Electric Ascension

Updated on Nov 29, 2024

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Released 2005 Release date 2005 Genre Free jazz		Length 64:00 Label Atavistic Records Producers Jon Raskin, Larry Ochs

Recorded February 8, 2003 for KFJC, Los Altos, CA Electric Ascension(2005) Totally Spinning(2006) Artists Rova Saxophone Quartet, Rova::Orkestrova Free jazz albums Ascension, Interstellar Space, Bingo, Spirits Rejoice, The Eighth

Electric Ascension is a live album by Rova::Orchestrova, the Rova Saxophone Quartet along with additional musicians and string players such as Nels Cline, Fred Frith and Ikue Mori, performing an interpretation of John Coltrane's Ascension which was recorded in California in 2003 and released on the Atavistic label in 2005.

Reception

The JazzTimes review by Chris Kelsey stated "The music's success owes largely to the structure conceived by Ochs. Leaving such a large group to their own devices can be an invitation to disaster. Ochs averts it by sketching a schematic that structures the improvisation, breaking the ensemble into various groupings and resulting in a variety of sonorities and textures that sensibly unfold". On All About Jazz Kurt Gottschalk noted "Much of this 2003 recording sounds little like Coltrane's original, and much of it is truly great" while Eyal Hareuveni said "Rova, with its inspired Orkestrova, engages Coltrane's uncompromising compositional attitude and boundaries, pushing with its own sense of informed and masterful improvisation. This marrying of great minds and souls is what makes Electric Ascension such a great triumph. This time Coltrane's music not only heats the nearby atmosphere but also chills out your mind".

The Penguin Guide to Jazz identified the album as part of their suggested "Core Collection" of essential jazz albums and awarded the compilation a "Crown" signifying a recording that the authors "feel a special admiration or affection for".