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John Coltrane's Ascension (2006)

by Michael Eaton Large Large Ensemble

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about

While living in Bloomington, at the urging of saxophonist Marty Belcher, I formed a free improvised large ensemble. At the time, I had no particular experience or aspirations with that instrumentation, so I am grateful to both Marty for his foresight and to David Miller for helping set me down a course which I am currently still exploring. The ensemble performed on two occasions, and this was the first.

The Michael Eaton Large Large Ensemble debuted at the B.I.A.S. Fest (Bloomington Improvising Artists Series) held at Landlocked Records on September 22, 2006. Drummer Tatsuya Nakatani was the headline artist for evening. Since the festival occurred a day before what would have been John Coltrane's 80th birthday, it was decided that the group would perform a version of Coltrane's "Ascension". I set about trying to transcribe and analyze what was happening in Ascension.

The composition's original structure was simple: intro>improv>outro. The main body of the piece alternates between group improvisation and solo improvisations (except at the very end, where there is no break between McCoy Tyner's solo, the bass solos, and Elvin Jones's solo).

The piece starts with three main motives in succession, the principal of which is a pentatonic cell (Bb Db Bb Db Eb) that resembles (and signifies?) material from two previous Coltrane tunes, Blue Trane and A Love Supreme. The horns stagger these motives and play them in a call-like fashion, producing an antiphonal effect. The third motive is played by Coltrane and several soloists in different keys, but it seems ancillary. After these three motives are stated, the band improvises collectively within a Bb-7 (Bb dorian) tonal center. This then moves through four main modes: Bb dorian, D phrygian, F locrian, and A diminished whole tone.

For the Large/Large Ensemble's version of Ascension, I conceived of a hybrid electroacoustic version with cued tonal centers behind different soloists. In performance I conducted these to give some variability and unpredictability to the piece (supposedly Coltrane himself had held up cue cards at the session).

Another difference between the original and ours was that we had no bass player, leaving more space and potential harmonic ambiguity for the horns to take advantage of. (I will give special mention to the presence of the late saxophonist Vicki Alexander, who had moved to Bloomington from Detroit, after a lifetime of experience on the road and in Detroit playing with jazz and Motown artists. Without rehearsing with us, she sat in at the gig and made music as if she had been in the band from the start.)

Since the original Ascension was no doubt experimental and radical for its time (and moreover Coltrane himself apparently was not sure what would happen), I hope this codified, latter day rendering has an energy of its own to offer, even with some of the edges sanded down.

credits

released September 22, 2006
Marty Belcher-soprano sax, tenor sax, pot of tools
Michael Eaton-alto sax, conducting
Peter Sparacino-tenor sax
Vicki Alexander-tenor sax
Chris Rall-tenor sax, laptop, Yamaha wind controller
Morgan Price-baritone sax, effects
David Miller-trumpet, effects
Malik McCluskey-piano
Chad Kethcart-drums

Soloist order: Sparacino, Miller, Rall, Belcher, Eaton, Alexander, Price, Rall, Miller, McCluskey, Kethcart

Composed by John Coltrane; "arranged" by Michael Eaton.

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Michael Eaton New York, New York

Michael Eaton (b. 1981) is a Brooklyn-based saxophonst, composer, and educator. As a saxophonist and improvising artist. He embaces a progressive and holistic vision of jazz, cognizant of its rich historical origins and development, but evoking a personal outlook with an eye towards future possibilities. This Bandcamp account is mostly for archival purposes and to showcase live gig recordings. ... more

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