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Impulse! · 1966

Ascension

John Coltrane

Recorded: June 28, 1965   Original cat#: A-95 / AS-95
John Coltrane — Ascension album cover

Ascension was recorded at Rudy Van Gelder's Englewood Cliffs studio, produced by Bob Thiele, with Coltrane leading a dramatically expanded eleven-piece ensemble far beyond his usual quartet. Released February 1966, the album marks the clearest dividing line in Coltrane's catalog – everything before it is comparatively conventional in structure, and everything after commits fully to the looser, collectively improvised language of free jazz.

Best early pressing for audiophiles: an original Impulse A-95/AS-95, either Edition I or Edition II depending on which take you're after – see above on how to tell them apart.

Best modern pressing for audiophiles: the 2026 Verve Vault Series 2LP edition – the first release ever to present both complete takes together on vinyl, mastered by Ryan K. Smith from the original stereo analogue tapes.

Best-value modern: a later 1970s/80s Impulse/ABC or MCA-era repress – reliably the Edition II take, though without the "Edition II" etching some earlier pressings carry.

A note on Edition I and Edition II before anything else

This title has a genuine, well-documented collector puzzle built into its own pressing history, and it's worth understanding before buying a copy. On June 28, 1965, producer Bob Thiele recorded two complete takes of the same 40-minute piece. Impulse initially released the second take under catalog A-95 (mono) / AS-95 (stereo) in February 1966 – these original pressings are now referred to as "Edition I." Shortly after release, Coltrane expressed a preference for the first take instead, so Impulse swapped the metal stampers for ones cut from that earlier take and etched "EDITION II" directly into the dead wax – without changing the catalog number, the cover, or anything else visible from outside the record. Production of the original take ceased entirely once Edition II stampers went into use. The two takes differ audibly: the solo order is slightly different between them, and Edition II has no Elvin Jones drum solo on side two, which Edition I does. If you own an orange/black-label Impulse pressing from the mid-to-late 1960s, checking the dead wax for the words "EDITION II" is the simplest way to tell which take you actually have – most US pressings from the 1970s and early 1980s carry the Edition II take but without the "Edition II" text still etched, per collector reports, so the catalog number and label alone won't tell you definitively for later pressings.

Recording history and tape provenance

The ensemble was trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Dewey Johnson; saxophonists Pharoah Sanders, Marion Brown, John Tchicai, and Archie Shepp alongside Coltrane's own tenor; McCoy Tyner on piano; Art Davis and Jimmy Garrison both on bass; and Elvin Jones on drums. It was also Coltrane's clearest signal of moving away from the quartet format that had defined his most celebrated work.

The timing makes the record's radicalism even more striking: Coltrane made this decisive turn away from convention at the absolute commercial and critical peak of his career, barely six months after A Love Supreme had earned him a Grammy nomination and been named Album of the Year by both DownBeat and Jazz magazine. Rather than build on that success with something more accessible, he assembled a large, largely unrehearsed ensemble, handed the musicians sheets of chords and scales rather than fixed parts, and directed the piece's shifts between full-ensemble chaos and individual solo spotlights mostly through gesture in the room. His biographer Ben Ratliff described the result as "an experiment in the democratic ideal" – bassist Jimmy Garrison and drummer Elvin Jones can be heard intermittently trying to anchor the piece to something like a conventional swinging pulse underneath the collective improvisation, not always successfully, which is very much the point rather than a flaw in the performance. One further, admittedly speculative detail some Coltrane scholars have noted: eleven carries a particular significance in numerology, associated with spiritual awakening, and Coltrane was a committed and wide-ranging reader of metaphysical texts by this point in his life – whether the ensemble size was a deliberate reference or simply how many musicians the piece needed is something no source consulted for this guide claims to know for certain, so it's offered here as an interesting possibility rather than a confirmed fact.

As part of the Coltrane Estate's centennial celebration campaign, Impulse! issued Ascension: Edition I & II as a double LP in 2026 – the first release in the format's history to present both complete takes on vinyl in one package, rather than forcing a collector to track down two separate original pressings to hear both versions. Mastered by Ryan K. Smith from the original stereo analogue tapes and pressed on 180-gram vinyl, this is a genuinely different and more complete listening experience than any single vintage pressing can offer, since no original edition ever included both takes together.

Sound quality by pressing

Impulse A-95/AS-95, Edition I (1966 original release) is the take Impulse initially chose to release, running approximately 38:30, featuring Elvin Jones's drum solo on side two and a different solo order than Edition II. No "EDITION II" text appears in the dead wax on genuine Edition I copies.

Impulse A-95/AS-95, Edition II (1966, later pressings) is Coltrane's preferred take, running slightly longer at approximately 40:49, identifiable by "EDITION II" etched into the runout. This became the standard version pressed from this point forward, meaning most surviving vintage copies of this catalog number carry this take rather than the originally-released one – one detailed collector account specifically notes that US LPs from the 1970s and early 1980s used Edition II but had stopped including the "Edition II" text in the dead wax by that point, so absence of the etching on a later pressing doesn't necessarily mean it's Edition I. A Japanese pressing (Nippon Columbia, 1976) of Edition II is also documented, distinct from an earlier Japanese first pressing.

The Verve Vault Series 2LP (2026) presents both takes together for the first time on vinyl, mastered by Ryan K. Smith from the original stereo analogue tapes.

Buyer's guide by budget

$$: A later 1970s/80s Impulse, ABC, or MCA-era repress – reliably the Edition II take, an affordable way to hear Coltrane's preferred version.

$$$: The 2026 Verve Vault Series 2LP – the only release presenting both takes together.

$$$$: An original Impulse A-95/AS-95 pressing of either edition, condition-dependent – confirm which take you're getting via the dead wax before paying a premium for a specific one.

Pressing tier summary

Tier ⇅ Pressing Cat# Year ⇅ Format Source / Mastering Notes Market ⇅
S Verve Vault Series 2LP (Edition I & II) – 2026 Stereo, 33⅓, 2×180g Ryan K. Smith, from the original stereo analogue tapes First release to present both takes together on vinyl –
A Impulse A-95/AS-95, Edition I A-95 / AS-95 1966 Mono & Stereo, 33⅓ Rudy Van Gelder Originally released take; includes Elvin Jones drum solo on side two –
A Impulse A-95/AS-95, Edition II A-95 / AS-95 1966 Mono & Stereo, 33⅓ Rudy Van Gelder Coltrane's preferred take; "EDITION II" etched in dead wax; no drum solo on side two –

References

Related guides: A Love Supreme · My Favorite Things · Giant Steps

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