Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep with the record.

— Paul, Vinyl Curator

John Coltrane

A Love Supreme

1965 · Impulse! A-77 · Mono · US · LP, gatefold · 33 1/3 RPM

Pressing details

Label	Impulse!
Catalogue number	A-77
Year	1965
Mono / Stereo	Mono
Country	US
Format	LP, gatefold
Speed	33 1/3 RPM
Genre	Jazz - Modal/Spiritual Jazz
Producer	Bob Thiele
Composer	John Coltrane
Musicians	John Coltrane (tenor sax), McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), Elvin Jones (drums)

Matrix / Runout

Side A:  A-77-A VAN GELDER LW
Side B:  A-77-B VAN GELDER LW

Condition

Cover: NM
Vinyl: EX

Variant chronology

1965 - Black/orange Impulse label, two "impulse!" logo bands, ABC-Paramount imprint, mono, Van Gelder-cut RVG mono lacquer  <- this copy
1965 - Same label design, white-label "NOT FOR SALE" mono promo, Van Gelder cut
1965/67 - Stereo AS-77, same black/orange label design, Van Gelder cut
1969 - Reader's Digest RDA 77-A box-set compilation (unrelated 4xLP repackaging, mono) - not this copy's variant

This Pressing

1st press (mono, 1965) - Impulse! A-77 black/orange label, ABC-Paramount imprint, Van Gelder-etched runout (A-77-A/B VAN GELDER).

The Album

Recorded in a single session on December 9, 1964, at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio, A Love Supreme was John Coltrane's four-part suite of thanksgiving for his 1957 spiritual awakening. Coltrane wrote an original testimony and poem inside the gatefold dedicating the work to God, an unusually candid gesture that set the album apart from his prior instrumental-only releases. It was released by Impulse! in January 1965, was nominated for the 1966 Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, and is "widely considered one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of jazz."

Tracklist

Side 1

1. Part I - Acknowledgement
2. Part II - Resolution

Side 2

1. Part III - Pursuance / Part IV - Psalm

The Label

The side labels show the classic mid-1960s Impulse! design: an orange centre field with a black outer ring carrying two mirrored "impulse!" wordmarks (top and bottom) and the double-bar "i!" logo repeated four times around the rim, with "A PRODUCT OF ABC-PARAMOUNT RECORDS, INC. / PRINTED IN USA" beneath the credits and no street address printed - the design Impulse used for its catalogue through the mid-1960s before later pressings added a full corporate address block. This label design, together with the "A-77-A/B VAN GELDER" hand-etched runout, places the copy in the original mono Impulse! issue window (1965) rather than any later reissue or the unrelated Reader's Digest RDA 77-A box-set compilation, a completely different, later (1969) multi-LP repackaging and not this record.

Fidelity

This copy carries the Van Gelder hand-etched runout ("A-77-A/B VAN GELDER"), indicating it was cut at Van Gelder's studio rather than by Bell Sound, whose competing cutting facility is described by collectors on the forums as noticeably murkier and less precise on other 1960s Impulse titles. Collectors on the forums debate whether Impulse mono pressings of this era, including A-77, were true discrete mono mixes or fold-downs from the stereo master tape, with some threads posing it plainly - this LP...is it a fold down? Collectors on the forums, comparing surface noise between the needles and the grooves of various copies, also note that Van Gelder's original A Love Supreme master tape was reportedly lost by Bell Sound decades ago, with only a second-generation copy later recovered from EMI's vaults, a fact that bears on the fidelity ceiling of all vintage pressings of this title, original or otherwise.

Notes

1965 Impulse! A-77 mono - original pressing window. Label design (orange field, mirrored "impulse!" band, ABC-Paramount credit, no street address) matches Impulse's mid-1960s design, and the hand-etched "A-77-A/B VAN GELDER" runout indicates a Van Gelder-cut lacquer rather than a later Bell Sound or reissue cut. Whether this specific stamper is a true mono mix or an early fold-down from the stereo master is disputed among collectors on the forums, some of whom frame the question bluntly - this LP...is it a fold down? - without a settled answer.

Documenting collections

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