John Coltrane – A Love Supreme: Live In Seattle

Found this release at a flea market, still sealed and bought it at a very interesting negotiated price. In fact, at first listen, it was not a very enjoyable pair of records, even considering it's a live recording and especially considering It was released by Impulse. I find it noticeably worse than any other live recording I have, so that I can only share the critical comments already present below. I'll see in future listens. Added to the collection with a bit of disappointment.

Just sitting next to Elvin Jones is worth buying this record. Coltrane is further away, but who cares. The magic of this recording shows me again that I was born at least 30 years too late. Highly recommended!

People who complain about the sound quality IMO don´t consider the very special spirit a live recording can have. Sound is not everything. Sometimes when you´re in a club you won´t experience the best sound neither. Get it loud, get your ears used to it for a while and dig yourself deep into the evening of October 2, 1965. The whole band is alive and on fire. There is Sanders with them. The studio album had just been released that year. Coltrane must have been full of spiritual energy those days. Even if you only can hear him from far away in the room. This is real! Besides that I think McCoy adds something later Alice style like to the finish which gives it an even more spiritual mood. Worth listening! I´m glad to have it and and enjoy listening to it.

An expanded version of the original studio version, not as different as the Antibes live recording. Also Coltrane himself sounds like he's playing somewhere next door. "Evenings at Village gate" is probably a better buy, despite recording quality unevenness.

Valuable for being a historic live recording. Sound is of bootleg quality of course, because basically that's what it is. Trane fans will want to have this anyhow!

Played it once and returned it. Not everything historical needs to be pressed on vinyl. Coltrane so low in the mix you might think you're listening to the a Folkways 'Drums of Africa' album. Avoid.

My copy has been oily, it took two washing cycles to get it clean. After first wash still was poor sounding. So it might be, that the issue with poor sounding record ,is oil form the pressings.

Yes, the sound is not that great, but it is a live recording and it is a masterpiece.

Considering it was recorded with two microphones , not buy a professional , the Vinyl version sounds very good . Its two microphones for a 6 piece band , its like you are in the club listing to a Coltrane live. It has thick Vinyl, I had a few pops on the 4th side ,but the rest of the album had no surface noise . The recording is 59 years old , I believe the sound is good as your going to get . Why would you want to change the mix , listen to the studio album for that experience .

i have never heard such an absolutely execrable vinyl reissue of a perfectly fine recording of an incredible performance. impulse should be ashamed they let this record be released in this essentially unlistenable form. to anyone thinking the tapes of this show are low fidelity and the music "confused" as one comment below put it, they're not, and it isn't. listen on spotify (i guess, i don't use it) or buy / borrow the cd or get it online. it's fu*ing magnificent. this record is probably best put to use in a skeet shooting session.