Oh, the cool pelunk of acoustic bass as it crawls up from spines and senses, to touch and twist around the sweet tenor saxophones of a blowing blossom tree at the peak of its fertile powers. The trane, I can see it puffing down from around the corner, its engine fed by the steam and energy of a love supreme. And the conductor says, to anyone who is willing to listen: “This trane runs on love, babe, and that means it’s going to run all night long.”
In Acknowledgement, the first portion of this suite, the trane travels the desert at night, when the flowers have all opened, unafraid of the sun’s rays, the steam engine chugs past the hills and ancient glaciers, “A Love Supreme” as its chugga-wooga.
Part 2, Resolution starts with the fretless bass moon, and leads in to the rocket that wants to fly, soaring triplets and couplets, and the moon crawls around the earth like a walking bass, a few moments of sunshine taking a nap on its dark side. The piano, a third voice speaks up, offers a soliloquy offering a tertiary position that neither of the bebop contenders had offered up previous. “We’ve got half an hour, folks, until the bar’s got to close, so we’re going to give this jazz thing our best, and maybe we’ll reach up to those heights that we strive for, at least for a moment, a freedom dream of many colored coats and hats—days lived by no one alone, for His light, yes sir, His light will shine all my days.”
Man, and Coltrane—he was so jazzed by these statements, he had to get up on him and start blowing shit up again.
And the drums just keep on crashing, and the trane is starting to run off the track. But that’s ok, greased by God’s lightning, this trane’s set to soar.
The Pursuance and the Psalm close the final eighteen minutes of the album. Starting with a creative one minute-thirty second drum solo, the familiar refrain of Acknowledgement starts up and the piano begins to run in directions that any child will know as the special road to Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood.
The thematic crux of this all, in procession towards a spirituality as free in its nature as jazz is free, locked together with Elvin Jones (drums), McCoy Tyner (Piano), and Jimmy Garrison (Bass). And it is through freedom that enlightenment comes. It can be 1964 again, hard-bop and the Beatles. Following in these footsteps would require shoes that breathe, inhaling the lingering soul of John Coltrane with every step.