Cosmo-Orgazmic Ascension

No.123, aired June 1, 2011.

In 1998, British Music critic Ben Watson wrote that “in the masterpieces of modern music – Varese’s Arcana, Boulez’s Marteau sans Maitre, Zappa’s Yo’ Mama, Coltrane’s Ascension, Xenakis’s Kraanerg, Hutcherson’s Components, Ascension’s Broadcast – there is an intimation of impersonal event, the scary objectivity of quasars unfolding in outer space. It corresponds to the moment of orgasm.”

Over the summer and fall of 2011, Naval Aviation In Audio (Wednesday 9-10 pm) will play each of the works in Watson’s cosmo-orgasmic musical canon, beginning with this episode which featured Edition II (the earlier of two takes) of John Coltrane’s Ascension, a 40+ minute, 11-piece stellar excursion into the outer limits of freedom, discipline & risk that still divides audiences. Ricard Giner wrote “Is this extraordinary document an indigestible cacophony of anarchy in brass and bass, or the artistic culmination of a man's desire to explore the outer reaches of tonality and the inner limits of freedom? Is Ascension a transcendental event in jazz history or an anomalous experiment that perseveres in its periphery?”

Some of the spicier passages from Watson’s book were read during the quieter moments of Ascension.

Part 1

1. Air Traffic Control – Tristan Psionic
2. Brain Scan – Voivod
3. Naval Aviation In Art? – Frank Zappa
4. Ascension, Edition II – John Coltrane

Part 2

1. Ascension, Edition II – John Coltrane (continued) -– select pages from Art Class & Cleavage – Ben Watson
2. Exit Plexit – Simply Saucer
3. Sailing On – Bad Brains