Recorded months after *A Love Supreme*, Coltrane's *Meditations* pairs two drummers—Elvin Jones anchoring, Rashied Ali spiraling—in a configuration that generates turbulent, opposing gravitational forces rather than conventional interplay. McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders complete a quintet pursuing five spiritually-themed movements that prioritize emotional devastation over melody, creating something transcendent and essentially transformative. Essential listening for anyone seeking jazz that dismantles rather than comforts.
⚡ Quick Answer: John Coltrane's "Meditations," recorded in November 1965 shortly after "A Love Supreme," features a revolutionary configuration with two drummers—Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali—pulling in opposing directions, creating dynamic tension. The quintet, including McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders, produces five spiritually-themed movements that prioritize emotional devastation over conventional melody, capturing something transcendent and transformative rather than easily understood.
There is a recording that will make you feel like the walls of your house have quietly dissolved, and it is this one.
Coltrane made Meditations in November 1965, just months after A Love Supreme had been received like a benediction by the jazz world. He had already moved past it. The quintet he brought into Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs was not the same band that had recorded that masterpiece — it was something stranger, more turbulent, more insistent on its own discomfort.
The Double Drum Question
Rashied Ali was the new element, added alongside Elvin Jones in a configuration that made no logical sense on paper and made complete, devastating sense on tape. Two drummers, and not two drummers trading fours or politely sharing a kit — two drummers pulling in different gravitational directions simultaneously. Jones anchors, Ali spirals. The tension between them is the engine of this entire record.
Elvin was reportedly unhappy about it. He left the band not long after. You can hear that friction in the music, and the music is better for it.
McCoy Tyner is here too, though this would also be among his final recordings with Coltrane. He plays with the focused intensity of a man who knows the ground is shifting. Pharoah Sanders contributes a screaming, overdriven soprano and tenor that push the upper registers into something close to ecstatic pain. Jimmy Garrison holds the low end with the patience of a man who has seen everything.
What Rudy Van Gelder Captured
Van Gelder was meticulous about his room — the famous A-frame house in Hackensack, then the dedicated studio he built in Englewood Cliffs. He knew how to place Coltrane's horn, how to let the reed breath come through, how to keep the piano from crowding the drums. On Meditations, the task was impossible by conventional standards and he threaded it anyway.
The five movements — "The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost," "Compassion," "Love," "Consequences," "Serenity" — were composed by Coltrane as a suite, though suite feels too architectural a word for something this openly wounded. Bob Thiele produced the session for Impulse!, which in 1965 meant getting out of the way and running tape.
The opening track begins with what sounds like weather. Drums arrive like a pressure front. Then Coltrane's tenor enters and it is immediately, undeniably him — that particular reed weight, that phrase shape — but playing as if he has decided that melody is now a starting point rather than a destination.
"Serenity" closes the record and earns its title, barely. There is a stillness in those final minutes that feels won rather than given.
I have put on a lot of records in my life and I still don't fully know what to do with this one. That is not a complaint. Some recordings are not trying to be understood. They are trying to do something to you, and they succeed, and afterward you sit in the quiet and feel grateful that someone was willing to go that far.
Further Reading
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🎵 Key Takeaways
- 🥁 The dual-drummer configuration of Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali creates opposing gravitational pulls rather than complementary rhythms, with Jones anchoring and Ali spiraling—a friction that energizes the entire record.
- 🎷 Recorded November 1965 just months after *A Love Supreme*, Coltrane had already moved past that landmark, treating melody as a starting point rather than destination and prioritizing emotional devastation over accessibility.
- 🎹 Van Gelder's engineering feat placed five strong personalities—Tyner's focused intensity, Sanders' screaming soprano, Garrison's patient bass—without letting any element crowd the others in an inherently unstable mix.
- ✨ The five spiritually-themed movements feel more like an openly wounded meditation than an architectural suite, with 'Serenity' closing the album in a hard-won stillness rather than conventional resolution.
Why did Coltrane use two drummers on Meditations, and what was the effect?
Rather than splitting duties, Coltrane positioned Elvin Jones and Rashied Ali as opposing forces—Jones anchoring the rhythm while Ali spirals against him. This intentional tension became the engine of the record, though it reportedly frustrated Jones, who left the band shortly after. The friction audibly strengthens the music rather than destabilizing it.
How does Meditations differ from A Love Supreme?
Recorded just months apart, Meditations finds Coltrane already moving past the accessible spirituality of *A Love Supreme*. Where that album felt like a benediction to the jazz world, *Meditations* treats melody as merely a starting point and prioritizes emotional devastation and transcendence over conventional understanding.
What technical challenge did Rudy Van Gelder face recording this quintet?
Capturing five strong personalities—Coltrane's reed weight, Tyner's piano, Sanders' overdriven soprano, Garrison's bass, and two drummers pulling in different directions—was conventionally impossible. Van Gelder's meticulous placement and engineering allowed each voice to breathe without crowding the others, a feat that defined the album's clarity despite its turbulence.
What are the five movements and what do they represent?
The movements are 'The Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,' 'Compassion,' 'Love,' 'Consequences,' and 'Serenity'—composed as a suite, though 'suite' feels too architectural for something this openly wounded. The final track, 'Serenity,' closes with a hard-won stillness that feels earned rather than given.
Further Reading
More from John Coltrane
Further Reading
More from John Coltrane
Further Reading
More from John Coltrane