John Coltrane – A Love Supreme (Impulse A-77 and EMI/HMV CLP 1869)

What better way to relaunch my blog than with an all-time great LP and a bit of musing over our obsession with first pressings?

I’ve found myself more focused on my Instagram account than this blog over recent times so there has been a distinct lack of new content here for a long while. This has led me to think about what’s realistically achievable and sustainable in future. I even toyed with the idea of a “vinyl community” YouTube channel! However, I’ve settled on using Instagram for short-form postings about individual records while using this blog for postings that will be longer either because I want to dive into greater depth about a topic or because they may be about multiple records that share a common theme. I will try to establish links between the two platforms in ways that should become self-evident over time.

Today’s blog posting fits in the “deep dive” category. And, because I’m giving my blog a metaphorical makeover, what better than pick stone classic to kick off things with a bang? So, yes, this posting is about Coltrane’s A Love Supreme but that’s also a vehicle to explore another topic in a bit more detail. That’s not to say the music itself isn’t the most important thing. Of course it is but much has already been written about that aspect of this record so I want to scratch a different itch.

I want to talk about our collective obsession with so-called “first pressings”. In order to do that, I think I have to bare my soul a little so that you can appreciate where I’m coming from. The question I have asked myself on more than one occasion is: am I a first pressing fundamentalist? If you’re a reader of this blog or a follower of my Instagram account, I suspect you may have asked yourself the same question at least once. No shame in that. And, actually, what ever your response was then or is now or will be in future – there’s no shame in your answer. Your answer (what ever it is) is valid as long as you’re at peace with it. Remember, it’s your hobby, so it’s your prerogative to enjoy it in the way that makes you happy. Don’t listen to anybody else – even me!

So I bet you’re itching to know my answer to this question? Nowadays it goes like this: I’m a first pressing fundamentalist… Except when I’m not! How does that work? Well, I’m going to use A Love Supreme to try to explain.

We need a little (historical) discussion about the master tapes as a pre-requisite. Buckle up, this is where the deep dive begins and it’s fact-based (for as much as possible) plus a little conjecture to fill in the gaps. Here’s what we know:

1. The music that appears on the classic quartet version of A Love Supreme was recorded by Rudy Van Gelder at his Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA studio on 9 December 19641¹.
2. Van Gelder recorded that music straight to stereo master tapes (by 1964 he had abandoned the practice of recording separate mono and stereo master tapes simultaneously). So when I talk about the “master tapes” for A Love Supreme in this posting, these are the only tapes I mean – my contention is that all other tapes are NOT the master tapes but second (or later) generation copies.
3. Van Gelder cut both mono and stereo lacquers from these stereo master tapes (the mono being a fold-down). In other words, he did the mono and stereo mastering from these tapes. Only the earliest pressings that bear the “VAN GELDER” stamp in the deadwax were mastered by him. Any other pressings, no matter how early they may appear to be, or how early anybody claims them to be, were not mastered by Van Gelder.
4. There are other 1960s pressings of A Love Supreme that were not mastered by Rudy. Notably, ones mastered at Bell Labs.
5. There is strong evidence that the master tapes were destroyed by 1971. No less an authority than Michael Cuscana was 99% certain of this sad event². Which begs the question of which tapes were used as the source for subsequent pressings?

These points speak to my stance on first pressing fundamentalism. In general, one of the reasons I prefer first pressings because they are the ones that get me closest to the original master tapes at the point in time when they were in best condition. But this is not an exact science and sometimes other factors inform my preferences hence that “except when I’m not” caveat.

A pure first pressing fundamentalist approach to A Love Supreme might lead me to pursue the Van Gelder mastered stereo first pressing over the Van Gelder mastered mono first pressing because the latter is a fold down. But there’s a problem here: Van Gelder made a rare error when he cut the stereo master and there’s an annoying background hum on it (maybe caused by a dodgy cable or connection but we will never know for sure). So the next best option is the Van Gelder mastered mono first pressing and many people actually would prefer that (me included because it places Coltrane’s saxophone centre stage where it deserves to be).

And now we get to the heart of the matter. Apart from test pressings and white label promotional copies, Discogs lists three Van Gelder mastered mono variants for 1965 (bear in mind that A Love Supreme was first released in February 1965³). We know from research done by others that one of those is the earliest variant because it is the one without “-A” and “-B” suffixes after the “A-77” catalogue number on the Side 1 and Side 2 labels respectively. One of the other variants has a serrated edge which is an indicator that it was pressed at Keel Manufacturing and the remaining third Van Gelder mono 1965 variant has a smooth edge. Discogs lists the next Van Gelder mastered mono pressing as appearing in 1967 and it can be identified by a subtle change to the labels: a line of small white text reading “NEW YORK N. Y. 10019” was added above the “PRINTED IN USA” line.

So now I was able to use the information about those four Van Gelder mono variants to apply a process of elimination to identify my copy. Mine has the “-A”/”-B” suffixes and a non-serrated edge but does not have the extra third line of text. So that means it is one of the 1965 variants but not the earliest one. Further, it means that it was pressed before the 1967 variant. That narrows it down to being pressed some time between February 1965 and some point in 1967. But could I narrow down the date range any further? Well maybe…

Luckily, my copy came complete with an inner sleeve which has some distinguishing features – specifically the address “ABC – Paramount Records Inc., 1501 Broadway, New York 36, N. Y.” and the fact that the highest Impulse catalogue number promoted on it is A-50 (John Coltrane – Live At Birdland released in January 1964). From what I can gather, this inner sleeve design ceased to be used around March/April 1966 though that is open to some conjecture because there would have been a cross-over period when stock of this inner sleeve was used up while the new design was being introduced. The new inner sleeve design included the “1330 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y.” address and what is certain is that Impulse moved to this address in July 1965 when it took up residence in the ABC building on Sixth Avenue⁴ (also known as Avenue of the Americas).

All of which enables me to narrow down the pressing date of my copy to between February 1965 and (probably) March/April 1966. And that’s good enough to assuage my first pressing fundamentalist urges and be satisfied with the “except when I’m not” caveat. Sure, if I come across a genuine first pressing mono Van Gelder mastered variant in really good condition at a sensible price, I might be tempted. But the probability, effort and cost is likely to be massively disproportionate to any benefit over my really nice copy that is already a mono Van Gelder mastered one pressed at the very worst within 14 months of the pure first pressing.

The other reason I might decline such an opportunity is that there is strong evidence to suggest the only difference between the genuine first pressing and my copy is the labels. The reasoning behind that assertion is my analysis of the deadwax. On my copy, both sides have “VAN GELDER” stamps, matrix numbers (“A-77-A” on Side 1 and “A-77-B” on Side 2) in Van Gelder’s distinctive writing plus a hand-etched “LW” added by the Longwear Plating Company. I compared the position of these markings with photographs of my fellow collector Fredrik’s white label promotional copy and they’re a perfect match. That at least means the stampers used to press them were derived from the same mono lacquer master cut by Van Gelder.

Hunting early Van Gelder mastered mono pressings of A Love Supreme isn’t everybody’s cup of tea – it takes time, knowledge, dedication and effort. So what are your options if you want something that gets you close to the original master tapes without all that pain? There have been many vinyl releases over the years – Discogs lists 163 vinyl versions worldwide at the time of writing. With the vinyl revival of recent years, there have been quite a few of those releases that make claims about the sources used to make them that often use ambiguous wording that implies use of the original master tapes. But it’s 99% certain that Van Gelder’s master tapes had been destroyed by 1971, so what’s going on here? The answer is obvious: second (and later) generation copies have been used and just how many times they have been copied is often unclear.

But there is one clear and unambiguous fact: when EMI/HMV released their UK first pressings (mono and stereo) in 1965, they did their own mastering from second generation “safety” copies of Van Gelder’s master tapes that were shipped to the UK for the purpose⁵. These tapes were safely stored in the Abbey Road Studio library and survive intact to this day. So if you want a good modern re-issue, opt for one that used these tapes as their source. If you’re in the market for a vintage 1960s pressing made using these tapes when they were as fresh as daisies, then I recommend the EMI/HMV UK mono and stereo first pressings.

For a long time, my go-to copy of A Love Supreme was my EMI/HMV UK mono first pressing. The mastering is more restrained and polite than Van Gelder’s but the quality of the vinyl pressing is excellent (easily a match for contemporary US pressings). My one isn’t in top condition and has a few clicks and pops (annoyingly most obvious during Garrison’s bass interludes). The main challenge with these UK pressings is that the flipback covers were flimsy and thus prone to damage. However, they sound great and can be found at a fraction of the price of US Van Gelder mastered pressings.

So go out there and enjoy this masterpiece – I just hope that I’ve equipped you with some useful knowledge to enable you to make an informed choice about how you do it!

Record Details

Artist	John Coltrane
Title	A Love Supreme
Label/Catalogue Number	Impulse A-77 (mono) and EMI/HMV CLP 1869 (mono)
Personnel	John Coltrane (tenor saxophone); McCoy Tyner (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Elvin Jones (drums, gong, tympani)
Side 1	Part 1: Acknowledgement; Part 2: Resolution
Side 2	Part 3: Pursuance/Part 4: Psalm
Recording Details	Recorded at the Rudy Van Gelder Studio, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, USA on 9 December 1964

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Footnotes

1. The source for this is Van Gelder’s 1964 diary (now that’s definitely what historians would call a primary source). A photograph of the relevant diary page appears on page 13 of the booklet that comes with the 2016 three LP set John Coltrane – A Love Supreme: The Complete Masters (Impulse 00602547536044). ↩︎
2. Cuscuna is quoted on page 215 of A Love Supreme / The Creation of John Coltrane’s Classic Album (Granta Books, London, 2006, ISBN 1-86207-545-X) as saying “I’m ninety-nine percent sure that the master tapes of A Love Supreme were scrapped.”. ↩︎
3. A lot of sources on the Internet (including Wikipedia) state the release date as January 1965 but I put my faith in the extensive research of Ashley Kahn who states the release date as February 1965 on page 124 of his book The House That Trane Built: The Story Of Impulse Records (Granta Books, London, 2006, ISBN 1-86207-646-4) and he states the same release month on page xvi of A Love Supreme / The Creation of John Coltrane’s Classic Album (Granta Books, London 2002, ISBN 1-86207-545-X). ↩︎
4. Phil Kurnit, in-house counsel for Impulse, is quoted on page 172 of The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records by Ashley Kahn (Granta Books, London 2006, ISBN 1-86207-646-4) as saying “… But in July of ’65, we moved into the ABC building on Sixth Avenue.” ↩︎
5. Michael Cuscana’s discovery of the “safety” copies of the master tapes in London is described on page 217 of A Love Supreme / The Creation of John Coltrane’s Classic Album (Granta Books, London, 2006, ISBN 1-86207-545-X). ↩︎