Mathias Heise & Danish Radio Big Band | A Love Supreme Revisited | May 22, 2026
World champion chromatic harmonica player Mathias Heise joins the Danish Radio Big Band for a bold reimagining of John Coltrane’s 1965 landmark album. Rather than presenting a tribute, Heise reconstructs the four-part suite from within, integrating key elements of Coltrane’s original improvisations into newly conceived big band arrangements.
‘A Love Supreme Revisited’ is set for release on May 22nd via April Records.
At the heart of the project is a unifying harmonic concept built around the double-harmonic minor scale, which shapes the sonic identity of the entire album. Coltrane’s iconic opening motif in Acknowledgement is expanded for full saxophone section, and the famous twelve-key cycle becomes a panoramic orchestral movement across the ensemble. In Resolution, Heise transcribes Coltrane’s tenor solo in full, distributing it between harmonica and saxophones while building new brass and ensemble frameworks around it.
Throughout the album, original improvised material is preserved, orchestrated and reframed rather than replaced. The Danish Radio Big Band’s soloists are given space to assert their own voices, particularly in Pursuance, which builds toward an escalating tenor exchange before resolving into a solo harmonica cadenza – a moment that foregrounds Heise’s continued expansion of the chromatic harmonica’s expressive range.
The suite concludes with Psalm, re-scored for full big band while retaining Coltrane’s melodic contour and phrasing, before flowing directly into Alabama, the 1963 ballad written in response to the Birmingham church bombing. The pairing provides a contemplative and cohesive close, linking spiritual intensity with historical gravity.
With A Love Supreme Revisited, Heise and the Danish Radio Big Band honour Coltrane’s architecture while asserting a distinct contemporary voice – expanding the harmonic palette, reinterpreting melodies and improvisations as new orchestrations, and placing the chromatic harmonica at the centre of one of jazz’s most revered works.
Line up
Nikolai Bøgelund | Conductor Mathias Heise | Main Soloist
John Coltrane | Composer
Mathias Heise | Arranger
Track Listing
A Love Supreme – Introduction
Part 1 – Acknowledgement
Interlude #1
Part 2 – Resolution
Interlude #2
Part 3 – Pursuance
Harmonica Cadenza
Part 4 – Psalm/Alabama
PR Quotes
JazzMania (BE)
“Mathias Heise and his accompanying Big Band offer the listener a most honorable reinterpretation, respecting the memory of the great American artist, and adding the harmonica, which brings a different color to the music than the saxophone“
Paris-move (FR)
“The playing of Mathias Heise is undeniably accomplished”
SKJazz (SK)
“This new version appeals to an audience that appreciates both classic jazz and modern orchestration! Great!”
MusikReviews (DE)
“MATHIAS HEISE & DANISH RADIO BIG BAND demonstrate courage by subjecting a monolith to a fresh re-examination. “ A Love Supreme Revisited ” is a highly original, ear-pleasing variation and – like all good interpretations – makes you want to listen to the original for the first time or again”
Esensja (PL)
“This isn’t a simple re-enactment of Trane’s suite. It’s a completely new, thoroughly rearranged version”
Caravan Jazz (ES)
“amen, above all, to the fact that Heise never acts as a Coltrane imitator (who could?), but rather expands his universe.”
Jazz’n’more (CH)
“the version presented here succeeds thanks to an approach that is respectful without being trapped in classical dependence on the original, allowing the arrangement to speak convincingly in its own voice“
All That… (DK)
“It is an incomparable experience and an incomparable album.””
Jazz in Family (IT)
“Heise isn’t trying to compete with Coltrane. That would be pointless. Instead, he’s trying to demonstrate that a masterpiece can be explored, reinterpreted, and recirculated”
Jazz–fun (DE)
“An extraordinary album of great artistic power – not only for Coltrane lovers, but for all who appreciate inquisitive and visionary jazz”
Lira (SE)
“Mathias Heise’s harmonica breathes new life into A love supreme through equal parts respect and desire for renovation”
Bluebird Reviews (UK)
“Touching, inspired, delicately visionary and superbly arranged and played, A Love Supreme Revisited is a great work of love and profound passion for one of the unanimously recognized pillars of Jazz coming from the heart and soul of a tremendously talented group of musicians like Mathias Heise and the Danish Radio Big Band.”
Jazz.in (JP)
“A remarkable achievement and a work that deserves to be called a masterpiece”
Valonkuvia (FI)
“The carefully crafted album is a clear sounding, atmospherically bright piece of music that you can listen to while enjoying the insightful details of the arrangements, the tasty solo performances and, of course, Coltrane’s classic melodies“
Cuttings
