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Amazon.com essential recordingThe majority of this two-CD collection is occupied by two versions of "Ascension," John Coltrane's rambunctious riposte to Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz." Other critical works from Coltrane's combustive later groups comprise the remainder of the set, including the spirited chaos of "Om," the poignantly expora
Amazon.com essential recording
The majority of this two-CD collection is occupied by two versions of "Ascension," John Coltrane's rambunctious riposte to Ornette Coleman's "Free Jazz." Other critical works from Coltrane's combustive later groups comprise the remainder of the set, including the spirited chaos of "Om," the poignantly exporatory "Selflessness," and the African-tinged "Kulu Se Mama." Each piece here points to a different, often parallel, direction in music for Coltrane, who by the mid-1960s was widely recognized as one of the greatest younger composers and performers in jazz. "Ascension" threw together sparse, repetitive melody statement and then a wholesale departure into free improvisation. "Om" drew chanting, hoarse bellowing on multiple saxophones, and breathless time signatures into a wicked storm. And the other tracks more delicately explored the transition from the then-famous John Coltrane Quartet-with pianist McCoy Tyner, drummer Elvin Jones, and bassist Jimmy Garrison-to the quickly infamous, but no less artful and innovative, bands which Coltrane enlisted to blaze free jazz trails aplenty before his death in 1967. Andrew Bartlett
John Coltrane's twin bookends of spiritual outreach and fulfillment (A Love Supreme from December of 1964, and Meditations from November of 1965) represent the final incandescent emotional peak of his classic quartet, and by the end of '65, drummer Elvin Jones and pianist McCoy Tyner would leave the band, to be replaced by Rashied Ali, Alice Coltrane, and the young reed firebrand Pharoah Sanders, as the tenor saxophone giant ventured ever further into the uncharted realms of universal chant and freeform improvisation. In between were a slew of recordings that stretched the boundaries of form and content as far as the saxophonist's tenuous connections to the jazz tradition were concerned, but which rank among the most visceral, emotionally intense recordings since humans first walked erect--each an event unto itself. Herein are the collective polyphonic pandemonium of Ascension (Trane's response to Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz and Albert Ayler's New York Eye and Ear Control), the psychedelic/mystical turmoil of Om, and the Afrocentric constructs of Kulu Su Mama. Frenetic in execution, ritualistic in its collective focus, this music ranges from prayer-like declamations, to thermonuclear collective meltdowns that are not recommended for the faint of heart. --Chip Stern
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Track listing1. Sea glass
2. Syzygy
3. Choices
4. Nothing personal
5. The cost of living
6. Original Rays
7. My one and only love
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Review
Great if you like free improvisation, but certainly not the sort of thing one puts on often.
Rating : 10/10
Excellent debut
Rating : 8/10