50 years ago today, John Coltrane entered the Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliff, New Jersey with three other musicians and recorded one of the masterpieces of the 20th century, A Love Supreme. The opening movement of that work is "Acknowledgment." It opens with the solar splash of a Chinese gong; its main saxophone solo concludes with the famous key-hopping; near its end, Coltrane chants the words "a love supreme." It's important that his idea of god is not a supreme love, but simply a love that permeates everything. It's a love that is in the world, not above it. God is not a being but an attractive force. Coltrane's cosmic thinking is mirrored in many ways by Spinozism.

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For a great book about this historical event, this monument of American culture, this recording, checkout A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album by Ashely Kahn.