2026 will be remembered by all true lovers of Jazz music and by those that truly appreciate music in its entirety because one of the greatest saxophonists and composers of all times, John Coltrane, would have been 100 years of age this coming September.
One of the most celebrated records off Coltrane’s vast discography, recognised by both the worldwide music press and millions of fans, it is undoubtedly A Love Supreme, an album released in 1965 counting, besides Coltrane’s magnetic way of playing the saxophone, also a stellar line-up musicians accompanying the renowned Jazz giant, which included pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones.
Together with the stylistically perfect execution of the four suites part of A Love Supreme (Acknowledgement, Resolution, Pursuance and Psalm), this highly inspired album carried also a deep spiritual meaning between its notes, an undertone that can be felt and emotionally captured by the listeners time and time again, throughout this musical masterpiece.
Fast forward to 2026, where one of world's most respected chromatic Harmonica players, the Danish artist Mathias Heise, perhaps inspired not only by Coltrane’s overall body of work, but also by the fact that in September this year we celebrate 100 years since Coltrane’s birth, decided to work on a re-imagined and revisited version of A Love Supreme together with a very talented and well-known Jazz collective called Danish Radio Big Band, blending the sound of Heise's eclectic Harmonica playing style with a true Jazz orchestra counting 19 musicians, not even including the collective's conductor Nikolai Bøgelund.
It's important to highlight that the genesis of the revisited version of A Love Supreme is coming from a deep place in the heart of Mathias Heise, who minutely detailed in the liner notes of the album both the profoundly spiritual impact that listening to the original version of A Love Supreme gave him and also the inspiration that guided Heise's on working on each of the four movements part of the record.
What emerges from A Love Supreme Revisited, it is that first and foremost is a beautifully arranged and played record, where Heise and the Danish Radio Big Band take the listeners in a sonic full immersion that is often of an experimental nature, but still maintaining a great deal of respect for the original compositions.
Heise does a spectacular job in infusing each suite with his sometimes tonally unpredictable playing style, morphing superbly with each member of the Danish Radio Big Band, resulting in a perfect interplay among all the musicians involved on each stage of the record.
All four suites are introduced by an interlude, purposely written, in our website's opinion, to allow the listeners to enter each part of the record little by little and build, from them and together with the whole collective playing on the album, a musical and emotional building of rhythm and spirituality at the same time, making the two aspects jell in a sole, soulful flow.
As an additional cherry on the cake, Heise and the Danish Radio Big Band decided to incorporate, on A Love Supreme Revisited, together with last movement called Psalm, also fragments of another inspired moment of Coltrane’s career called Alabama, a composition that is to be believed that was inspired by the bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, of the 16th Street Baptist Church from the Ku Klux Klan, where four African-American little girls tragically lost their lives.
Touching, inspired, delicately visionary and superbly arranged and played, A Love Supreme Revisited is a great work of love and profound passion for one of the unanimously recognized pillars of Jazz coming from the heart and soul of a tremendously talented group of musicians like Mathias Heise and the Danish Radio Big Band.
A Love Supreme Revisited is out now and it can be purchased via Rough Trade
