Beyond A Love Supreme John Coltrane and the Legacy of an Album

Recorded by his quartet in a single session in 1964, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme is widely considered one of the greatest jazz albums of all time. A significant record of Coltrane's transition from the bebop and hard bop of his earlier recordings to the free jazz style perfected throughout the rest of his career, the album is also an embodiment of the deep spirituality that characterized the final years of his life.

In Beyond A Love Supreme, author Tony Whyton explores both the musical aspects of A Love Supreme, and the album's seminal importance in jazz history. Using criticism of late Coltrane recordings as a starting point, Whyton suggests ways of listening to these recordings that can be considered outside the conventional ideologies of mainstream jazz practice. Beyond A Love Supreme concludes with a study of the broad musical and cultural impact of the album, examining the relationship between the recording and music, literature, poetry and film.