Spiritual jazz is a sub-genre of jazz that originated in the United States during the 1960s. The genre is hard to characterize musically but draws from free, avant-garde and modal jazz and thematically focuses on transcendence and spirituality. John Coltrane's 1965 album A Love Supreme is considered landmark in the genre.
Contemporary spiritual jazz musician Kamasi Washington performing
Pharoah Sanders in 1981.
Don Cherry in 1989
A Love Supreme is an album by the jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane. He recorded it in one session on December 9, 1964, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, leading a quartet featuring pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones.
A Love Supreme
Elvin Jones (pictured in 1976)
Carlos Santana (1978), one of many rock musicians to have been deeply influenced by the album
McCoy Tyner played piano throughout both sessions for A Love Supreme