This was a difficult choice but considering the contenders in my discotheque it is the only possible one, I think. The two other records I was contemplating about, Rubber Soul and Highway 61 Revisited are just too ubiquitous to be my personal faves. Like a Rolling Stone may be the rock song with the highest nostalgy value and George Harrison's sitar on Norwegian Wood opened a new world for us Westerners but the two albums they are on are by no means flawless. Lots of average songs are packed in between the jewels. I like those records but I don't love them. They lack the spark of Ascension, the ecstasy.

Ascension is a totally different thing than A Love Supreme. Which as I said before never did anything for me. I really dislike the motif which to me is dull and annoying. What is going on around it may be quite exciting but the repetition of the theme every two or three minutes kills that record for me. Ascension does only have a small motif which is mainly played in the opening and the concluding ensemble. It is a collective improvisation on a loose composition by Coltrane.

It was certainly inspired by Ornette Coleman's seminal Free Jazz from 1961 which is responsibe for the genre name of improvised jazz. Ascension to me is largely superior as Free Jazz lacks its intensity and to my ears almost sounds conventional in comparison. It isn't as dense as my 1965 pick which may also be due to the smaller band. On Ascension we have 5 saxophones, two trumpets, two basses plus piano and drums.

Ascension surely is a challenging listen but it is by no means cacophony. There even is a structure in the 40 minutes piece. In between the ensembles almost everyone has got a solo and the others provide a background "carpet of sound" (Klangteppich). I get the impression that the collective lifts up the soloist who slowly emerges from the crowd, stands in the centre for two to three minutes and then returns back into the womb of the band after. Especially the overblown sax solos are outbursts of pure energy. Altogether a perfect equilibrium of the community and the individual. In this sense Ascension does not only stand for a spiritual experience but also for a shared experience.

There are two versions of this piece. Coltrane preferred edition II because of more variety concerning the successive solos. That's the one I listened to most. On the 2000 reissue CD there are both versions, first #2, then #1. The first take has the advantage that in a way it is more complete as Elvin Jones on drums also has a solo. On both editions the basses only duet.

Personnel:

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

Links:

• Marcello's analysis
• Listen to two realaudio excerpts totalling about 17 minutes over at Aquarius Records.

Here is the overview of the series 40 years, 40 albums of which part XXXIX was this post.