A Love Supreme Electric: A Love Supreme and Meditations, the jazz release par excellence of this Friday the 13th, if not all of November, was produced in Northern California and released on the Cuneiform label by Henry Kaiser on guitar, Vinny Golia on tenor, soprano and baritone saxophones, John Hanrahan on drums, Wayne Peet on Hammond B3 and Yamaha YC-45D organs, and Mike Watt on bass. For several years now, Hanrahan and Kaiser have been reinterpreting John Coltrane’s great mantras, particularly those from the cult albums A Love Supreme and Meditations, released respectively in 1965 and 1966 on the Impulse! label. The former is well known and has had a major impact on modern historical musical culture, although My Favourite Things was Coltrane’s greatest commercial success. The second, Meditations, is much less well known. This recording is freer, more atonal, less punctuated by those melodic incantations that run centuries deep. Coltrane was at the time immersed in improvised contemporary music, and came closer to the free aesthetics of Cecil Taylor, Steve Lacy, and Albert Ayler. That same year, he released the famous album Ascension, an even more radical break whose development was sharply halted by the saxophonist’s untimely death in 1967. Remember that Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin recorded the “Acknowledgement” movement in 1973. Several other jazzmen, including Quebec saxophonist Yannick Rieu, have also offered rereadings. What do Henry Kaiser and his colleagues do with them? The electric instrumentation featured here transforms the overall sound considerably, while the saxophone and the famous mantra “a love supreme, a love supreme” take us back to the original recording. As far as vocabulary is concerned, free improvisation here bears witness to six decades of refinement and sophistication. Henry Kaiser is a great master in this field, a guide, a formidable musical director in perfect symbiosis with his virtuoso colleagues.
Latest 360 Content
Album review Électro/expérimental / contemporain/Jazz/Rock 2024
The Smile – Wall Of Eyes (Top Albums 2024)
By Alain Brunet
Album review Rock/Pop/Americana/Electronic 2024
Empress Of – For Your Consideration (Top Albums 2024)
By Helena Palmer
Album review Electronic/Americana/chanson keb franco/Rock 2024
Tire le coyote – Dynastie
By Alain Brunet
Album review Classical/classique 2024
Toronto Mendelssohn Choir – Remember (Top Albums 2024)
By Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud
Album review Classical/classique 2024
London Symphony Orchestra – Elijah
By Alexis Desrosiers-Michaud
Album review classique/Classical 2024
Cyrille Dubois/Tristan Raës – Louis Beydts (1895-1953) : Melodies and Songs
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review Modern music 2024
India Gailey – Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review classique/Classical 2024
Orchestre classique de Montréal, dir. : Alain Trudel/Suzanne Taffot/Brandon Coleman – David Bontemps : La Flambeau
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review Eastern European/Electronic/Rock/Reggae 2024
Dumai Dunai – Sometime Between Now and Never
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review Experimental / Contemporary/expérimental / contemporain/Americana/Modern music 2024
Angell & Crane
By Frédéric Cardin
Album review Experimental / Contemporary/expérimental / contemporain 2024