In a San Francisco church, a jazz album serves as sacred text and a painting shows a saxophonist with a golden halo. This episode explores how John Coltrane reached that status through his 1965 masterpiece A Love Supreme, examining his apprenticeship under Miles Davis, the classic quartet he built with McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones, and the modal framework that gave his players near-total improvisational freedom.

The conversation covers the spiritual blueprint behind the suite, from his quiet home life in Dix Hills to his interest in Ahmadiyya Islam and the cadence of African-American sermons, then walks through the December 9, 1964 session at Van Gelder's studio with producer Bob Thiele. It details the four movements, the four-note bass motif repeated 36 times, Coltrane's overdubbed chant, the wordless recitation of his poem  ...