Recorded at the Penthouse Club on October 2, 1965,
A Love Supreme: Live in Seattle
sat in the archive of musician/educator
Joe Brazil
(he played flute on
John Coltrane
's
OM
, recorded the day before) for 55 years. Five years after
Brazil
's death in 2008, family friend
Steve Griggs
discovered two 1/4" reels containing this performance. This is only the second complete concert performance of
A Love Supreme
to see the light of day; the other is from a July 1965 concert in Antibes. The saxophonist's quartet with
McCoy Tyner
,
Elvin Jones
, and
Jimmy Garrison
was nearing its end; they were already augmented by bassist
Donald Garrett
and saxophonist
Pharoah Sanders
. Rounding out this septet is alto saxophonist
Carlos Ward
, who was invited to sit in that day.
used an Akai reel-to-reel tape recorder and two microphones. While the drums sound a bit hot in places, and
'Trane
goes off-mic occasionally, the sound is quite good. This performance almost doubles the length of the studio album and is 20 minutes longer than Antibes. In addition to the suite's four movements -- "Acknowledgement," "Resolution," "Pursuance," and "Psalm" -- are four improvised solo interludes.
Opener "Acknowledgement" is nearly 22 minutes long. Other than
Coltrane
's familiar flutter on the thematic introduction, this piece is almost unrecognizable for 15 minutes. The interplay between bassists is canny.
Garrett
uses a bow while
Garrison
strums chords, and
Tyner
offers chordal counterpoint as
Jones
double-times on ride cymbals.
and
Sanders
trade solo spaces with
Ward
interjecting tentative bursts. The four-note theme isn't really heard until minute 16. The vocal chant is absent, replaced by bass and percussive themes that lead into the first interlude, a short shared bass and percussion solo. "Resolution" emerges with
stating the theme briefly.
enters, expands the frame, and signals
in. Initially uncertain, he adds sparse, dissonant notes and flurries for a few moments and then grabs onto the rhythm section's tough modal swing and rips the tune wide open with a killer solo, followed by
blazing scorching trails through the tune. After a six-minute drum solo interlude, "Pursuance" begins with
stating the theme, then
breaks it into pieces with a long, labyrinthine, and furious solo.
supports with sharp, chromatic asides before taking his own long, imaginative solo and dueling with the bassists and
.
doesn't solo at all. "Psalm," with its trademark bluesy tenor intro, stays closest to the studio recording.
takes only a minute to begin ascending but fades before he reaches a peak as
envelop him.
begins rebuilding the tune, reaches an inner pinnacle, then dissembles it again amid bowed basses,
's sparse middle register, and
' Tibetan prayer bells. The audience responds with stunned silence for a few seconds. It's a startling performance. The package design is simply stellar and the liner essays by critic/historian
Ashley Kahn
biographer
Lewis Porter
are educational, authoritative, and indispensable. ~ Thom Jurek