Smithsonian Celebrates 50TH Anniversary of John COLTRANE’S, A Love Supreme

WASHINGTON, March 14, 2014 /Emag.co.uk/ — The Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History will kick off the 13th annual Jazz Appreciation Month March 26 with jazz photographer Chuck Stewart who will donate rare and never-before-seem images of jazz legend John Coltrane. Coltrane’s son, Ravi Coltrane, will discuss his father’s career and the famed studio album, widely considered one of the greatest jazz albums of all time and celebrating its 50th anniversary. During its own 50th anniversary year, the museum is displaying Coltrane’s original score of A Love Supreme in the “American Stories” exhibition March 14–June 17.

Stewart is best known for his depictions of jazz culture and popular jazz artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis and Louis Armstrong. His photos have appeared as the cover art for more than 2,000 albums. Stewart’s donation includes unpublished photographs from the A Love Supreme recording session and images from long-forgotten, recently discovered negatives of photographs taken in 1964.

Ravi Coltrane is a producer and jazz musician as well as the co-founder of the record label RKM Music. He has toured extensively with other jazz musicians and is a Blue Note recording artist with his Ravi Coltrane Quartet. Coltrane will discuss his father’s work and the impact of A Love Supreme on jazz music and culture, as well as perform later that day.

Coltrane (1926–1967) and his quartet recorded his masterpiece, A Love Supreme, on

Dec. 9, 1964. The album is a four-part suite, broken up into tracks: “Acknowledgement” (which contains the mantra that gave the suite its name), “Resolution,” “Pursuance” and “Psalm.” The composition melds the hard bop sensibilities of his early career with the free jazz style he adopted later. He dedicated the album to God in thanks for his 1957 spiritual awakening. Although he embraced Christianity, Coltrane was deeply interested in world religions and cultures, and was said to own more than 1,000 books primarily on Jewish and Islamic mysticism, later also introducing African and Indian elements.

Live Webcast of the JAM Launch with Coltrane, Stewart and a performance by the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Quartet March 26 at 11 a.m.

Coltrane and “Kids for Coltrane” educator Christine Passarella will host a jazz workshop March 26 for music educators, students and the public at the National Museum of American History’s Warner Bros. Theater at 1:30 p.m.


The Ravi Coltrane Quartet will perform a free concert co-presented by the George Washington University and the National Museum of American History March 26 at the university’s Lisner Auditorium at H and 21st streets N.W. at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are available online from George Washington University.
Photo: cityofstrangers.net
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