the day of ascension

June 28, 1965.

A day to remember. Also, a day in which there would be no looking back.

Just past the midway point in 1965, John Coltrane was living up to his billing as one of jazz's premier musicians. But a musician of Trane's stature can't help but ruffle feathers now & then to make his voice heard. So on the week prior to the 4th of July, the man, with 10 other musicians in tow, convened at Rudy Van Gelder's New Jersey recording studio to create one of his more ambitious, more challenging, & more controversial efforts to date, Ascension.

You heard right: With this recording, he would cause a great deal of genuine controversy, some of which was justifiable, some of which was completely far-fetched. Some folks dismissed it as outright cacophony, inaccessible noise; others thought it was too "out there," too incoherent, too chaotic for the uninitiated listener to stomach. But others sang praises about Ascension: they truly felt that Coltrane reached new heights, a Mount Everest of sorts, which remain unreachable to this very day.

How could I describe Ascension? Music full of sheer power. An intense musical maelstrom. Purely controversial music which isn't for the faint of heart. Furious, aggressive music which requires multiple listens to wholeheartedly appreciate. Controlled mayhem. At any rate, this recording is beautiful music, part of an ongoing spiritual journey which Trane was on up to his passing.

A lot of folks might have thought he would have been better off recording this session with his usual rhythm section of Tyner/Garrison/Jones. But no. Trane chose to add mostly raw, untried talent into the musical equation as well. (One exception being Freddie Hubbard, who also performed on the album which defined free jazz altogether, Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz.) Which is a good thing, given the galvanizing power & force of this whole session; think of Ascension as a 40-minute jam gone wild!!

In the middle of 1965, John Coltrane made quite a name for himself, though the accolades Ascension received weren't exactly in superlatives. From that day forward, he knew that there could be no turning back, only the drive to press forward with his next musical statements. And though a few more albums were made with the Classic Quartet (Sun Ship & First Meditations being the last documents as an actual Quartet), the accelerated pace at which the music was changing proved to be more than his longtime bandmates could stand.

As the meridian line between A Love Supreme & Meditations (recorded in November 1965), Ascension revealed to us Trane's unswerving singleness of purpose, taking his music into previously unchartered territory. It is also his mission statement, as if he were saying, "Love me or hate me, I am taking my music places I want it to go so there." And did he ever: this was the perfect starting point for him to begin his much later, more freer musical explorations/excursions.