This magisterial album, the saxophonist’s four-part sonic prayer dedicated to the divine creator, encapsulates the deep searching quality of John Coltrane’s music as his career neared its peak. The music is often intense, febrile and probing, but, paradoxically, it’s also blissfully serene in places. Trane is accompanied by his classic quartet, comprising pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones. As well as being arguably Coltrane’s best ever album, A Love Supreme is also one of the greatest albums in jazz – and, significantly, it spawned the spiritual jazz movement. Though it’s not as accessible as Trane’s Prestige work, A Love Supreme possesses a hypnotic quality that can seduce even the most jazz-phobic of listeners and send them on a path to buy John Coltrane music.

(www.udiscovermusic.com)

---

Two important things happened to Coltrane in 1957: The saxophonist left Miles Davis' employ to join Thelonious Monk's band and hit new heights in extended, ecstatic soloing. Coltrane also kicked heroin addiction, a vital step in a religious awakening that climaxed with this legendary album-long hymn of praise. The indelible four-note theme of the first movement, "Acknowledgment," is the humble foundation of the suite. But Coltrane´s majestic, often violent blowing (famously described as "sheets of sound") is never self-aggrandizing. Aloft with his classic quartet (pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, drummer Elvin Jones), Coltrane soars with nothing but gratitude and joy. You can't help but go with him.

(Rolling Stone)

---

Easily one of the most important records ever made, John Coltrane's A Love Supreme was his pinnacle studio outing that at once compiled all of his innovations from his past, spoke of his current deep spirituality, and also gave a glimpse into the next two and a half years (sadly, those would be his last). Recorded at the end of 1964, Trane's classic quartet of Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, and Jimmy Garrison stepped into the studio and created one of the most thought-provoking, concise, and technically pleasing albums of their bountiful relationship (not to mention his best-selling to date). From the undulatory (and classic) bass line at the intro to the last breathy notes, Trane is at the peak of his logical yet emotionally varied soloing while the rest of the group is remarkably in tune with Coltrane's spiritual vibe. Composed of four parts, each has a thematic progression leading to an understanding of spirituality through meditation. From the beginning, "Acknowledgement" is the awakening of sorts that trails off to the famous chanting of the theme at the end, which yields to the second act, "Resolution," an amazingly beautiful piece about the fury of dedication to a new path of understanding. "Persuance" is a search for that understanding, and "Psalm" is the enlightenment. Although he is at times aggressive and atonal, this isn't Trane at his most adventurous (pretty much everything recorded from here on out progressively becomes much more free, and live recordings from this period are extremely spirited), but it certainly is his best attempt at the realization of concept -- as the spiritual journey is made amazingly clear. A Love Supreme clocks in at just over 30 minutes, but if it had been any longer it could have turned into a laborious listen. As it stands, just enough is conveyed. It is almost impossible to imagine a world without A Love Supreme having been made, and it is equally impossible to imagine any jazz collection without it.

(by Jack LV Isles, All Music Guide)

Less overtly adventurous than its predecessor, Empyrean Isles, Maiden Voyage nevertheless finds Herbie Hancock at a creative peak. In fact, it's arguably his finest record of the '60s, reaching a perfect balance between accessible, lyrical jazz and chance-taking hard bop. By this point, the pianist had been with Miles Davis for two years, and it's clear that Miles' subdued yet challenging modal experiments had been fully integrated by Hancock. Not only that, but through Davis, Hancock became part of the exceptional rhythm section of bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams, who are both featured on Maiden Voyage, along with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and tenor saxophonist George Coleman. The quintet plays a selection of five Hancock originals, many of which are simply superb showcases for the group's provocative, unpredictable solos, tonal textures, and harmonies. While the quintet takes risks, the music is lovely and accessible, thanks to Hancock's understated, melodic compositions and the tasteful group interplay. All of the elements blend together to make Maiden Voyage a shimmering, beautiful album that captures Hancock at his finest as a leader, soloist, and composer.

(by Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide)

---

Chicago-born Herbie Hancock was just 25 and a key member of the Miles Davis Quintet when he produced this sea-inspired masterpiece for Blue Note in 1965. Maiden Voyage was his fifth and arguably best album for the label, and three of its five songs – the gently pulsing and elegant modal-style title track, plus the tumultuous ‘Eye Of The Hurricane’ and graceful ‘Dolphin Dance’ – are now considered standards in the jazz repertoire. For the session, the pianist surrounded himself with musicians who were either currently with, or who had been in, Miles Davis’ band (bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams, plus tenor saxophonist George Coleman). Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard completed the line-up and dazzles with his solos. What impresses most, however, is the strength of the compositions, the inventiveness of the arrangements and the intuitive ensemble playing that brings them vividly to life. On Maiden Voyage, Hancock served up an album that was able to push and probe the boundaries of jazz while remaining eminently accessible. That’s no mean feat.

(www.udiscovermusic.com)

On his third date for Blue Note within a year, Wayne Shorter changed the bands that played on both Night Dreamer and Juju and came up with not only another winner, but also managed to give critics and jazz fans a different look at him as a saxophonist. Because of his previous associations with McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones, and Reggie Workman on those recordings, Shorter had been unfairly branded with the "just-another-Coltrane-disciple" tag, despite his highly original and unusual compositions. Here, with only Jones remaining and his bandmates from the Miles Davis Quintet, Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter on board (with Freddie Hubbard filling out the horn section), Shorter at last came into his own and caused a major reappraisal of his earlier work. The odd harmonic frameworks used to erect "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum," with its balladic structure augmented with a bluesy regimen of hard bop and open-toned modalism, create the illusion of a much larger band managing all that timbral space. Likewise on the title track, with its post-bop-oriented melodic line strewn across a wide chromatic palette of minors and Hancock's piano pushing through a contrapuntal set of semi-quavers, the avant-garde meets the hard bop of the '50s head on and everybody wins. The loping lyric of the horns and Hancock's vamping in the middle section during Shorter's solo reveals a broad sense of humor in the saxophonist's linguistics and a deep, more regimented sense of time and thematic coloration. The set ends with the beautiful "Wild Flower," a lilting ballad with angular accents by Hancock who takes the lyric and inverts it, finding a chromatic counterpoint that segues into the front line instead of playing in opposition. The swing is gentle but pronounced and full of Shorter's singular lyricism as a saxophonist as well as a composer.

(by Thom Jurek, All Music Guide)

---

As his latest album, the epic triple-set Emanon, clearly shows, the comic-book-obsessed saxophonist dubbed “The Newark Flash� is still going strong at 85. Back in December 1964, when Speak No Evil was recorded, Shorter, then 32 and whose day job was with the Miles Davis Quintet, was in the middle of a tremendously fertile spell that would spawn six albums for Blue Note in an intense 18-month period. Though they were all of a high quality, Speak No Evil – on which Shorter is joined by fellow Miles band members Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter, plus trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones – was exceptional. Ever since his apprenticeship in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Shorter had shown both skill and ingenuity as a composer, and Speak No Evil demonstrates why Miles Davis recorded so many of the saxophonist’s tunes. His horn themes, often snaking and sinuous, as on the title track and the propulsive opener, ‘Witch Hunt’, are unorthodox but also supremely elegant. Every track is a winner, but the ballad ‘Infant Eyes’, now regarded as a jazz standard, is especially noteworthy.

(www.udiscovermusic.com)