A rare private recording of John Coltrane, who plays his iconic work A Love Supreme, is made public for the first time. A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle is out October 8th via Impulse! / UMe. The set was recorded in 1965 by saxophonist and educator Joe Brazil on the last night of Coltrane’s week-long stay at the Seattle penthouse. The line-up included legendary musicians Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison and more. Today impulse! and UMe have released the live version of “A Love Supreme, Part IV – Psalm”. Hear this below.
A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle was restored and mastered by Kevin Reeves at East Iris Studios in Nashville, Tennessee. The recording is particularly noteworthy as Coltrane rarely fully performed A Love Supreme after its studio recording in 1964. For more than six decades it was believed that the only recorded public performance of A Love Supreme was from a French festival in Juan-les-Pains in July 1965. This version was released nearly twenty years ago. Joe Brazil’s tape reels from the 1965 Seattle set have remained in his private collection to this day.
A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle was recorded on stage using a two-microphone setup connected to an Ampex reel-to-reel machine. “It is noteworthy that tapes from this period often suffer from heat or moisture damage over the years, or are simply stacked horizontally,” said engineer Kevin Reeves in a press release. “These tapes are in excellent condition, however, and the results are some of the finest John Coltrane amateur recordings we have had the pleasure of working on.” The album includes liner notes by music historian Ashley Kahn.
A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle:
01 A Love Supreme, Pt. 1 – Acknowledgments (Live in Seattle / 1965)
02 Interlude 1 (Live in Seattle / 1965)
03 A Love Supreme, Pt. II – Dissolution (Live in Seattle / 1965)
04 Interlude 2 (Live in Seattle / 1965)
05 A Love Supreme, Pt. III – Chase (Live in Seattle / 1965)
06 Interlude 3 (Live in Seattle / 1965)
07 Interlude 4 (Live in Seattle / 1965)
08 A Love Supreme, Pt. IV – Psalm (Live in Seattle / 1965)
