Rova: Orkestra - Electric Ascension
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Artist: Rova: OrkestraEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2009-03-31
Music Label: ATAVISTIC
Soundtracks:
- Ascension 2003 - Rova Orkestrova
Music reviews of Electric Ascension
Music Review: A REVISITING OF A CLASSIC THAT WORKS, WITH BELLS ON!
Rating: 5 Stars
John Coltrane's Ascension is one of the great albums of modern, indeed of any, jazz. (I rated it second in my list of the five best jazz albums of all time, surpassed only by Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven records.) It isn't an easy album to listen to, and it was especially hard to get a handle on when it first appeared in 1965. It was so different from any other album of the time, even Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz. Now we can listen to two versions of that classic session and we have some idea how creative a session it was. Ascension, Free Jazz, and the early Albert Ayler recordings, especially Spiritual Unity, set the standards and defined the direction free jazz would move. They still sound fresh today, forty plus years later.
ROVA has always been an adventurous group. They have recorded not just as a saxophone quartet but a small orchestra, which they call the Orkestrova. This is ROVA's second version of Ascension. In 1995, on the thirtieth anniversary of the original Ascension session, ROVA released its version of the piece using five saxes and two trumpets, plus rhythm. Larry Ochs writes that until that performance, he'd admired the performance of Ascension by Coltrane's group of premier free jazz players but not realized the elegance of the composition. "Somewhere in the middle of the performance, as I was standing onstage in a state of reverie listening to one of the horn players soloing with the rhythm section, I looked up at the sky and thanked my lucky stars for the experience that I was then taking part in. I realized that this composition, so unassuming on paper, was in fact a master form." (Italics mine.] At the end of the set, the house exploded into applause and the fifth saxophone player, Glenn Spearman, came up to Ochs and said, "Every year, man!! This should be played annually around Christmas like Beethoven's Fifth!"
ROVA didn't get to perform it every year -logistics and finances made that impossible--but as the group neared its twenty-fifth year together, it made plans for two evenings of concerts with the Orkestrova, one night a Steve Lacy suite and the second, Ascension. But this time, they did it electric, radically changing the instrumentation and the arrangement of the piece. The result is stunning.
It's forty-four years since Coltrane and his colleagues performed this piece. It no longer sounds so forbidding ---alien. It's still a killer to play, though, requiring fearless but selfless players who perform equally well in ensemble and alone (not all young jazz musicians play as well in ensemble as they do alone any more) at incredibly high energy for sixty-nine minutes without a break.
This version makes it. There are so many moments of excellence in this live performance that it's difficult to point to one or two. It's a seamless performance. Everything fits -in context. Fierce ensemble and solo sections segue to sections that are reflective sections low volume, or rather, low intensity -though there is always a percussive beat driving the piece. Near the end the two violinists play against each other, with only the drummer behind them -beautiful! beautiful! The electronics brings a great deal to the music. I'm especially taken by Otomo's turntable scratching, which merges with electronics, drum machines and Don Robinson's live drumming to create a volcano of sound at times.
Electric Ascension is still a difficult piece to listen to if you're not acclimated to free jazz. It's never just background music: it asks too much of the listener. It's a great listen while you're driving alone though and s no one's there to distract your attention from the brilliant, beautiful music you're listening to.
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Description of Electric Ascension
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