In late 1964, John Coltrane secluded himself in a spare upstairs bedroom in his house in Dix Hills, Long Island, with his saxophone, pen, and paper. His wife Alice later remembered him emerging “like Moses coming down the mountain” with a brand-new album-length suite of devotional music, which he called A Love Supreme. “This album is a humble offering to Him,” he would write in the liner notes of the LP. “An attempt to say, ‘Thank you God’ through our work, even as we do in our hearts and with our tongues.” The resulting album’s four movements — from part one, “Acknowledgement,” with its mantra-like chant of the title phrase, to part two, “Resolution,” driven by the thunderous swing of drummer Elvin Jones — perfectly encapsulates the way the saxophonist’s mature work blended prayerful reflection with explosive catharsis. - RollingStone.com
