John Coltrane
Tenor Sax Solo on
A Love Supreme, Part 3: Pursuance

About

John Coltrane delivers sixteen scorching choruses of tenor saxophone on "Pursuance" at approximately 300 BPM, a tour de force of motivic development and rhythmic invention that represents the climactic peak of A Love Supreme. Over the 12-bar blues in B-flat minor, his solo pushes the form to its expressive limits, the blazing tempo and unrelenting intensity conveying the spiritual seeker's determined quest that the movement's title suggests. Following Elvin Jones's opening drum solo and McCoy Tyner's fourteen-chorus piano feature, Coltrane's sixteen-chorus statement is the suite's most extended and passionate improvisation, his massive tenor sound driven by the relentless energy of the rhythm section. The performance stands as one of the supreme achievements in American music.

John Coltrane was 37 to 38 years old at the time.