66. John Coltrane, "A Love Supreme"

 


Oh, I don't know, whatever.  This is so far outside my musical area that you might as well put on a recording of someone reciting poetry in Czech and ask me what I think about it.  It's nice?

I put it on yesterday while I was working and I guess it was fine to work to.  It's way better than that Miles Davis album we had a while back because it's not actively annoying.  It didn't make me angry and uncomfortable like that one did, so that's a plus!  Here's a good slogan: "A Love Supreme: Jazz that Doesn't Make You Feel Angry or Sick!"  Run with it, marketing!

Honestly, what I read about the album makes me feel like I'm a musical idiot or something.  Pitchfork says, "It's the sound of a man laying his soul bare.  Structured as a suite and delivered in praise of God, everything about the record is designed for maximum emotional impact, from Elvin Jones' opening gong crash to the soft rain of McCoy Tyner's piano clusters to Coltrane's stately fanfare to Jimmy Garrison's iconic four-note bassline to the spoken chant by Coltrane—'a-LOVE-su-PREME, a-LOVE-su-PREME'—that carries out the opening movement, 'Acknowledgement'."  OK.

Maybe jazz is like one of things you have to really work at to be good at and by "be good at" I mean "like."  Like maybe you have to listen to it a lot and really focus on it and shit.  Like the opposite of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" or "Billie Jean," where you just immediately feel it in your bones.  Maybe jazz is supposed to be hard!  Fuck if I know, I just know I don't like it.

There's a drum solo too.

Is this album in my personal Top 100? I don't even want it in my house.

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