Lewis Porter's Deep Dive into "A Love Supreme"

Here's a terrific article: A Deep Dive Into John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme" by His Biographer, Lewis Porter (Pt. 1), on the WBGO website. Porter gives some historical background to the recording, describing Coltrane's desire to record a full-album work, a "spiritual manifesto, his most personal statement," and how it was initially almost rejected by his record company, Impulse!, as not commercial enough.

Using Coltrane's written notes (his score is reproduced in the article) and considering outtakes from the recording sessions, Porter describes the planned structure and development of Coltrane's four-movement suite.

Porter covers more interesting musical details than I could summarize here, but one thing I'll note is the original intended instrumentation: tenor saxophone, "one other horn," piano, drum set, 2 basses, 2 congas, and "timbali" (Coltrane may have meant "timpani" - which Elvin Jones does play at one point in the recording). For the "other horn," Coltrane brought in Archie Shepp, but the part Archie recorded was ultimately not used. Likewise, Art Davis participated as a second bassist, but according to Wikipedia, his part was also not used in the final production.

The only time I ever heard Coltrane play live was 1966, about two years after "A Love Supreme" was recorded. It was a life-changing experience; here's a post with my recollections. The instrumentation that night was expanded, in a way similar to Coltrane's original "A Love Supreme" concept: Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali, drums; Juno Lewis, percussion; Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders, tenors; Alice Coltrane, piano; Jimmy Garrison, bass; and Donald Garrett, bass and bass clarinet.

Here's a quote from Coltrane's score, that describes the way he intended to end the album: 

"To Ending - Make ending - Attempt to reach transcendent level with orchestra - rising harmonies to a level of blissful stability at end."

I'm looking forward to Part 2 of Porter's Deep Dive.