Due to technical error, the audio of the first part of the sermon is not available.
For the past few months I have found myself very interested in John Coltrane’s album A Love Supreme. I remember being in Borders Bookstore looking for a CD that would help me develop a better ear for jazz music, when I saw the cover of A Love Supreme, with John Coltrane’s intense expression on it. There was a sticker on the cover that read “Jazz Masterpiece” which was enough for me to pick it off the shelf and investigate.
I went over to the jazz CD review books and read that this is supposed to be one of the greatest, most influential jazz CD’s ever. A Love Supreme, as I read, is “composed of four parts, each with a thematic progression leading to an understanding of spirituality through meditation. From the beginning: Acknowledgement is the awakening of sorts, trailing off to the famous chanting of the theme at the end, which yields to the second act, ‘Resolutions’, an amazingly beautiful piece about the fury of dedication to a new path of understanding. Pursuance is a search for that understanding, and Psalm is the enlightenment.”
I almost immediately thought that it might be good material for a UU church service, and so I grabbed a couple books on the subject, and settled into a comfortable chair to read.
First, I read John Coltrane’s letter to the listener, in which he writes,
“During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life.”
“ At that time, in gratitude, humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. All Praise To God.”
From what I could gather, A Love Supreme was John Coltranes’ meditation on the spiritual awakening he had in 1957. This apparently involved an Acknowledgement, a Resolution, a Pursuance, and a Psalm.
I also read about a group of people in San Francisco who formed in 1972 a church called the One Mind Evolutionary Transitional Body of Christ, and have as their anthem, A Love Supreme, which they require their core members to listen to three times a day.
The founder of the church Franzo Wayne King, claims that he was baptized in sound when he heard John Coltrane in concert. As things progressed, Franzo Wayne King became a Bishop, and somehow petitioned the African Orthodox Church of the West to make John Coltrane a Saint, and they did. The church then changed its name to the Church of St. John Coltrane, and altered its liturgy to fall in line with the African Orthodox Church.
It’s kind of interesting, because in 1981 Alice Coltrane brought an unsuccessful law suit against the church, saying, “In his own way, John was religious, but he never proclaimed himself to be a minister. Why can’t they just retain the memory of him, cherish that in their hearts and not desecrate his name?”
Still, I was fascinated by the fact that there are a number of people out there who claim to have had spiritual breakthroughs by listening to this music, and I had questions.
What was John Coltranes’ spiritual awakening about?
Are there four parts to spiritual experience? Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm?
If I were to approach this music with the intent with which it was played, might I somehow be transformed?
I decided that I would give it try. So, I bought the CD, and the book A Love Supreme, the Story of John Coltrane’s Signature Album, by Ashley Kahn. I read articles, and I went to the library where I found a couple DVDs. One of the DVDs is a film of the John Coltrane Quartet, which is going to be shown at the end of the service, and the other is from Ken Burns PBS series Jazz, which gives a great introduction to John Coltrane and A Love Supreme.
This is from Ken Burns PBS series Jazz.
What was John Coltranes’ spiritual awakening about?
Well, besides being a brilliant saxophone player, John Coltrane was a heroin addict and an alcoholic. In 1957 it began to interfere with his life to such an extent that his marriage failed, and his boss, Miles Davis, fired him.
As John Coltrane put it, “there was a time when I went through a personal crisis, you know, and I came out of it… I felt so fortunate to have come through it successfully, that all I wanted to do, if I could, would be to play music that would make people happy.
He also said, “I was able to play better right then… that helped me in all kinds of ways. I could play better and think better and everything.”
After this awakening, he played with Thelonius Monk for a while. He practiced scales for 10 – 12 hours a day, and he became spiritually devout.
Miles Davis a year or so later took him back into his group and recorded Kind of Blue, which is the best selling jazz recording of all time, and a milestone in jazz music for its use of modal scales.
Kind of Blue was such a phenomenal success that John Coltrane was offered recording deals which gave him broad artistic freedom over his recording projects. He auditioned various people and formed his own quartet, which had McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. They quickly recorded a couple of very good jazz albums, Blue Trane, and Crescent.
John Coltrane, in a very short period of time, had become a new person.
There’s a quote by jazz critic Nat Hentoff,
“I kind of remember… it was before he joined Miles. I think it was after he left Johnny Hodges. I saw Trane, he had a pint bottle of some kind of whiskey. He was all strung out, and he looked so forlorn. Then, not so long afterwards, there was Trane with his band, with Elvin Jones, and standing like some kind of spiritual force. It was…. stunning, I just couldn’t move. He didn’t just think abstractly about the changes that could happen in somebody if that person found his spiritual way. He knew it as essentially as you could know it.”
As I understand it, John
Coltrane’s spiritual awakening was about how he redirected his
life. It didn’t all happen at once, but over the course of a
year or so, this new inner focus, started to show itself in all
parts of his life.
I looked up Spiritual Experience on Wikipeadia and it says
I think that according to Wikipeadia’s criteria, John Coltrane has an excellent claim of having had a spiritual experience.
Can spiritual experience be broken up into Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance, and Psalm?I think so. Acknowledgement is just assessing the situation, and becoming aware. Allen Ginsberg was once asked if all you need is love, and he responded by saying that “no, first comes awareness. Love proceeds from awareness.” Acknowledgement refers to becoming aware.
Resolution is about deciding. I was talking with my brother about all this, and he pointed out to me that the word “decide” is derived from the same word that “scissors” is derived. To decide literally means to cut. Deciding is cutting away all other alternatives. Resolution is the same thing.
Pursuance is carrying out whatever has been resolved.
Psalm means a sacred song or poem used in worship. I think that with any undertaking, there’s the implied promise of how things will be once you accomplish what you set out to do. Psalm refers to how it’s all going to be once you accomplish your goal.
Taken together, I think acknowledgement, resolution, pursuance and psalm can be applied very broadly. It reminds me of the elements of a business plan. I have this study guide for strategic management, which says right in the beginning that “Strategic management is a process for conducting the entrepreneurial activities of a firm for organizational renewal, growth, and transformation. The major tasks are
To me the four parts of A Love Supreme boils down to pretty much the same thing minus the business terminology, which makes it even more universally applicable.
So yes, I think acknowledgement, resolution, pursuance and psalm sums up spiritual experience pretty well, as it refers to the process of renewal, growth, and transformation.
If I were to approach this music with the intent in which it was made, might I somehow be transformed?
I think John Coltrane stated his intent pretty clearly in the following.
“Once you become aware of this force for unity in life, you can’t ever forget it. It becomes part of everything you do. My conception of that force keeps changing shape. My goal of meditating on this through music, however, remains the same. And that is to uplift people, as much as I can. To inspire them to realize more and more of their capacities for living meaningful lives.”
I’ve tried to approach this music with the intent in which it was made. I’ve listened to it several times, without distraction. I’ve read about it, and thought about it for at least a couple months now. So, do I feel transformed?
Well, I remember when I first started taking an interest in A Love Supreme, being really aware that I had some old thoughts circulating in my brain that I wanted to drop.
The old thoughts had become too old, and weren’t so relevant to my life anymore. Thinking about them wasn’t getting me anywhere.
I purposefully set out to find something new, to swap old thoughts for new ones, or at least gain some new perspective on the old thoughts.
Jesus said that you can’t put new wine into old wine skins, because they break. I feel like I was looking for a new wine skin.
I think I found one with A Love Supreme. Meditating on spiritual experience with the John Coltrane quartet is like working out with Jane Fonda. They do put you through a meditative experience.
As a result, and not all at once, or even when I was listening to the music, I believe I have gained a new perspective, and traded some old thoughts for some new ones. I’m also now more confident of my ability to do this, and perhaps even to inspire others.
It has required discipline, and it’s been an undertaking, but like John Coltrane says…
“Once you become aware of this force for unity in life, you can’t ever forget it. It becomes part of everything you do.”
Time will tell how A Love Supreme affects my life, but I can report to you that I feel I’m on the right track.