Cymbals shudder, and the bassist plucks the opening notes of ‘A Love Supreme.’ The liturgy has begun just as it has every Sunday since 1971, and the entire congregation joins in the three-hour devotional jam session. As Coltrane once said: ‘Damn the rules; it’s the feeling that counts.’ Overseeing the celebration from mesmerizing icons on the wall is the musician venerated here as St John Will-I-Am Coltrane, shown with flames leaping from his saxophone.
