Coltrane: A Love Supreme, 9—Bassists on "Acknowledgement," All Takes

In my last essay on A Love Supreme, we listened closely to what Coltrane and Archie Shepp played on Acknowledgement.” (See the Index on the home page for the previous essays in this series.) But what about the two bassists? How did they manage to work together?

On “Acknowledgement,” from the original album, Garrison only plays the Main Motif (the “A Love Supreme” theme) a few times at the beginning, then moves on. But I’ve seen performances by professional as well as student groups where the bassist plays the ostinato throughout. It gets very tiresome, but more important, it’s contrary to Coltrane’s intention. After all, this movement is really a fairly loose improvisation in F, with almost nothing pre-planned except the key, the rhythmic approach (“feel”), and an outline of the sax part — and the latter is only in Coltrane’s mind, as we discussed last time. So one could argue that it makes no sense to try and “recreate” it at all.

But if Garrison does not simply repeat the Main Motif, what in fact does the bassist play? The common “wisdom” is that in the Coltrane quartet, Garrison “held down the beat” so that Elvin Jones was free to do whatever he wanted. In point of fact, that is not what one hears on most of the recordings. To be sure, in November 1961 at the Village Vanguard— on “Chasin’ the Trane,” the first released recording of Garrison with Coltrane — he keeps a strong walking beat on the bass. But when Jimmy officially replaced Reggie Workman at the end of 1961 and started to work regularly with Elvin, he soon loosened up and began breaking up the beat. After all, don’t forget that he came to Coltrane after working with the Bill Evans Trio in 1958 and ‘59, just before Bill enlisted LaFaro. (The Evans trio with Garrison and Pete La Roca is documented on recordings with clarinetist Tony Scott.) And, in 1961, before joining Coltrane, Garrison performed and recorded with Ornette Coleman. Those are two of the most interactive groups in jazz, not groups that rely on an uninterrupted walking bass.

Let’s please listen again to the Master Take (the original album version) of “Acknowledgement,” and focus on Jimmy Garrison’s playing. You’ll notice that from the moment Coltrane begins his sax solo, at 1:03, Garrison stops repeating the motive and plays freely.

Let’s also study the takes of “Acknowledgement” that were recorded on Dec. 10 with two bassists, Garrison and Art Davis. I’ll give a link for every one, but, in case you have the Deluxe 3-CD set, I’ll give the track number also. Here are my own rough notes, taken while listening:

Take 1 (In the Deluxe set it’s CD 2, track 6):

Strummed basses at beginning. Then both bassists with the Main Motif. From 2:15 on, the basses play freely. Meanwhile, at 1:00, the saxes enter, and at 1:30 Trane introduces a “high and low” trill idea. He takes a short solo starting at about 1:50. Shepp plays a little of the trill idea behind him. Then Shepp solos, and Trane returns around 3:20. Instead of a short bass solo at the end of part one, both bassists solo together at 7:15. At first, it’s Garrison who is playing the Main Motif, and Davis who is soloing freely. Then from about 8:30 onward, Garrison improvises.

Take 2 (CD 2, track 7):

Both strum; then one bass, and then both, come in with the Main Motif. Trane’s solo starts at 1:32. Then Shepp is featured at length. In this one the bassists play the ostinato all the way to around 5:15, after which they improvise. Both basses solo from about 8:00 ff. Again, Davis solos first. There’s just a bit of Garrison’s double stops (two bass notes at once) before this take ends.

Take 3 (CD 2, track 8):

A little discussion with Davis about “to play that high” on the bass. Then a “false start,” that is, a take that is cut short, in this case because the basses do not seem to be in sync with each other.  (Kernfeld says it appears that Davis wasn’t sure where “one” was.) Coltrane says “Alright — go again.” But before they do, there is a short discussion, from which we learn that after the opening fanfare, Coltrane was giving Elvin a “count off” with his hand, like a conductor, to start with solo drums. It’s hard to hear, but this is what I make of the conversation:

Davis says, “Oh, you’re counting 4 for one” (four beats for one bar).

Coltrane, overlapping, says “I’m giving him (Elvin), 1,2 — just one bar — 3,4.”

Davis replies, “Oh, that’s a slow four…?” Coltrane says, “No,” followed by something that overlaps Davis. Davis says, probably indicating Jimmy, but possibly Elvin: “Yeah you, you, you turned it (the beat) around then, you turned it around, because I think…” Coltrane interrupts, saying “No, I want to give him, I’m giving him a four-beat pickup,” and then John counts off twice as fast, “1,2,3,4,1 — like that.”

Davis says something about a “long count,” and John says something about “Yes, but I didn’t mean that — shorter.” “Okay,” says Davis.

TAKE 4 (CD 2, track 9):

Clearly, there was more conversation after Take 3 that was not recorded. Because from here on, the bassists play much more freely, only referring now and then to the Main Motif. Also, Davis bows the note E at the beginning while Garrison strums. On this take the basses start with a variation of the Main Motif, playing the Main Motif a few times between the 1- and 2-minute mark, but mainly, they continue to play fairly freely. They solo around 7:00, Davis first as before, then Garrison.

At the end Coltrane says, “Let’s hear it.” (That is, let’s take a break and listen to the recording of that take.) Then he adds something about, “I think we’ll do one more and get ‘em.” (That is, we’ll get a satisfactory take).

Take 5 (CD 2, track 11) is a very short false start. It sounds like Davis was not quite ready, and didn’t have his bow out. He has it ready by the end, and bows a few notes.

Take 6 (CD 2, track 12):

On this, the final take and the longest of all, the basses play very much as they do on Take 4, except that they repeat their variation on the Main Motif for quite a while before moving into other areas. I embedded it here as well as giving the link above:

Art Davis, a brilliant man and a brilliant musician, liked to say that he was Coltrane’s favorite bassist. He had toured with Max Roach (starting in 1958), and then with Dizzy Gillespie. Coltrane told British journalist Val Wilmer: “I actually wanted Art to join me as a regular bassist, but he was all tied up with Dizzy, and so I had to get in Steve Davis.” This would have been in the spring of 1960. Steve, unrelated to Art, was one of John’s many Philadelphia colleagues. John added that when Steve left around the beginning of 1961, “Art still couldn’t make it, so I got Reggie [Workman].” Davis had just left Gillespie upon returning from a tour of Europe (he was replaced by Bob Cunningham), but he turned Coltrane’s invitation down because he had decided that he was done touring. He lived with his family in the New York area, and he was doing well freelancing, especially in commercial recordings for TV and radio.

Coltrane told Wilmer that he invited Art to come to a New York gig “because I liked him so much and I figured that he and Reggie could exchange sets. But instead of that they started playing some together…and it was very good.”  So for much of 1961, Davis played a number of Coltrane engagements with Reggie Workman also on bass, and sometimes Eric Dolphy as well, making the group a sextet. These were mostly in New York City but possibly also in Philadelphia. But when Coltrane went to California in September 1961, Davis did not go along. And while recording at the Village Vanguard in the first week of November, Coltrane tried out Jimmy Garrison on some numbers, even though Workman was still in the group. Workman was already committed to play on John’s European tour right after they finished at the Vanguard, but soon after they returned, Garrison took his place.

Davis held fast to his decision not to tour. His discography shows that he only recorded in the New York metro area (with one excursion to Syracuse, N.Y.) for the rest of the ‘60s and ‘70s. Still, it seems ironic that Davis, to his dying day, insisted that he was overlooked by Coltrane fans. If he had agreed to be the regular bassist in the quartet, of course he’d be famous and celebrated today. But he wanted to have his cake and eat it too — to reject the offer to tour with Coltrane, but to still enjoy the reputation of being Coltrane’s favorite bassist.

It didn’t work out that way. But his playing when he recorded with Coltrane in the New York area was always stellar — on Africa/Brass, Olé, the Dec. 10 takes of “Acknowledgement,” The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, and, finally, on Ascension.

Let’s pause here for now. I’ve got yet more essays about A Love Supreme, coming soon.

All the best,
Lewis