John Coltrane - 1965 [1992] "The Major Works of John Coltrane"

The Major Works of John Coltrane is a compilation album by jazz musician John Coltrane, released in 1992 by GRP Records. It features extended compositions, all recorded in 1965 with expanded ensembles, and originally released by Impulse! Records on Ascension, Om, Kulu Sé Mama, and Selflessness: Featuring My Favorite Things. Both editions of Ascension are included.

This two CD set brings together some very intense and transitional music recorded by John Coltrane in 1965. This was a fascinating period in his career, as his longtime quartet with McCoy Tyner on piano, Jimmy Garrison on bass and Elvin Jones on drums was in the process of dissolving, and his role as a mentor to the younger “New Thing" musicians led him to seek out new collaborators like Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders and Rashied Ali.

On the recordings collected here, the quartet is joined by a rotating cast of additional musicians which allow for a larger palette to be used in the ambitious music Coltrane was working toward. The two takes of Coltrane's monumental “Ascension" dominate this collection. As a big band free jazz performance it was unique in the jazz canon at the time, akin to Ornette Coleman's “Free Jazz" but separate in its ambition and execution. Spiritual concerns were paramount to the final period of Coltrane's career, and it is possible to see “Ascension" as his musical impressions of a man's journey to the afterlife. But much like William Blake's spiritual poetry, it is a harrowing journey.

This is a transitory, experimental work and should be viewed as such. Allowing the music to wash over you with the ebbs and flows of the soloists and groups is one of the most intense experiences in jazz, and broke new ground for the likes of Peter Brotzmann and the ROVA Saxophone Quartet (who have recorded two of their own interpretations of “Ascension") to continue the exploration. “Om" is one of the most daunting performances in Coltrane's music for listeners to comprehend.

Over the course of two crucial discs, The Major Works of John Coltrane compiles the saxophonist's most important extended free jazz pieces from 1965. This is the material that made Coltrane a giant of the avant-garde, completely casting off the limits of melody, harmony, and tonality that he'd been straining against.

All the performances feature Coltrane's classic quartet augmented by Pharoah Sanders and several others, depending on the session. Literally and figuratively, the biggest piece here is of course "Ascension," the album-length, 11-piece free improvisation that finally picked up the gauntlet thrown down by the release of Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz four years earlier. Present in both of its two takes, it's among the most frightening jazz performances ever committed to tape, pairing Coltrane's search for spiritual transcendence with a screeching ferocity (courtesy of five saxophones) that never lets up.

Ascension was far more abrasive and visceral than Free Jazz, benefiting from four years of development in jazz's avant-garde, which helped make each individual player's voice more suited to this kind of chaotic, textural music. Not all of Coltrane's free work was this consistently extreme, but it did come close in isolated moments.

The incantatory "Om" expands on Ascension by contrasting the same sort of passionate, banshee-scream ensembles with eerie, meditative passages, bookending the piece with poetic recitations. "Kulu Se Mama," based on a song by percussionist/vocalist Juno Lewis, further explores the ritualistic dimension of "Om" with subtle hints of danceability and Creole/Caribbean flavor. "Selflessness" is the most conventional of the pieces, starting out like a standard Coltrane Quartet piece before moving into the large-ensemble explorations. There's a lot to digest here, but as an encapsulation of Coltrane's freest and most challenging music, there's no better place to turn.

Track listing:

Disc 1:

    "Ascension - Edition I" — 38:37
    "Om" — 28:49

Disc 2:

    "Ascension - Edition II" — 40:31
    "Kulu Se Mama" — 18:57
    "Selflessness" — 15:09

Personnel:

Recorded June 28 and October 1965.

    John Coltrane — tenor saxophone
    Pharoah Sanders — tenor saxophone
    Archie Shepp — tenor saxophone (disc 1: track 1, disc 2: track 1)
    Marion Brown — alto saxophone (disc 1: track 1, disc 2: track 1)
    John Tchicai — alto saxophone (disc 1: track 1, disc 2: track 1)
    Freddie Hubbard — trumpet (disc 1: track 1, disc 2: track 1)
    Dewey Johnson — trumpet (disc 1: track 1, disc 2: track 1)
    Joe Brazil — flute (disc 1: track 2)
    Donald Garrett — clarinet[nb 1]/bass (disc 1: track 2, disc 2: tracks 2,3)
    McCoy Tyner — piano
    Jimmy Garrison — bass
    Art Davis — bass (disc 1: track 1, disc 2: track 1)
    Elvin Jones — drums
    Frank Butler — drums (disc 2: tracks 2,3)
    Juno Lewis — percussion/vocals (disc 2: tracks 2,3)

Notes:

The credits on the album jacket state that Garrett played bass clarinet on the recording. However, the authors of The John Coltrane Reference, who occasionally present updates to the book on their website (http://wildmusic-jazz.com/jcr_index.htm), provided an update dated 2008 which states that Dutch musician Cornelis Hazevoet sent the following information via an email to author Yasuhiro Fujioka: "Over the years, in liners, books and lists, Don Garrett has been attributed with playing bass clarinet. This is wrong. The man only played bass and clarinet (the small and straight horn, that is)... In 1975, Garrett played in my band and I've specifically asked him about it (because I already felt something was wrong with it). He most specifically and pertinently told me that he never played bass clarinet in his entire life, only the small, straight horn (which he played in my band too)... Perhaps, the error originated from the fact that Garrett was listed somewhere as playing 'bass, clarinet', which subsequently evolved into 'bass clarinet'. Whatever is the case, Garrett did not play bass clarinet on any Coltrane record nor anywhere else.