John Coltrane and Afro Percussion

[bongosnotbombs]

David,
not really sure about the LSD trip, at this time John Coltrane had already kicked his heroin habit and was into health food.....
There is a very good book, the source of the photo at the beginning of this thread, all about this particular recording.

A Love Supreme: The Making of John Coltrane's Masterpiece (Hardcover)
by Ashley Kahn

http://www.amazon.com/Love-Su....0031364

which I just finished reading about 2 weeks ago, the discussion and photos really make no mention of LSD being there.

While I suppose anything is possible, my opinion after reading the books is that it is highly unlikely that John and his band had dropped acid to make A Love Supreme.

[davidpenalosa]

bongosnotbombs,
I was mistaken. The album in question was Coltrane's "Om". Apparently there's some question about the LSD. I don't see a contradiction between stopping the use of heroin or any other addictive drug and taking LSD.

From Wikipedia, for what it’s worth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Om_(John_Coltrane_album)

“It is alleged that Coltrane began taking LSD around the time of the Om session. A 1966 recording, issued posthumously, has Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders chanting from a Buddhist text, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, and reciting a passage describing the primal verbalization "om" as a cosmic/spiritual common denominator in all things.
The album was not very well-received.It is believed to have been recorded during an LSD experience,[1] though some people have said this is only a myth.”

[bongosnotbombs]

I don't see a contradiction between stopping the use of heroin or any other addictive drug and taking LSD.

yeah, your probably right on that one, I just always get the impression that John was totally off drugs and into his spiritualty after he kicked heroin...

of course thats just an impression, but in the biographies I have read, they never mention drugs in relation to John after that..

as for LSD and OM, I have heard that album, it's pretty out there even for John. Of course there was also a different impression of LSD at that time and I don't think it's impossible that Coltrane may have tried it.

[zumbi]

peace & blessings!
it's kind of unrealistic to speculate what trane would be playing today if he was around.
the pace at which he moved in music could have taken him anywhere in 40 years. and, on top of it, improvised music would likely be very different from what is today had he stayed on earth longer.
but his spirit, inspiration and musical legacy will live on as long as people play music as proved by the numberless tributes that pop out every minute (with anga's being one of the most interesting ever, imo)
he did definetly dropped heroin once and for all in 1957 but experimented with lsd later on in his life.