A work supreme
To open a recent discussion on one of jazz’s all-time greats, John Coltrane, and his famous album “A Love Supreme,” Homi Bhabha invoked the name of another celebrated saxophonist, one with Harvard roots. When Joshua Redman ’91 was asked to name the one session in jazz history he most would have liked to have attended, Bhabha recounted, Redman said, “I would have to say being there for the recording of ‘A Love Supreme.’ … That’s my favorite jazz record of all time.” Whether Ingrid Monson’s listeners were novices or seasoned jazz fans, she offered them a new way of approaching the seminal work in Sever Hall during a discussion on Monday. In a session interspersed with clips of Coltrane’s signature sound, the Quincy Jones Professor of African-American Music examined in detail what many observers consider the greatest jazz album of all time. Monson’s talk was part of an ongoing series of master classes...