This album is from Coltrane's late period when he was delving more and more into free jazz. Recorded after the big group improvisation Ascension and before the duet Interstellar Space with Rashied Ali on drums. Rashied Ali who is on the left channel with Coltrane here, Elvin Jones, the drummer from the classic quartet is on the right one together with Pharoah Sanders tenor sax. McCoy Tyner on piano and Jimmy Garrison on bass are the other two quartet members who complete the band.

The Father and The Son and The Holy Ghost kicks off the journey into the promised land of freedom. Who wouldn't think of the triumvirate of free jazz here. The father and the son are there, Coltrane and Sanders. Only the third tenor saxophonist, Ayler is missing. Apparently there is a tape of a 1966 concert in NYC where all three of them play together in possession of the Coltrane family. The piece starts with a kind of lament by the saxes lead by Coltrane sounding like a sheep's baa. Then Coltrane plays an ascending melodic line. Old school. And he searches for the continuation of that line, stepping into the unknown, overblowing a little. The drummers provide a thick rhythm carpet. Ali just drums in a beatless continuum, Jones still has the beat but it goes in cycles. Sanders joins in later. A dynamic call and response thing with Coltrane is going on. With Sanders having the more nervous, more edgy replies. If Coltrane's sax sounds pure and clear, Sanders is squeaky and over the top. More like free jazz.

The track fuses seamlessly into Compassion, the other piece from side one of the lp. The mood calms down. McCoy Tyner plays the lead. Some impressionist sequences. Foreshadowing Keith Jarrett when he was gathering himself in his solo concerts. Coltrane plays a slow elegic line with long sustained notes. Jones drums predominate. They have a tribal appeal. A sombre African groove. Hypnotic and almost voodoo-like. Side one ends on a meditative note.

Side two with three continuously played pieces starts with Love. A bass solo could be taken as the declaration of love by the man. Coltrane gives the answer with a warm, ascending lyrical line. A lush and full sound. Going up towards the sky. Tenderness. Soothing but intense.

Next is Consequences. Probably my favourite. A duet between Sanders and Coltrane. Sanders plays the shorter staccato notes. Accelerating close to light-speed when Coltrane suddenly drops out. Sanders overblows, elicits the most freakish screams out of his horn. Is this a woman having a nervous breakdown after a quarrel with her man? Coltrane comes back and things calm down slowly. McCoy Tyner comes into the centre with arpeggiated cadences. Suddenly he is on his own. Alone. There is a magic in this stepping back of the other instruments. All the force which has been let loose is suddenly concentrating on the piano. This sounds even more like Keith Jarrett. Probably because of the solo.

It all ends with Serenity on a conciliatory note. Coltrane plays a grave, melancholic melody. You can be serene and sad at the same time in this world.

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