, Sister. What a great episode after losing Brother Wayne. You nailed it.

After watching your review, I listened to this while browsing psych art. A pleasant experience.

I listened to this again tonight. Was reminded how much of a technical genius Rudy Van Gelder was.

Kudos to you getting in the ring with this giant record. Nice job.

Jazz can be great.

Congrats for having the courage to review this album, Abby. It's a terrific review! Not just some dry technical analysis, but rather a heartfelt response to this beautiful, challenging, spiritually-inspired music. You continue to impress and inspire me with your album reviews. I'm glad you faced your fears and tackled all aspects of the music head-on, such as the spirituality that informs it. I'm not religious either, but rather spiritual -- I've practiced daily meditation for 50 years, lived in spiritual communities/ashrams, etc., so I appreciate that you're sympathetic to that dimension. (Also, kudos to the Bhagavad Gita references!) .

Congrats for coming around to St John

In a Bela Lugosi voice : " Don't be afraid ! " Thanks for the great video !

Thanks for reviewing a true work of art

Great album & review Abby,extremely fitting since we lost Mr Kramer so recently. Your reaction & take on this mirrors my own,albeit 45 yrs earlier when I was a teen. Without getting TOO deeply spiritual about it,I think ALL music is SOUL music,& the best songs function as a form of prayer,at least to me. Thank you for this

I love these vids! You are a queen 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

A Love Supreme is one of the reasons why I'm still a Christian and still alive. :)

Great job and one of your best videos. Happy you gave props to Crescent, which I agree is exceedingly underrated (and also my personal favorite Coltrane album). Like yourself I primarily make videos about rock 'n' roll but I'm also a jazz fan and have been wanting to make a Miles Davis related video. But also like yourself, I've been scared to do so and putting it off. Your video has inspired me: this year I'm going to do it...!!

It kinda surprises me that of the several vinyls I've encountered during my trips to Walmart, THIS is among them. No other jazz albums- not even in CDs.

Masterpiece Abby, A Vinyl Love Supreme, I'm happy i was able to help, a great birthday present ( my birthday was the first of February), and you did a great job of conquering your fear, you can even do classical music if you want to, great work, keep rocking...

I ✨love✨ this episode. For so many reasons 😩 You are such a brilliant lady, Miss Abby. I mean that literally…you are so smart it makes my heart burst to hear your personal impressions of this music while tying it all up in one very groovy bow. I admit I haven’t been able to watch full episodes in a long while (I watch 60 seconds every Monday tho I promise heheh) but damn. Congratulations to me for picking this one to get back into it LOL ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Great review Abby! Now I definitely want a copy of A Love Supreme on LP, Cassette and CD just to get my musical mojo back. And can't wait for the live album you're going to do next week. But I won't say anything LOL!

Two things: 1) Like a lot of folks, my aversion to jazz has less to do with the music than the fans. I have been avoiding this album because of the "eat it junior, its good for you" attitude from folks who insist that their refined taste makes them smarter than me. Your review managed to be smart without the rarified pretensions that we usually get from discussions of jazz, and your enthusiasm is 100% genuine. Maybe its because you are neither a snob nor a dude. At any rate, you have convinced me to check it out. 2) Wayne Kramer's last version of the MC5 included two friends of mine, and they are both beside themselves. Kramer was apparently a beautiful human being and a generous soul who had a profound impact on their lives even in a relatively short time. Heck, his passing got me in a funk and I did not even know him, degrees of separation notwithstanding. It is a colossal bummer that I missed seeing them and maybe that is part of the reason that I am feeling a bit hollow. It seems that you feel the same way. Consider this a virtual hug.

Finally had time today to watch this episode. Great job with a very tough album to put into words. Very psyched for next week's LP review. Machine Gun - oh yeah!

"I don't know jack about music..". The album is the apex of feeling. John showed us what freedom sounds like. I play a little 6-hole cane flute from Taiwan and since I don't know what I'm doing I fool the musicians. Jeff Beck taught me to link every trick I know.

Go big or go home indeed! A Love Supreme is a perfect album.

it's one of my favorite albums ever made. Along with Ascension.

The way you do those pauses and then like punchline style dramatic emphases on the words, Abigail!! “The greatest jazz album……. EVER!!!!!!” So priceless. This is why I ❤️ VM!!!!

that hand written sheet of music is rad, it basically has all 4 parts on one page with a simple description of the form and parts- you can see the 4 parts there- part 3 starts with a bass solo and so on. but he didn’t write out everything- the drums say like they have a rhythmic motif so it’s a similar beat but there’s still a lot of room for players to express themselves. it reminds me of the modal jazz of kind of blue but a bit more structured. the liner notes to kind of blue written by bill evans have a great perspective on modal jazz and improvisation, it’s rad!!

Excellent job! Looking forward to more jazz reviews.

Hello Abigail, I'm glad you've been touched by the magnificence of Coltrane and "A Love Supreme". Thanks also for mentioning the beautiful album "Crescent", which was the first Coltrane album I bought, as a teenager in 1972. I never saw Coltrane live; he died in 1967, which is just before the time I started getting into jazz. I have however been fortunate enough to see the late McCoy Tyner three times and Elvin Jones twice and these were indeed special moments. Bear with me; I'm going to cut and paste something I've posted in a few other RU-vid videos where the topic was John Coltrane. It's about something that I did in college: "The most epic listening session, however, was in college, around 1975 or 76. I like many musical genres, but by that time the music I listened to most frequently was jazz and of course the great saxophonist John Coltrane was a musical hero to me and several friends. We concocted a plan to listen to all the John Coltrane albums we could get together, in chronological order, in one marathon session, which we called "The Coltrane Lock-In". I think there were four of us that were the main participants. Between all of us, and borrowing a few more albums from some other friends, we put together about 30 Coltrane albums, or maybe a few more. The entire lock-in lasted just a little under 24 hours. The core group of us were there for the entire time, but I lived in a communal house and several other friends and housemates would come in and listen for an hour or two, then pop in the room the following morning and say: "Are you guys really still at it?"...LOL. We heard the incredible evolution of Coltrane as an artist through his roughly 10 year career as a solo artist, starting with his late fifties hard bop period on Prestige and Blue Note records ("Blue Trane", "Black Pearls", "Bahia" etc.). Then onto his stuff on Atlantic records with the ground breaking "Giant Steps" as well as "Coltrane Plays the Blues", "My Favorite Things", "Coltrane Jazz", "Ole" etc., and then into his increasingly spiritual and unbelievably powerful records from the early and mid sixties on the Impulse label like "Africa Brass", "Crescent", "Impressions", "Live at Birdland", "Coltrane", "Live at the Village Vanguard", "Ballads", "Selflessness", the majestic masterpiece "A Love Supreme" etc., etc. The final six or seven records were the very wild, so-called free jazz stuff from the last couple years of his life (1966 and 67) like "Ascension", "Meditations", "Sun Ship", "Live in Seattle" etc., ending with the somewhat somber but beautiful "Expressions". About half way through the Lock-In one or more of the core participants may, or may not, have ingested some very strong mind-altering substance that may, or may not, have aided in our understanding the avant garde music of Coltrane's late period. Anyway, it was time very well spent...LOL."

This was a breath of fresh air. I recently watched another YT music channel where they were ranking the RYM best 50 albums of all time and they were so dismissive of Love Supreme, and jazz in general, that I could barely stomach it. Anything that starts to color out of the lines seem to rile some people. Granted , it took me into my early 30's before jazz really took hold; the album that did it was Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch, but soon after that Coltrane rose to the top. Africa/Brass and Kulu Se Mama are two of my favorite, lesser know Coltrane favorites. Maybe review Os Mutantes self-titled 1968 LP. Besides being my favorite Tropicalia LP I think you could pull off Rita Lee's look effortlessly.

That's Mad... In the last week plus, I've been deep-diving Coltrane, and then yesterday you do the pinnacle "A Love Supreme". Though it is Valentines week, so... I just did a bit of a marathon of Coltrane's "Blue Train", "Soultrane", "Giant Steps", "Africa/Brass", "Olé Coltrane" and "My Favourite Things" over the last 8 / 9 days, and was waitin' 'til tomorrow (just 'cause of the day that's in it) to give "A Love Supreme" a spin. For me, for Jazz, I guess Miles Davis is probably my favourite [or who I probably listen to the most]. Bitches Brew is probably my favourite Jazz L.P. (?), though it is an album i have to prepare myself before a listen. But, I would listen to "In A Silent Way" and "A Kind Of Blue" more often. I do now also listen to quite alot of the current London based gender-bending genre-blinding Jazz Scene (a big 'Thank You' to Gilles Peterson). Musicians like - Shabaka Hutchings, Nubya Garcia, Yussef Dayes, Sheila Maurice-Grey, Alfa Mist etc.. And bands like - Ezra Collective (the 2023 Mercury Prize Winners), The Comet Is Coming, Sons Of Kemet, Nérija, KOKOROKO, Yussef Kamaal, etc.. I reckon my first (many years ago) real awaking into Jazz was the 'Free Jazz' on The Stooges "Fun House" Album, possibly the source of my love for Jazz. .

I have a devout catholic friend, who uses A love Supreme, as prayer devotional. He listens to side one for his morning reading and meditation. Side two for devotions and reading before bed to end his day.

The consistency in the quality of your reviews is just second to none. I would be interested in learning a little about the process of how you chose which albums to review and those you put to one side for a rainy day. Thanks for all you do.