Thursday Night Jazz: A Love Supreme

In celebration of Valentine’s Day and the legendary album’s 60th anniversary, renowned alto saxophonist Yoko Suzuki and her accompanying quartet members perform a full rendition of the John Coltrane masterpiece, A Love Supreme.

Recorded in a single session in 1964 and not only lasting, but growing in impact in the six decades since its release, A Love Supreme is a defining album, given new life in this program by a sensational quartet of musicians. It is a work as immortal as its subject matter and one that should be experienced in much the same way: by any human being with a heart.

John Coltrane departed this mortal plane more than fifty years ago; today his spirit remains among us, more alive than ever. His legend is stone solid: planted firmly in our culture. His saxophone sound—brooding, searching, dark—is still one of the most recognizable in modern jazz. His influence stretches over styles and genres and transcends cultural boundaries. To Coltrane, a musician was a message-giver. Making music was an endeavor tied to a larger, greater good. In 1966, less than a year before his death, he stated, “I know that there are bad forces, forces that bring suffering to others and misery to the world. I want to be the opposite force. I want to be the force which is truly for good.” More at www.johncoltrane.com. 

About the Artist:

Yoko Suzuki is an alto saxophonist working in Pittsburgh and New York City. She started to take classical piano lessons at the age of six and continued on until graduating from high school. Throughout middle school and high school, she also played the trumpet in school brass bands. Then she finally switched to the alto saxophone upon joining a jazz ensemble at Osaka University in Japan, teaching herself jazz theory, improvisation and repertoire. After working as a musician in Osaka, Japan and New York City, she moved to Pittsburgh in 2006. She received an MA in musicology at Rutgers University in 2005 and Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and women’s studies at the University of Pittsburgh in 2011. She has taught a variety of courses including “History of Jazz,” “Introduction to Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies,” “Introduction to Feminist Theory,” and “Gender and Sexuality in Black Popular Music” at the University of Pittsburgh.

About Your Visit: 

The in-house restaurant Cucina Alfabeto is open for dinner from 5-10pm. Please visit Open Table or call 412-435-1111 to make a reservation.