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Title: A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album by Ashley Kahn, Elvin Jones ISBN: 0-670-03136-4 Publisher: Viking Press Pub. Date: 24 October, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: A "companion " to the music
Comment: I'll try to keeep this simple because the editorial reviews and the various opinions expressed , most notably by Rich Fontana and one "ny metropolitan reader " are very good. I looked forward to reading this book when there was just the buzz about the author of "Kind of Blue" was writing a book on the Coltrane session for "A Love Supreme ; " unfortunately the hard cover price shut me out. When the paperback version came out I snatched it up and read it very quickly(an easy read) and was pleased but not overly impressed with it's content. The actual recording session was short so that probably accounts for so little about the actual recording. Most of the book is devoted to anecdotes, opinions by his son Ravi and other musicians, time shifting to different pivotal moments in Trane's career that relates "how" the sessions came to be. It is more of a mini biography and the cultural circumstances leading up to the recording. If you have read about Trane before there is very little new information but for any fan of Trane it is still entertaining and will undoubedtly get you to break out your "A Love Supreme " disc again. It is an interesting book because Trane presents an interesting subject. This is highly recommended if you are new to John Coltrane. The hand written original liner notes give deeper meanig to the words that would grace his recording.The photographs are very good, including some I've never seen that help recreate the portrait of the legendary jazz artist known as Trane . Any fan will enjoy the book and looking over the career and sessions that produced one of the all time jazz classics. Buy this book if you're a jazz fan but more importantly listen to "A Love Supreme"( and read the liner notes by J.C.) again and again.
Rating: 3
Summary: Highly recommended for the uninitated
Comment: But if you are a long time Coltrane fan, there is nothing new here. And the guy is not a musician, so expect the usual metaphores when trying to describe what is happening when Trane and company play. Since the actual master tape for the session runs a little over 60 minutes, there is not much to tell about the actual session itself, and many pages are devoted to where he was born, when he plays with Miles, what other people think about it (even that guy from the Byrds!) etc. But if you are just getting into jazz and into Trane, it is a good purchase. Good photos as well.
Rating: 5
Summary: love it
Comment: I loved this book. In fact I was just ordering a few extra copies to give as gifts to serious jazz connoisseurs when I came across this drivel from Rich Fontana in the customer reviews section. I felt that as a fan of both the album and the book, I am compelled to reply to his assiduously prepared critique.
In taking the author to task for being a fan, he misses the point of the book entirely: it is intended as a passionate celebration as much as carefully researched study. The author admits it unabashedly, Coltrane himself stated that an "emotional reaction" to music was paramount (in a '64 interview with Leonard Feather) and how else can one measure the effect and influence of a spiritual album without engaging the emotional?
As stated clearly by the author, and Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner - A Love Supreme was indeed a culmination of the quartet's three years together, not a culmination of Coltrane's career. Yes, Crescent was important and the author states that, even proposing it as an effective blueprint for the four-part suite that ALS is. Mr. Fontana's argument that his own perspective on Crescent is significantly different from the author's goes so far into the realm of picayune that - if it were deemed important enough to be published -- the vast majority of readers would end up scratching their heads and closing the book. (And while on the subject of hair-splitting, Crescent was recorded and released in 1964 - not 1963 - as Mr. Fontana maintains, an important matter in the hyper-charged Trane timeline.)
As to Kahn's use (another small matter apparently missed by someone who relishes detail: the author's name is K-A-H-N) of rock n' rollers (and minimalists, and world musicians) in gauging the reach and influence of ALS. One of the primary intentions of the book is OBVIOUSLY to show how Coltrane managed to transcend stylistic and categorical boundaries - and still does. In the same way the old Blindfold interviews in Down Beat - in which say, Coltrane would praise Lester Young, leading certain fans to ferret out and enjoy old Count Basie recordings - today's far-flung media allows a Carlos Santana oreven the dreaded Bono to help point their fans to the music of Coltrane
In the end, Mr. Fontana comes across as one who requires his music writing the same way: dry, analytical, single-minded. Jazz - and music in general - is NOT rocket science and should not be left to the cold, hard interpretation of one person (such as Mr. Fontana's own, opinion-as-fact portrayal of Coltrane's musical path.) In the virtual round-table Kahn has produced in this book, there is life and passion (and a helluva lot of great photographic images), powered by his own perceptions but mostly by the input of others: jazz musicians, jazz fans, even regular (G-d forbid -- non-jazz) listeners. He trusts his reader to figure it all out for him or herself, that somewhere among all those voices sits the general truth of music, Coltrane and A Love Supreme.
I applaud Ashley Kahn for making a very readable, authoritative book that exudes love and respect for its subject. This kind of writing will do more to breathe life into the jazz continuum than the boring tomes that more often pass for jazz writing. I can't wait to see what Kahn comes up with next.
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Title: Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece by Ashley Kahn, Jimmy Cobb ISBN: 0306810670 Publisher: DaCapo Press Pub. Date: 18 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
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Title:Love Supreme ASIN: B00006K06N Publisher: Universal Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $29.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $26.99 |
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Title: Blue Note Records: A Biography by Richard Cook ISBN: 1932112103 Publisher: Justin, Charles & Co Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: John Coltrane: His Life and Music (The Michigan American Music Series) by Lewis Porter ISBN: 047208643X Publisher: University of Michigan Press Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title:John Coltrane - The World According to John Coltrane ASIN: B00006672L Publisher: Bmg Special Products Pub. Date: 01 April, 2002 List Price(USD): $16.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $15.28 |
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