Ascension
Few works remain genuinely controversial 35 years after  their inception, butAscensioncan generate as mixed a response  today as it did when it was released. In May 1965, Coltrane assembled  10 other musicians for one of his most ambitious recordings, a 40- minute piece that was a landmark in the free-jazz movement and a key  moment in Coltrane's sponsorship of the younger members of the New York  avant-garde. Along with his regular rhythm section--McCoy Tyner,Jimmy Garrison,  andElvin  Jones--the band includes trumpeters Dewey Johnson andFreddie Hubbard,  tenor saxophonistsArchie SheppandPharoah Sanders, altoistsMarion BrownandJohn Tchicai, and  Art Davis playing bowed bass. The improvised ensembles shout and cry  with galvanizing power, their tension testifying to Coltrane's  influence and the saxophone's dominance in the style. It's both  brilliant and flawed work, however, in ways that go to the heart of  Coltrane's musical thought. It's rooted in modal music, with a brief  pentatonic figure (a variation on the opening motif ofA Love Supreme) as  its basis. While it's broken up by the intense ensembles, the string of  solos seems too close to aJazz at the  Philharmonicapproach to free jazz. The horns stretch toward  energy music, while the rhythm section, particularly Tyner, seems  rooted in modality. As a result, the soloists often come off the  soaring blowouts to find themselves with little more support than a  reiterated chord, and they sometimes seem to merely run out of steam.  It's still startling music, though, and necessary listening, whether  for the sheer power of the ensembles, the sustained creativity of  Coltrane and Sanders, the stylistic contrasts in the horn players, or  the acerbic understatement of Tchicai, so effective in the midst of the  maelstrom. Coltrane couldn't decide on which of the two versions he  preferred, and Edition II was covertly substituted for  Edition I during the run of the original LP. This CD manages to  include both.--Stuart Broomer