Released in January 1965 by
Impulse! Records,
A Love Supreme became one of the most acclaimed jazz records, and contemporary critics hailed it as one of the important albums of
post-war jazz. By 1970, it had sold about 500,000 copies, far exceeding Coltrane's usual sales of 30,000, although it never charted on the
Billboard 200. and is "without question Coltrane's most beloved album", according to
Robert Christgau, who adds that it "cemented 'Trane's divine status in Japan". According to music professor
Ingrid Monson of
Harvard University, the album was an exemplary recording of modal jazz. Nick Dedina wrote on the
Rhapsody website that the music ranged from free jazz and hard bop to
sui generis gospel music in "an epic aural poem to man's place in God's plan". Calling it a "legendary album-long hymn of praise",
Rolling Stone said that "Coltrane's majestic, often violent blowing (famously described as 'sheets of sound') is never self-aggrandizing" and that he is "aloft with his classic quartet", "soar[ing] with nothing but gratitude and joy" on a compelling journey for listeners. On the other hand, jazz critic
Tom Hull said that he has not much considered the album "spiritual" but rather "the most perfectly plotted single piece of jazz ever recorded". maintaining the rating in a 2012 revised list, re-ranking at number 66 in a 2020 reboot of the list.
NME ranked it number 188 on
a similar list in 2013. The manuscript for the album was included in the
National Museum of American History's "Treasures of American History" collection at the
Smithsonian Institution. In 2015, the album was selected for preservation in the
National Recording Registry due to its "cultural, historic, or artistic significance." It is Coltrane's second album to be included after
Giant Steps in 2005. It was included in Robert Dimery's
1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. It was voted number 85 in the third edition of
Colin Larkin's
All Time Top 1000 Albums (2000). (1978), one of many rock musicians to have been deeply influenced by the album According to
Joachim-Ernst Berendt, the album's hymn-like quality permeated modern jazz and rock music. As Christgau explains, the record was "adored by American hippies from
the Byrds and
Carlos Santana on down, and served as theme music to
Lester Bangs's wake at
CBGB". and
U2, who mention the album in their song "
Angel of Harlem", have mentioned the influence of the album on their own work. Both Santana and fellow guitarist John McLaughlin have called the album one of their biggest early influences and recorded
Love Devotion Surrender in 1973 as a tribute. "Every so often this ceases to be a jazz record and is more avant-garde contemporary classical," said
Neil Hannon of the band The Divine Comedy. "I love the combination of abstract piano that's all sort of 'clang', and weird chords with wailing saxophone over the top." In
The Penguin Guide to Jazz,
Richard Cook and
Brian Morton gave
A Love Supreme a rare "crown" rating but asked whether it was "the greatest jazz album of the modern period..or the most overrated?"
Miles Davis, Coltrane's former bandleader, said the record "reached out and influenced those people who were into peace. Hippies and people like that". Christgau, writing in 2020, said, "it's meditative rather than freewheeling, with each member of his classic quartet instructed to embark on his own harmonically mapped excursion and the title set to a chanted four-note melody you could hum in your sleep. I'm on my fourth consecutive play with no signs of tune fatigue as I write, plus
my wife loves it. All true, all remarkable. But how much you value it, I expect, depends on how much faith you place in your own spirituality." He concluded that the next time he will listen to the album "may well depend on who dies when". ==Track listing==