On this episode of The Art of the Story from the WBGO Archive (2002), acclaimed jazz author Ashley Kahn provides his essay on John Coltrane's A Love Supreme album.
Saxophone legend John Coltrane's 1964 recording, A Love Supreme, is one of the masterworks in the canon of jazz: most musicians know it. Many have performed parts — if not all — of the 32-minute suite.
A new edition of the Coltrane album was released in 2002. It included the original studio recording plus the only live performance of the complete work. The double CD is a result of research for the book, A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album. Its author, Ashley Kahn, prepared an essay on the project for Morning Edition that same year.
You can hear Ashley Kahn's entire essay here.
