Ascension: John Coltrane And His Quest [Paperback]

Eric Nisenson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1995

It is the summer of 1976 and Salvo Ursari, a man of retirement age, is walking on a taut wire strung between the Twin Towers of New York's World Trade Center, almost fourteen hundred feet above the city. Far below him in the gaping crowd stands his wife, Anna, to whom he has made a solemn promise: This wire walk will end his career. In this daring moment, Steven Galloway opens his riveting novel about Salvo Ursari, whose life begins in 1919 amid a Transylvanian boyhood inhabited by gypsy folklore and inspired by the bravery of his persecuted people. Salvo's story moves irresistibly from a tragic fire that envelops his family, to street life in Budapest, where he learns the skills of a wire walker, to the carnivals of Europe and the competitive world of the American circus. Most fulfilled when living with paradox, Salvo feels safest while performing startling feats of balance on a wire high above the dangerous world; and most endangered if performing above a net. With compassion, warmth, and blazing originality, Ascension combines jaw-dropping storytelling, and fantastical symbolism with mesmerizing detail of Romany and circus culture, and an unforgettable walk with the amazing Salvo Ursari.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Saxophonist Coltrane was one of the most influential and widely imitated jazz musicians. Nisenson ( 'Round About Midnight: A Portrait of Miles Davis , Dial Pr., 1983) places his subject's often difficult music in the artistic and social context of the 1960s, arguing that Coltrane wanted to reach and inspire, not alienate. While praising Coltrane for not staying with any style for long, Nisenson admits that he grew so involved in his music that he left many listeners bewildered. He points to the recording Ascension as an "audacious failure." Nisenson reviews the literature of Coltrane criticisms and helps newcomers by describing representative recordings from Coltrane's early, middle, and late periods. This responsible contribution to the Coltrane literature is recommended for large and small collections.
- Paul Baker, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

This is not a formal biography of the great saxophonist John Coltrane but rather an articulation of the passions, ideas, and experiences that inspired his revolutionary music. Having said that, however, we must also say that Nisenson does, in fact, present us with a sensitive and vivid portrait of Coltrane as he progressed from a "journeyman bopper" addicted to alcohol and heroin to a profoundly spiritual "warrior" seeking knowledge of God through the making of music. Nisenson tracks not only Coltrane's career as an accomplished but not terribly original tenor saxophonist during the mid-1950s to his intensely fertile apprenticeships with Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis but also his success in kicking the drug habit, his mastery of the soprano saxophone, his fascination with chords and harmony that lead to his incomparable "sheets of sound," and his immersion in the trance-inducing musical traditions of Africa and India. Nisenson's striking descriptions of the music of Coltrane and insights into his obsessions and sense of mission add up to indisputable evidence of Coltrane's pivotal role in transforming America's artistic and social consciousness. Coltrane traveled an immense spiritual and aesthetic distance in the last decade of his short life, often leaving his listeners behind in his quest for music that "reflected the universe." Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Da Capo Press (August 22, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0306806444
• ISBN-13: 978-0306806445
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,655 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thoughtful approach, March 17, 2003

By 

Tyler Smith (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ascension: John Coltrane And His Quest (Paperback)

Too often the words written about the career of John Coltrane lapse into idolatry or overanalysis. Biographies by J.C. Thomas and Cuthbert Simpkins lack a sense of critical judgment, while Bill Cole's work is fine for the musician but difficult for the lay listener. Frank Kofsky's "Black Nationalism and the Revolution in Music," meanwhile, attempted to put Coltrane's music in a political framework he never intended.

Eric Nisenson's "Ascension," refreshingly, focuses on Coltrane's music, attempting to understand not only where it came from but also the extent of its influence on jazz since the saxophonist's death in 1967. Nisenson is clearly a fan of the music, but to his credit, his admiration does not cloud his critical judgment.

One important accomplishment of Nisenson's book is to establish a context for Coltrane's creativity and his late-life forays into free jazz. He revisits Coltrane's early life in North Carolina, where he grew up in relatively comfortable surroundings, exposed to the music of the church and of his father, a tailor and amateur musician. Nisenson also emphasizes Coltrane's early apprenticeships with Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, Cleanhead Vinson and his time in Philadelphia, a hothouse of jazz playing that produced many an important contemporary, including Lee Morgan, Benny Golson and Jimmy Heath.

In addition, Nisenson thoroughly explores Coltrane's important time with Miles Davis, during which he mastered not only his chordal approach but also the modal approach to music and improvisation that Miles took on with "Kind of Blue." And he thoroughly documents Trane's later interest in the Eastern, African and other world music, which strongly influenced many of his albums as a leader.

In fact, Nisenson's attention to the searching quality of Coltrane's mind and his music generates the key theme of the book: that the saxophonist's greatness was derived not only from his musical mastery but from his unceasing search for new modes of expression. It was this search, Nisenson argues, that ultimately led Coltrane to embrace the avant-garde experiments undertaken by younger musicians such as Archie Shepp, Albert Ayler and Pharaoh Sanders in the last few years of his life.

Nisenson does not downplay the courage required of Coltrane to push the limits of his music long after his fame had been established, and he could have played it safe, but neither does he shy away from being critical of some of the musician's later cacophonous efforts.

The sole criticism I have of the book is that it seems to reach the conclusion that since Coltrane, Miles and Ornette Coleman, there has been little in the way of true creativity on the jazz scene. A response would require another review, but suffice it to say that I disagree; that the current jazz scene may be more fragmented, and undoubtedly many musicians are playing it safe, but also that there are many young and older jazz musicians making very creative music on small labels.

That aside, this is a very worthwhile read for long-time listeners of Coltrane or for those coming to his music for the first time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ascension, June 22, 2009

By 

Sam Adams (Minnesota. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ascension: John Coltrane And His Quest (Paperback)

John Coltrane lived from 1926 to 1967.

The author warns that "although the most important facts of Coltrane's life are contained within, this is not a formal biography of John Coltrane. This book is an attempt to understand the ideas and passions behind Coltrane's music, music that even his detractors concede was unique in its intensity and its effect, both on listeners and fellow musicians." (p. ix) On the same page are listed three biographies available at the time (1993): J. C. Thomas' 1975 Chasin' The Trane, C. O. Simpkins' 1975 Coltrane: A Biography, and Bill Cole's 1976 John Coltrane: John Coltrane. "While none of these books is completely satisfactory, the Thomas book is the most thorough." (p. ix)

If I were limited to listening to only one musician for the rest of my life, I'd choose the complete works of John Coltrane. Having only that, the music I'd miss most would be string quartets, but I'd choose Coltrane first. This is the first book on him I've read. When I bought it, used, there was next to it a copy of Cole's book. Comparing the two, I chose this. The next day, at another used bookstore, I found a copy of Thomas' book and bought that. I have not seen the other books. I'm actually more than halfway through Thomas' book as I write this review, and I prefer this book to that one.

Since I have no significant basis for comparison, I can only remark that I felt no disappointment or dissatisfaction with the author's approach, except in the lack of an index and bibliography, and in his discussion of jazz after Coltrane's death. There are no pictures, either, which may be missed by some readers.

Incidentally, as far as I recall or can find, there is no mention of Eric Dolphy's death in 1964. This omission is unreasonable, especially since the author says of Dolphy: "Dolphy was the catalyst that had prodded Coltrane to advance the bold expressionism of his music, and to explore more fully what he called the "life side" of his music." (p. 127)

Chapter 13, "after the trane", the final chapter before the epilogue and a selected discography, is dismal. After discussing the directions chosen by those who had played under Coltrane, the author reviews the rise of fusion. What does Coltrane have to do with fusion? Is "Interstellar Space" pointing towards fusion? The author suggests fusion was in part a reaction to the extremes of the New Thing (free jazz), which was seen by many not only as a dead-end but an atrocity to begin with; and he claims that Jimmy Hendrix was in some manner Coltrane's true musical successor. "Basically, "Bitches Brew" is Miles's musical reaction to both the work of Hendrix and that of Coltrane's last few years." (p. 235-36) I would have liked to have read more in that chapter about the avant-garde in jazz after Coltrane, rather than how jazz tried to remain marketable and popular after the 1960s. The author had previously written a book on Miles Davis, so his inclination is to follow that lead rather than discussing, for example, Anthony Braxton (only briefly mentioned) or Peter Brotzmann (not mentioned at all) over in Germany, to name only two.

14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Often presumptious, at times informative., June 11, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Ascension: John Coltrane And His Quest (Paperback)

It is difficult, I believe, to write a biography about a man such as John Coltrane without annoying the reader. When listening to John Coltrane, one person responds to a slight turn of notes, a particular sound heard. Two people probably respond to different turns and different sounds from one another, yet the music is nonetheless moving. In regards to this book, I find the author's discussions on what John Coltrane must have been thinking to be particularly irritating. Who truly knows what somebody is thinking? How can you take music, a nonrepresentative form of art, and conclude that a concrete thought is represented or a specific notion is held in mind? I would argue that you can't. This occurs throughout this book and is unsettling.
Most interesting about this biography is the subject matter, if one knows the music. John Coltrane must be listened to again and again to be felt, especially for one who is unfamiliar with jazz. Then, one unexpected day, you might hear a phrase lasting 1 second in the middle of a ten minute solo which will change the way you listen to music. For the tribute and information, I rate this book above average. For the psychoanalysis and often harsh criticism of other artists, I would hold back praise.