Episode 61: Spiritual Jazz

Over the past couple weeks I have returned to the international music theme. But I want to keep a focus on the urgent issues driving the Black Lives Matter movement, so I am devoting the Second Sunday of each month to music from the black community in the United States. Second Sundays will continue to reveal the profound influence the black community has had building the culture of our country... We must never forget how much better we are as a nation because of the contributions of the black community. And hey, check it out, today happens to be the second Sunday in September, so we will be hearing home grown sounds on this episode. The theme will be back in the most significant musical contribution of the black community in the United States; of course I’m talking about jazz. But we will be hearing music from a very specific movement within the world of jazz, and that is Spiritual Jazz. Before the mid-60s the term “spiritual jazz” would probably have suggested jazz sounds drawing on musical traditions from the black church in our country… perhaps a gospel choir or a saxophone solo imitating the cadence of a preacher. But that all changed with the 1965 release of a single album: A Love Supreme by the classic John Coltrane quartet, featuring McCoy Tyner on piano, Elvin Jones on drums, and Jimmy Garrison on bass. This album was among the most important, influential, and critically acclaimed jazz albums of all time, and it forever changed the way the world would think about the idea of spiritual music. I will not be playing any tracks from A Love Supreme on this show… what we will hear on the show today amounts to some of my favorite tributes to A Love Supreme. Everything we will hear on today’s show was produced after A Love Supreme and stands on the shoulders of that artistic achievement… the one exception will be an earlier piece from the Coltrane quartet, a milepost along the way to the Love Supreme revelation.