John Coltrane 's Ascension piece performed and recorded by John Coltrane Quartet in concert. Paris Salle Pleyel & Half Note NYC 1965 concerts.

In 1965, John COLTRANE recorded a large scale composition under the title ASCENSION with trumpet players Freddie Hubbard & Dewey Johnson, tenor saxophonists Pharoah Sanders & Archie Shepp, alto saxophonists Marion Brown & John Tchicaï and his three J.C. Quartet members pianist Mc Coy Tyner, bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones. Two different takes were recorded and both were issued successively, the second take was issued on the very first pressing (Edition I) and the, Coltrane changed his mind. Impulse issued quickly a second pressing - edition of the first take as "Edition II". Both were reissued on the same CD and in the CD-Box John Coltrane Masterworks. This Ascension piece wasn't recorded in a studio by the J.C. Quartet. But ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-81AEUqHPzU

But there are some live concert versions of this "Ascension" composition recorded by the John Coltrane Quartet at the Half Note in N.Y.C. From these concerts were culled the tracks of "One Down One Up" Live at The Half Note issued by Impulse on a double CD.
The John Coltrane recorded at least three different versions issued on various "bootlegs", unofficial vinyles during the seventies and CD's afterwards.

The first "Ascension" occurrence went on two Japanese BYG label LP's "John Coltrane Live in Paris" which were hard to find in Europe. But the British Affinity label issued a John Coltrane double LP "Live in Paris" on which two tracks on both sides of on vynile displayed a tune titled "Blue Valse". This double LP was filled by versions of Naima & Impressions recorded at Antibes Jazz Festival on 27th July 1965. Also the festival audience were treated by a fantastic Love Supreme performance which went recorded by the O.R.T.F. and issued on French label Esoldun (a branch of the FNAC, an important book, music and hi-fi large chain store very supportive of jazz musics) with the help of the INA, a French government institution, owner of the rights. Later on it was included in to a double Impulse CD of Love Supreme with both studio and the Antibes live versions. The remaining of this Live in Paris 2LP are the tracks recorded in Paris Salle Pleyel on the 28th of July, among them, this lengthy Blue Valse, Afro Blue and Impressions. The choice of these three compositions and subsequent improvisations was absolutely convincing all three carrying such force, energy, inner modal connections and complex improvising. I have no idea about the order of performances but this Blue Valse became a vehicle of hard hitting, complex and furious "speaking in tongues" playing in empathy with Afro-Blue and Impressions which are with Mr PC, the "chevaux de bataille" of the whole Coltrane music. Think about the North Indian Raga virtuosi who can make tremendous variations ad infinitum with modes, patterns and rythms though the same materialof one Raga. This is just mindblogging.

here BLUE VALSE a/k/a Ascension during 14:23 minutes recorded seemingly in Paris Salle Pleyel 28 July 1965. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsHggpYA3zo

Curiously, if the theme of this Blue Valse has the same melodic pattern than the one of Ascension, it was not noted in the liner notes. Following an information read on a youtube "notes", it seems that there was a version of the Blue Valse recorded at Antibes or in the mind of these notes's author, he has perhaps made the confusion as Blue Valse is featured on albums with both recordings from the Antibes Festival and Salle Pleyel on both dates 27th and 28th July 1965.


Nevertheless, there were some rare bootlegs ("pirate" in French) LP's of various labels, sometimes "dubious", carrying tracks from the 1965 Half Note N.Y.C broadcasts concerts. The Half Note was home for Warne Marsh around that time and of course for the John Coltrane Quartet. Among the tunes recorded there and issued on these bootleg vinyle albums, there are at least two versions that are printed on two "serious" labels, I mean with a better sound than the average bootleg. I haven't any of these on CD's but only vinyle. Also if the (technical) origin of the CD or vinyles seem dubious to me, I don't buy it.

So, I have never bought or ordered through mail ordering business items who could be of (very)low quality while I was diving in Brussels' (and London's) second hand record shops (during decades), hoping to find some rare and "audible" (free-)jazz and improvised music albums. Being an absolute fan of Evan Parker from the mid-seventies, and then, of Paul Dunmall, good albums of "freer" John Coltrane LP's and CD's were obviously always in my mind. So in the eighties, I discovered a British edition of Live Concerts of Coltrane on the Blue Parrot label with the title " Brazilia" , a tune which was issued on the official Impulse double LP "The Other Village Vanguard Tapes" in 1977, when I was buying also Incus, FMP, Ogun and Ictus brand new vinyles when they popped into the racks of Caroline Music, Rue de l'Athénée in Ixelles (also Milford Graves Andrew Cyrille, Braxton, Lacy, Ayler and Taylor albums. So this Brazilia tune made my brain tilt, although there was no mention about the Half Note. There is also a lengthy version of My Favourite Things of which I had at that time enough versions on discs. The liner notes of the Blue Parrot AR 705 LP mentions a second Coltrane Quartet LP on Blue Parrot, AR 700 with the title "Creation". Decades later, but for me like in an instant, I witnessed the existence of one of its copy at Open Door, Freudenstadt, a very honest and serious mailing order in Germany, run by a music devotee, Peter Schlegel. This LP copy was Mint and at a fair price. Peter is the gentleman by excellence, he kept his business from Dieter Hahne himself ! So when I heard the Creation tune on side B, I jumped, the top of my head banging on the ceiling. This is ASCENSION for QUARTET ... oolyakoo! So, I was told that these tracks were mainly recorded in 1965 at the Half Note, but for sure it is evidently 1965 Coltrane, no doubt !!

Afterwards , more recently a Brussels famous second hand disc shop displayed two John Coltrane LP's on the Audiofidelity - Chiaroscuro Records, a company for which I made a favourable judgement considering their Earl Hines, Borah Bergman (first solo recordings) and even Frank Wright's. So, I read "recorded at the Half Note" (of course I had already the double CD At the Half Note with its huge rendition on One Down One Up). The LP's bearing the titles "Reflections Volume One" and "Reflections Volume Two". The first Volume includes "Untitled Original", Impressions and a lengthy Chim Chim Cherie. About this "Untitled Original" the author of the liner notes referred its beginning six notes motif to the Coltrane tune "Big Nick" , describing the music as "whimsical" and "the piece's simple motive provides a launching pad for cascades and fragmented phrases blurted out ferociously". This motive is the full Ascension tune strectched to its limit during around 7 - 8 minutes. Coltrane's music is working on the time (lengthy) extension of improvising.... and its intensity can match any extended improvisation during shorter durations' recordings as well like in the Sun-Ship LP or First Meditations LP masterworks.

Here at the 41 minutes mark : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb8Ouz24iY0 .
The youtube channel mentions John Coltrane - Creation: The Lost Half Note Tapes (1965/2023) [Full Album]. Wow!

Why do I write all of this ? John Coltrane had played and recorded a music without end, trying everything possible in the length of a decade and he is perhaps one of the very very few rare jazz player and improviser who one and i can't stop listening to as his music is journeying in so many contours, detours, logics, ways, spaces and fantasy with such a huge beautiful lyrical , whimsical, furious and so deep... tones and tones. I find that I have made a similar experience listening to Evan Parker and Paul Dunmall.
I will revisit all the "untitled original" of Coltrane included in my LP collection in order to find out this tune ... Promis