John Coltrane (USA) - Ascension (1965)


As a listening mind, you'd think God was dead and Coltrane is - at best - also dead thus ascending in a flurry of failed resurrections, maugre all those silent angelic balls of light in badly rendered Hollywood shitstorms. You'd think that he finally found his cartridges empty in some muddy pit following the stench of a drunkard - God or not, by then it was all the same - so I chose to follow his (foot/blue)prints in a way deemed societally wrong. And I have found an unchristian god with no capitals teeming with emptiness in everything which is why I'm a sidewinding idiot all the time. I'd have eaten static right off the screen had I heard comprehensive music, some familiar love song, cheap and loveless, but you can't hear shit in the middle of the woods. And later, you can't see shit. He found that he was biologically predetermined not to hear or see. Not destined, predetermined. He was not destined to do anything, so he was destined to do everything in contra-predetermined cathartic postdetermination for a non-annihilationist destiny where the day was still beautiful as described by Andrew Hill, who had no doubt seen an ascension or ascended himself. What he's trying to say is: realize what you know before it's too late.

Tracklist:
1. Ascension (Edition II) 40:58
2. Ascension (Edition I) 38:30
Total playing time 1:19:28

Personnel:
John Coltrane - tenor saxophone
Pharoah Sanders - tenor saxophone
Archie Shepp - tenor saxophone
Freddie Hubbard - trumpet
Dewey Johnson - trumpet
Marion Brown - alto saxophone
John Tchicai - alto saxophone
McCoy Tyner - piano
Art Davis - upright bass
Jimmy Garrison - upright bass
Elvin Jones - drums

I'm as witty as an asscension. (link none)

Most people went ahead and compared it to Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz, but if we all followed each other then we'd just end up running in circles. Here's a map - directions on how to ascend - that someone awesome put on wikipedia:

Edition II
1. (Opening Ensemble)
2. Coltrane solo (3:10-5:48)
3. (Ensemble)
4. Johnson solo (7:45-9:30)
5. (Ensemble)
6. Sanders solo (11:55-14:25)
7. (Ensemble)
8. Hubbard solo (15:40-17:40)
9. (Ensemble)
10. Tchicai solo (18:50-20:00)
11. (Ensemble)
12. Shepp solo (21:10-24:10)
13. (Ensemble)
14. Brown solo (25:10-27:16)
15. (Ensemble)
16. Tyner solo (29:55-33:26)
17. Davis, Garrison duet (33:26-35:50)
18. (Concluding Ensemble)

Edition I
1. (opening ensemble)
2. Coltrane solo
3. Johnson solo
4. Sanders solo
5. Hubbard solo
6. Shepp solo
7. Tchicai solo
8. Brown solo
9. Tyner solo
10. Davis, Garrison duet
11. Jones solo
12. (concluding ensemble)

endtrane
>loop?

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4 Comments

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