{"id":2932,"date":"2018-09-21T15:32:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-21T15:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ripm.org\/cnc\/?p=2932"},"modified":"2018-09-21T15:32:02","modified_gmt":"2018-09-21T15:32:02","slug":"on-spirituality-in-john-coltranes-ascension-comments-by-contemporary-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/?p=2932","title":{"rendered":"On Spirituality in John Coltrane&#8217;s <i>Ascension<\/i>: &nbsp;<br>Comments by Contemporary Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">American jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane was one of the most influential artists in jazz history. Coltrane\u2019s music flowed from mainstream accessibility to the avant-garde, as heard in his more than fifty recordings as a leader, and as a sideman for, among others, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-3062 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ripm.org\/cnc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Coltrane-1.3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"486\" height=\"707\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Coltrane-1.3.jpg 486w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Coltrane-1.3-206x300.jpg 206w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Coltrane-1.3-158x230.jpg 158w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 486px) 100vw, 486px\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><em>Metronome,\u00a0<\/em>Vol. 78 No. 12 (December 1961): 34.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">Over the course of his career, Coltrane\u2019s music expressed a heightened spiritual dimension. Recorded in 1965 and released in 1966, the album <em>Ascension<\/em> represents a remarkable example of this spirituality, signaling a departure from more structured forms into an expanded, free jazz setting. The album is a continuous 40-minute uninterrupted performance with solo and ensemble\u00a0passages.\u00a0 <em>Ascension<\/em>&#8216;s\u00a0eleven-piece ensemble was anchored by members of Coltrane\u2019s \u201cClassic Quartet\u201d\u2014McCoy Tyner (piano), Jimmy Garrison (bass), and Elvin Jones (drums)\u2014alongside a roster of then mostly young, up-and-coming horn players, including Freddie Hubbard (trumpet), Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp (tenor saxophone).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">In order to better capture the difference in Coltrane&#8217;s styles, compare this example, <em>Blue Train<\/em>, released in 1958, with\u00a0<em>Ascension, <\/em>further below,\u00a0recorded about seven years later.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XpZHUVjQydI?rel=0&amp;start=1\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">Gripped by\u00a0<em>Ascension<\/em>&#8216;s\u00a0artistry and spirituality, three writers attempted, in their own way, to encapsulate in words what Coltrane and his colleagues captured with sound. Their writings appeared in the avant-garde jazz journal <em>Change, <\/em>a product of the Detroit Artists\u2019 Workshop.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">Listen to <em>Ascension <\/em>as you read selected portions of these reviews.<\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-81AEUqHPzU?rel=0&amp;start=1\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">Currently Professor at the College of Humanities and Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Ron Welburn was an active jazz critic (and poet) during the 1960s and 70s. He reviewed jazz recordings for\u00a0<em>JazzTimes<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Down Beat<\/em>, as well as founded his own jazz journal, <em>The Grackle: Improvised Music in Transition,<\/em>\u00a0published in Brooklyn, New York from 1976 to 1979.<em>\u00a0 <\/em>He also coordinated the Jazz Oral History Project at the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2935 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ripm.org\/cnc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-3-1024x536.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-3-1024x536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-3-650x340.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-3-300x157.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-3-440x230.jpg 440w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-3.jpg 1126w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\"><em>Change,\u00a0<\/em>Vol. 1 No. 2 (1966): 92.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">Dave Sinclair is perhaps best known as the brother of John Sinclair, leader of the 1960s counterculture movement in Michigan, and an organizer of radical social and political ventures in the areas of music, poetry, graphic design, and community welfare projects. During the 1960s and 1970s John Sinclair founded or was active in a variety of political and cultural groups including the Artists&#8217; Workshop in Detroit, which founded <em>Change, <\/em>and the White Panther Party. Dave Sinclair was also the manager of The UP, a proto-punk rock band founded in 1967 which, for a time, lived in John Sinclair\u2019s commune.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2936 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ripm.org\/cnc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"967\" height=\"299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-4.jpg 967w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-4-650x201.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-4-300x93.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-4-540x167.jpg 540w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 967px) 100vw, 967px\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">Ibid., 93.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">Jerry (J. B.) Figi was a Chicago-based writer, poet, and jazz critic. In an obituary published in 1999, John Litweiler wrote, \u201cHe was not a prolific writer, but he certainly was an influential one. His work first began appearing in small magazines in the early 1960s. He also wrote for John and Leni Sinclair&#8217;s short-lived <em>Change<\/em>, which was devoted to the new jazz of the mid-&#8217;60s.\u201d Figi would later serve as one of the directors for the Jazz Institute of Chicago, working on, amongst other things, the Chicago Jazz Festival.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2937 size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ripm.org\/cnc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-5-1024x240.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-5-1024x240.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-5-650x152.jpg 650w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-5-300x70.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-5-540x127.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/trane-5.jpg 1147w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 8pt;\">Ibid., 94.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 2em;\">John Coltrane was born on 23 September 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina. He died on 17 July 1967 in Huntington, New York.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff; font-size: 18pt;\">Happy Birthday, Mr. Coltrane, and thank you!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">RIPM search tip<\/span><\/u><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">: Be on the lookout for more posts dealing with jazz, with subjects drawn from the forthcoming <em><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif';\">RIPM Jazz Periodicals\u00a0<\/span><\/em>collection; stay tuned!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: blue;\">Click<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: red;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ripm.org\/?page=cncsubscribe\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: red;\">here<\/span><\/a><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: red;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: blue;\">to\u00a0subscribe to RIPM\u2019s\u00a0<i>Curios, News, and Chronicles!\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">When is our next posting?\u00a0To find out, follow us on\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RIPMCenter\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RIPMCenter\/\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">!<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">***<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">RIPM<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: navy;\">\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">is an international non-profit organization preserving and providing\u00a0access to\u00a0music periodicals published in more than twenty countries between approximately 1760 and 1966, from Bach to Bernstein. Functioning\u00a0under the auspices of the International Musicological Society, and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres,\u00a0RIPM\u00a0produces four electronic publications: Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals, Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals with Full Text, European and North American Music Periodicals (Preservation Series), and\u00a0RIPM\u00a0Jazz Periodicals (Preservation Series, forthcoming).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" align=\"center\"><a href=\"http:\/\/cts.vresp.com\/c\/?RIPMConsortiumLtd.\/606886bac9\/3fdca83fa7\/d715bbc74f\"><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">WWW.<\/span><strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;\">RIPM<\/span><\/strong><span style=\"font-family: 'Forum','serif'; color: black;\">.ORG<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>American jazz saxophonist and composer John Coltrane was one of the most influential artists in jazz history. Coltrane\u2019s music flowed from mainstream accessibility to the avant-garde, as heard in his more than fifty recordings as a leader, and as a sideman for, among others, Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. Metronome,\u00a0Vol. 78 No. 12 (December 1961): [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curioschronicles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2932"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3067,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2932\/revisions\/3067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnc.ripm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}