Brown 1

Ethan Brown
A Love Supremes
Kind of Blue is a landmark album that is held in high regard by the entire jazz
community. The album was able to transcend several boundaries including race, culture, and
generation. This rare phenomenon has allowed the recording to become one of the greatest
selling jazz albums of all time. Samuel Barrett investigates musical and cultural the factors that
caused Kind of Blue to achieve an acclaimed status on such a wide level. Barrett attributed the
albums success to the blues acting as a nucleus which the musicians dilute into other cultures
music. This combination of musical styles dulled the inherent black culture associated with the
blues and feigned a theme of integration; it allowed the music to be enjoyed by the majority of
whites as well as blacks. Barrett claims that, The dignified restraint of Kind of Blue points to a
use of the blues that is closer in tone to integrationist ideals than any separatist tendencies;
whether it is open to the same criticisms as the integrationalist movement, namely that equality
achieved de iure masked ongoing de facto inequalities, remains to be seen.1 It allowed the
album to reach a wide population but was not able to truly exist as a bridge between the races.
John Coltrane, a member of that famed sextet, was able harness many of the general concepts
found in Kind of Blue and reinterpret them in a more organic manner to inspire integration
through turbulent times of the mid sixties. Along with Kind of Blue, Coltranes marquee album
A Love Supreme has also been ingrained into Americas cultural memory as an exceptional piece
of art.

Samuel Barrett, Kind of Blue and the Economy of Modal Jazz Popular Music 25, no.2 (May, 2006): 1867.

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A Love Supreme exploits musical concepts explored in Kind of Blue, but interprets them
in a revolutionary manner. The balance Coltrane struck in A Love Supreme allowed a
fundamentally and spiritually black piece of art to truly transcend racial, economic, and cultural
boundaries from its release until today. The cultural significance of the album cannot be
properly understood until some of the musical details are observed.
Similar to Kind of Blue, there is overwhelming evidence that A Love Supremes overall
structure is based loosely on the blues. This use of the blues extends beyond a musical
statement. Its significance has been noticed by many listeners and noted by ethnomusicologist
Leonard Brown. He says, In his renowned and most well-know sacred suite, A Love Supreme
Coltrane illustrated his understanding of the close relationship between blues and spirituals by
incorporating the blues form and feeling2 Examining the key structure of the four part suite, it
is arranged similarly to the fundamental structure of a blues progression. The Acknowledgement
starts the suite in F and the second song, Resolution, prolongs the entire progression by existing
in E-flat. The last two songs finish the typical blues cycle with Pursuance keyed in the subdominate, B-flat, and Psalm being in the dominate, C.3 Thematic material for each part of the
suite is derived from the same pentatonic scale, which is a structural basis for many blues
melodies. Influence of the blues can be found throughout smaller spans in the album and prove
how important the blues were to Coltrane.
The most obvious reference to the blues it the third song is Pursuance. The harmonic
structure of the song is a B-flat minor blues. It is not a coincidence either that this is the fastest
song and the climax of the album. Making the climactic point of the album a blues reaffirms the
2

Leonard L. Brown, In His Own Words: Coltranes Responses to Critics, in John Coltrane & Black Americas
Quest for Freedom, ed. Leonard L. Brown (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 27.
3
Lewis Porter, John Coltranes A Love Supreme: Jazz Improvisation as Composition Journal of the American
Musicological Society, Vol. 38, no. 3 (Autumn, 1985), 6045.

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notion that Coltrane used the blues as an inspiration for his work.4 There are other instances of
the blues being used on a small structural scale. Acknowledgement is a modal composition but it
has definite elements of the blues attached to it; similar to how the blues is still apparent in So
What. The bass ostinato of Acknowledgement, which is derived from the pentatonic scale is a
very common pattern found in blues progressions. It actually has been played by other jazz
ensembles with a different interpretation. Mau Mau, a 1953 recording by trumpeter Art
Farmerfeatures a section with the same melodic and rhythmic stamp as Acknowledgement.
Given the eleven-year gap, its a safe bet that Coltrane, Farmer, and (Quincy) Jones were simply
drawing inspiration from the same deep, blues-filled well many others have visited.5 At the end
of Acknowledgement Coltrane begins to chant along with the bass. He chants in unison with the
ostinato the title of the album. At this point the chanting makes a striking impression on the
listener. If the notion has not occurred to the listener it becomes clear that Coltrane is after much
more than a simple tribute to the blues. A Love Supreme is unique because Coltrane tries to
create a spiritual and religious statement. It was quite a departure from traditional jazz
recordings in this regard and is one of the many revolutionary factors of this album.
Coltrane employed several textural and compositional techniques to give his ensemble an
exotic, spiritual tone. He achieves this through the same concept that Bill Evans and Miles Davis
used in Kind of Blue. Coltrane and his ensemble mix musical styles that are associated with
other cultures. This eclecticism creates an interesting musical palette that feels familiar yet still
slightly foreign. This is a strong contributing factor in the spiritual feeling that many people
explain they feel while listening to it. With Black American culture as his root, Coltrane

Porter, 6013.
Ashley Kahn A Love Supreme The Story of John Coltranes Signature Album (New York: Penguin Putnam Inc.,
2002), 99.
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expanded his study of music to a global level through examining traditions from the Caribbean,
South America, Europe, Africa, and Asiaresulting in the development of a sound that
expressed freedom and goodness to all who could hear. 6The cross pollination of musical styles
can be examined through the playing of every performer on the album.
The drummer, Elvin Jones, is the first performer to make a sound on the record. He
makes a clear statement at the beginning that his approach would be a departure from traditional
jazz drumming. He strikes a Chinese gong to cue the beginning of the suite. This act alone can
be enough to cue a seasoned jazz listener that the album is going to diverge from familiar
territory. Jones style throughout the entire performance is heavily polyrhythmic. The style is
better defined as Afro-Cuban, than traditional swing drumming. Jones was already known for a
busy style before any cross-cultural sounds exerted their influence, and his distinctive
translation of African and Caribbean polyrhythms onto the traditional jazz trap kit involved a
democratic use of all its elements.7 The busy complex style recalls African drumming groups
and summons images of the African-Americans ancestors. The last piece of the suite, Psalm,
Jones uses timpani to a regal, thunderous, powerful effect. Jones playing alone has incorporated
musical influences from the far-East, African and Latin percussion as well as Classical music.
Pianist McCoy Tyner and bassist Jimmy Garrison work together to create a harmonic
pallet that is truly unique to this ensemble. Jimmy Garrison alternates between walking, pedal
points, and ostinatos throughout the suite. The compositions that rely on ostinatos and pedals
such as Acknowledgement and Psalm do not swing traditionally as do Resolution or Pursuance.
The static bass motion recalls nontraditional and nonwestern music, such as Far East drones and

6
7

Brown, 31.
Kahn, 115.

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modal structures for religious sermons in churches. These cultures do not have direct ties to
Black culture, yet they too find a way into the album. They remind the listener of the exotic
Eastern cultures, or the otherworldly powers that are worshipped by various religions.
Tyner added an interesting texture to the entire suite with his unique voicings that added
a slight ambiguity to the harmonies he played. Tyner explains his approach to accompanying
Coltrane, Youre allowing yourself to do a lot of things with sound when you leave your
voicings open.Im finding space, and the spaces between the intervals are just as important
more important sometimesthan filling the chords up.8 Tyner developed this open sound by
using ambiguous chords constructed of intervals stacked in fourths instead of the traditional
extended chords based on thirds. This technique too has its roots in a culture other than Black
music. The white pianist Bill Evans, who recorded on Miles Davis Kind of Blue, first pioneered
the stacking of chords in such a quartile manner. Barrett attributes the softer, cooler sound,
(of Kind of Blue is) characterized in part by Bill Evans classical tone and impressionist
voicings.9 It is apparent that the powerful chords that are a staple of Tyners aggressive,
colorful harmonic palette have traces all the way to classical composers such as Debussy. Again
a critical stylistic and compositional aspect of the suite has its roots in another culture, but has
been adapted to fit into the music of the quartet.
The heavy use of spirituality, Black culture, and an eclectic use of other musical styles
give A Love Supreme an unprecedented sound. The artistic message that the suite carried struck
a deep resonance with the culture of the United States. The suite was embraced well by the
black community, especially the youth; its popularity was due to the spiritual mysticism Coltrane

8
9

Kahn, 110.
Barrett 186.

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represented. Disc jockey Joel Dorn retails the response from the black youth in detail. There
was a tremendous response to John Coltraneamong the young black kids, he was Trane, he
had another meaning. There was a response to A Love Supreme like you would have to Malcolm
(X), like you would have to the march on Washington, like you have with the emergence of a
black consciousness.10 The Civil Rights Movement was in full swing and the religious themes
being introduced by Martin Luther King Jr. Feelings of spirituality in the recording fit with the
growing endorsement of non-violence and Christianity in the black community.11 The obvious
heritage of African-Americans along with the raw power displayed in A Love Supreme and other
avant-garde albums caught the attention of another sub-culture of the African-American
community. The Black Panthers and other black pride groups found inspiration and meaning in
the sounds that Coltrane and his followers blew through their horns.12 The fundamentally black
album was able to reach across race boundaries and become popular with white cultural
movements as well.
The large portion of white American youth resisting the Vietnam War also found interest
in the album. Specifically counter culture also found interest in the album. The hippie
movement which embraced the message of praise and love because, it wasnt specific, it was
not trying to shove a particular religion down your throat. And it gave people an opportunity to
experience spirituality on a general level.13 The white anti-war movement had a heavy
following on college campuses. It influenced many students and exposed white suburban
colligate students to the suite. They also found strong meaning in A Love Supreme because of
the same peaceful spiritual looseness.
10

Kahn, 15960.
Kahn, 160.
12
Kahn, 185.
13
Kahn, 161.
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A Love Supreme has been held in the highest regard by jazz critiques and casual fans
since its debut. Its deep resonance with the American public has much to do with the suites
ability to balance such a wide array of textures and emotions. The inclusion of multiple cultures
and themes of spirituality and love allow listeners to extrapolate what they want from the album.
America in the mid 60s was ready to hear Coltranes message of peace and harmony. Past
generations can take the message the album brings and apply the inspiration to new social ideas
and events. This flexibility is what has propelled A Love Supremes cultural success and will
allow it to be considered a masterwork of art for years to come.

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Bibliography
Barrett, Samuel. Kind of Blue and the Economy of Modal Jazz Popular Music 25, no.2 (May, 2006):
185200.
Brown, Leonard. In His Own Words: Coltranes Responses to Critics, in John Coltrane & Black
Americas Quest for Freedom, ed. Leonard L. Brown (New York: Oxford University Press,
2010), 1131.
Kahn, Ashley. A Love Supreme The Story of John Coltranes Signature Album (New York: Penguin
Putnam Inc., 2002).
Porter, Lewis. John Coltranes A Love Supreme: Jazz Improvisation as Composition Journal of the
American Musicological Society, Vol. 38, no. 3 (Autumn, 1985), 593621.