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There are seminal jazz albums — and then there is John Coltrane’s January 1965 Impulse! masterpiece, A Love Supreme. Numerous Supreme LP upgrades have been issued over the years — including the most recent and most excellent 11/11 UHQR 200g 45rpm edition from Analogue Productions — and now VMP enters the picture with their upcoming 180g 8LP mostly AAA limited edition box set that’s been earmarked for a late summer release.

The VMP Edition of A Love Supreme is an 8LP box set that collects the proper album, all the outtakes from the original quartet session, mono mixes from the finished album, the full sextet sessions, and two live performances — one in Antibes, France; the other in Seattle. Yes, there was indeed a 2022 Impulse! 4CD Japanese import with a similar tracklisting footprint, but VMP says their edition is the first time all of these tracks have been available in one official vinyl collection.

Remastered from what VMP dubs as “the highest quality sources available” — AAA on the main album, and “some digital” for the outtakes and live versions “due to tape degradation” — the VMP Edition has been remastered and cut by Ryan K. Smith at Sterling Sound, and it will be plated and pressed by Gary Salstrom at Vinyl Media Pressing in Denver, later this spring.

Expected to ship in the summertime, this first edition of the VMP A Love Supreme box set is “strictly limited” to 1,000 units. The SRP options are as follows: $299 for VMP members, and $399 for nonmembers. Either way, you can pre-order the box right here.

Before we get into some of the box set’s overall features, some recording background first. A Love Supreme was recorded in one session on December 9, 1964 at Van Gelder Studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. At that session, Trane led a quartet that featured pianist McCoy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones, and four songs made the finished album — “Part I – Acknowledgement.” “Part II – Resolution,” “Part III – Pursuance,” and “Part IV – Psalm.”

VMP notes that Coltrane attempted to record the album twice — first with the quartet, then with a sextet. The six-piece iteration managed to get through one song after a few takes before Trane decided he liked the four-piece edition better. He only played the album live in full three times, and only two of those performances were recorded. The sextet, live takes, along with some alternate mono mixes and outtakes from the quartet, are the collective aural elements of the box set that supplement the main album.

The box set itself is a beautiful custom box designed by Alan Hynes and Clay Conder, engineered in a way to, according to VMP, “reflect the distinctive cover of the album.” Befitting the alternate material, each of the five albums in the box — the proper album (LP1), the outtakes and the sextet session (LPs 2-4, respectively), and the France and Seattle shows (LPs 5-8, respectively) — come in a gatefold package that echoes the original Impulse! art.

VMP worked closely with the estate of Victor Kalin, the artist behind the original album release, to locate alternate art that was made around the time Kalin made the version that appeared in A Love Supreme to fill the gatefolds of these alternate editions. Hynes also subtly re-imagined the cover to reflect the material on each album within the VMP Edition while paying reverence to the original cover design.

The VMP Edition also features an expansive Listening Notes book from music writer Jeff Weiss, who had this to say about the album in his essay (via the following excerpt provided by VMP): “In Coltrane, the musician, we are reminded of the regenerative power of originality, reinvention, and sacrifice for art. Zealot or atheist, A Love Supreme holds endless non-denominational wonders. And in this time where creativity’s manifestations seem fleeting, disposable even, we can listen back to someone who strove to convey meaning with every exhale. If something like this existed once, it can again. If John Coltrane saw what he saw and heard what he heard, that is just enough reason to still believe.”

The booklet is filled with Coltrane photos, and the box also comes with Coltrane ephemera including a prayer card, printed manuscripts, and notes from the creation of the album.

Looks like I may just have have to, er, shuffle around some other box-set-preordained bucks for this one — who’s with me?

JOHN COLTRANE
A LOVE SUPREME
180g 8LP box set (VMP)

LP1, Side A
1. Part I – Acknowledgement
2. Part II – Resolution

LP1, Side B
1. Part III – Pursuance / Part IV – Psalm

LP2, Side C
1. Part III – Pursuance
2. Part IV – Psalm

LP2, Side D
1. Part I – Acknowledgement Vocal Overdub 2
2. Part I – Acknowledgement Vocal Overdub 3
3. Part II – Resolution Take 4 / Alternate
4. Part II – Resolution Take 6 / Alternate
5. Part IV – Psalm Undubbed Version

LP3, Side E
1. Part I – Acknowledgement Take 1 / Alternate

LP3, Side F
1. Part I – Acknowledgement Take 2 / Alternate
2. Part I – Acknowledgement Take 3 / Breakdown and Studio Dialogue

LP4, Side G
1. Part I – Acknowledgement Take 4 / Alternate
2. Part I – Acknowledgement Take 5 / False Start

LP4, Side H
1. Part I – Acknowledgement Take 6 / Alternate

LP5, Side I
1. Introduction by M.C. André Francis
2. Part I – Acknowledgement

LP5, Side J
1. Part II – Resolution

LP6, Side K
1. Part III – Pursuance

LP6, Side L
1. Part IV – Psalm

LP7, Side M
1. Part I – Acknowledgement

LP7, Side N
1. Interlude 1
1. Part II – Resolution
1. Interlude 2

LP8, Side O
1. Part III – Pursuance

LP8, Side P
1. Interlude 3
1. Part IV – Psalm
1. Interlude 4