The Famous Flames Brown's ascension and the group's decline What happened in the group's decline? Brown's solo aspirations led to the further dissension in the group, who felt they weren't When did this begin to occur? 1965,
What was Brown's ascension?
What was Brown's ascension from the decline?
In 1964, James Brown and Bobby Byrd formed their own production company, Fair Deal, in an attempt to promote their recordings to a crossover audience. As a result, Brown signed a contract with Smash Records, a subsidiary of Mercury to distribute the records. After the release of "Out of Sight", however, King Records stopped Brown from releasing any more recordings since he had not obtained the label's consent. This resulted in Brown not releasing any recordings for a year. In 1965, King released Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", which became Brown's first number 1 as a solo artist on the R&B charts, as well reaching the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. The song also provided one of the first glimpses into a new sound cultivated by Brown and the James Brown Band that would later be labeled as funk.  The group performed in Hollywood movies such as Ski Party and appearing twice on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 (where The Flames were uncredited). The group also began to perform overseas and became a major attraction. About their success outside America, Famous Flame Bobby Bennett said, in an 2012 interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer; "We were drawing crowds everywhere we went," says Bennett. "Not just in America. We'd go to London or Paris and we couldn't even leave the hotel to go sightseeing because we were getting mobbed by people."  Brown's solo aspirations led to the further dissension in the group, who felt they weren't being compensated properly. Lloyd Stallworth left the Flames shortly after the group's first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in early 1966, leaving Brown, Byrd, and Bennett. Dissension continued to grow throughout 1966 and 1967, and in 1968 the rest of the members of the Famous Flames decided to go on with their own separate careers, and the group quietly disappeared. In 1968, King released the group's Live at the Apollo, Volume II but edited out the Famous Flames' introduction, since the group had left Brown by then. The 2003 CD re-release of the album corrected that by restoring The Famous Flames' name credit. CANNOTANSWER
a solo artist
The Famous Flames were an American rhythm and blues vocal group founded in Toccoa, Georgia, in 1953 by Bobby Byrd. James Brown first began his career as a member of the Famous Flames, emerging as the lead singer by the time of their first appearance professional recording, "Please, Please, Please", in 1956.

On hit songs such as "Try Me", "Bewildered", "Think", "I Don't Mind", and "I'll Go Crazy", the Flames' smooth backing harmonies contrasted strikingly with Brown's raw, impassioned singing, and their synchronized dance steps were a prominent feature of their live shows. Altogether, James Brown and the Famous Flames numerous R&B hit songs reached the Top 40 on the R&B and pop charts.They also appeared in the Hollywood films T.A.M.I. Show (1964) and Ski Party. Members of the Flames also contributed as songwriters and choreographers. In 2012 the Flames were retroactively inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame alongside Brown. On their Rock & Roll Hall of Fame page, they are described as "a group of singers, performers and dancers that created the complementary elements of one of the greatest stage shows of all time."
As of  2020, The Famous Flames were also inducted into The National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame.

The Famous Flames are sometimes erroneously identified as James Brown's "band", a confusion partly fostered by their record companies' inconsistent labeling credit practices. Although members of the group did play instruments in some of their earliest shows and recordings, by 1959 Brown had hired a touring band and from that point on, the Flames contributed primarily as backing vocalists and dancers. The band was billed separately as the James Brown Band, and later as the James Brown Orchestra.

History

Origins
James Brown began singing with the R&B group the Cremona Trio while growing up in Toccoa, Georgia. In 1949, Brown, then sixteen, was sent to a juvenile detention center after committing several offenses of armed robbery. While at the detention center, he formed a group called the Swanees, which included Johnny Terry. The band made their own instruments, including a comb and paper, a washtub bass and a drum kit made from lard tubs, while Brown himself played "a sort of mandolin [made] out of a wooden box." This led to Brown's first nickname, "Music Box".

In 1952, Brown's reform school baseball team played another team that featured Bobby Byrd and they soon became friends. Shortly after, Byrd and his family offered to be Brown's sponsors for an early prison release. Brown was paroled on June 14, 1952, on the condition he not return to his hometown. In response, Brown moved into Byrd's parents' home in Toccoa, finding work as a dishwasher and also trying short careers as a boxer.

Around this time, Byrd had formed the gospel vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters. Within a year, the group wanted to perform R&B but was afraid of being confronted by church leaders for "singing the Devil's music". This led the group to perform R&B under the name The Avons, which included members such as Troy Collins, Doyle Oglesby, Sylvester Keels and Willie Johnson. After deciding to focus primarily on R&B, the Starlighters ended and formed new R&B group the Avons.

In 1954, Brown again turned his attention to music with the group the Ever Ready Gospel Singers, which included his old reform school friend, Johnny Terry, who had been paroled at approximately the same time as Brown. However, when the group failed to get a recording deal they disbanded, leading Brown to return to Toccoa. Later in 1954, the Avons faced a tragedy when Troy Collins died in a car accident. Byrd asked Brown to replace Collins. At first, lead vocals were split between Byrd, Keels and Brown. Johnny Terry was also asked to join and he brought in a guitarist, Nafloyd Scott, and Fred Pulliam replaced Willie Johnson. It was around this time that the Avons changed their name to The Toccoa Band in order to avoid confusion with two other groups also named the Avons. Under their manager, Barry Tremier, the group began playing instruments, with Brown playing drums and Byrd the piano.

Early success and initial breakup
By 1955, after seeing a performance by Little Richard, the group left gospel behind and again changed their name, to The Flames. While performing at his club in Macon, Georgia, Clint Brantley (agent for Little Richard) advised the group to add "Famous" to their name. That year, Doyle Oglesby and Fred Pulliam left the group and were replaced by Nashpendle "Nash" Knox. When Little Richard left Macon for Los Angeles after the September 1955 release of "Tutti Frutti".

The group began composing and performing their own songs during this time including a James Brown composition called "Goin' Back to Rome" and a ballad Brown co-wrote with Johnny Terry titled "Please, Please, Please". Before Christmas 1955, Brantley had the group record a demo of "Please, Please, Please" for a local Macon radio station. "Please, Please, Please" came together in two pieces, first, Etta James stated that during the first time she met with Brown in Macon, Brown "used to carry around an old tattered napkin with him, because Little Richard had written the words, 'please, please, please' on it and James was determined to make a song out of it...". The second part of the song's conception came together after Brown and Terry heard The Orioles' rock 'n' roll version of Big Joe Williams' hit, "Baby Please Don't Go", where they got the melody.

"Please, Please, Please" was played on Macon radio stations, making it a regional hit by the end of 1955. The recording was sent to several record labels, who promptly passed on the record, though two labels, owned by Cincinnati-based King Records, pursued the group. Ralph Bass of Federal Records eventually won the bidding war, signing the Famous Flames in February 1956. A month later, they re-recorded the song in Cincinnati. Upon hearing it, King Records founder Syd Nathan deemed it unreleasable due to Brown's vocals, and almost fired Ralph Bass on the spot.

"Please, Please, Please" was released in May 1956 and by September, the record had reached number 6 on the R&B charts. Constant performing with the song while the group performed on the Chitlin' Circuit kept the record on the charts for a year, and by 1957, it had sold well over 5,000 copies. The record eventually sold between one million and three million. Most of the original Flames' releases after "Please, Please, Please" failed to generate any follow-up success, including "I Don't Know", "No No No", "Just Won't Do Right" and "Chonnie-On-Chon". The group had changed managers and were now with Ben Bart, chief of the Universal Attractions Agency(talent agency). Bart advised the group to change their name to The Famous Flames with James Brown. Brown and Bart hired members of the vocal group the Dominions to replace the original Flames, after the group quit en masse when they had discovered that James Brown was to be given top billing over the other members.

Success

After several other recordings failed to chart, the Famous Flames were in danger of being dropped by Federal in 1958. Johnny Terry gave Brown a ballad that was based on the song "For Your Precious Love" by Jerry Butler & The Impressions titled "Try Me". The song became the Famous Flames' first number-one R&B hit in early 1959. Following the song's success, Brown suddenly fired the interim group members of the Dominions/Flames, "Big Bill" Hollings, J.W. Archer, and Louis Madison. These men, along with the returning Willie Johnson, another interim member, went on to form a San Francisco-based splinter group, The Fabulous Flames. This group issued several unsuccessful singles on the tiny "Bay-Tone Records" label, before fading into obscurity. By then, Brown and Terry had asked Bobby Byrd to return, which he did, and they added new Flames members Bobby Bennett and Lloyd Stallworth. This was the longest-lasting lineup of The Famous Flames, which became a straight vocal group at this point, as Brown, with Byrd's help, had employed the old J.C. Davis outfit, The Bucketheads, as his instrumental backup band. The group (now James Brown and The Famous Flames) then performed at the Apollo Theater in April 1959, Brown's first performance there, opening for Little Willie John.

That year, Brown had his first solo hit, "I Want You So Bad", which peaked in the top twenty on the R&B charts. In 1960, Brown and the Flames had a string of successful songs such as "Think", "Bewildered","I Don't Mind", "This Old Heart", and "I'll Go Crazy". By 1962, three versions of "The James Brown Show" were recorded: James with the Famous Flames, James with his instrumental band, and James as a solo act. In 1962, the Famous Flames had a hit with "Shout and Shimmy", which was their rendition of The Isley Brothers' "Shout", but the song was dismissed by at least one critic as "a truly shameless ripoff of [the song]... basically the fast parts of "Shout" with the gospel inflections removed and the word 'shimmy' added.". Nevertheless,"Shout and Shimmy" was a hit, and James and The Famous Flames sang and performed this song on Dick Clark's American Bandstand, on a telecast dated June 11, 1962. Their 1963 live recording at the Apollo Theater was released as Live at the Apollo, which peaked at number-two on the pop album chart. It sold over a million copies and stayed on the charts for fourteen months, a feat unprecedented for an R&B album at that time. In 1964, the group reached a peak in its popularity when they appeared in the 1964 American International Pictures concert film, The T.A.M.I. Show. Brown & The Flames (Byrd, Bennett, and Stallworth), debuted their landmark performance of "Please, Please, Please" during that concert, where Brown collapsed on his knees, causing Bobby Bennett and MC Danny Ray to drape a cape (or towel) on him and walk him off before Brown decided to return to the microphone. This became a trademark in Brown's shows for the remainder of his career.

In 1964, the group recorded another successful live album, Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal, which like Live at The Apollo, reached the Top 10 of the Billboard Pop Album chart. The Flames also contributed to the recording of the 1964 studio album, Showtime. During this time, the record label's inconsistent billing on various records and albums, led many fans of Brown to believe that the Famous Flames were actually Brown's backing band, instead of the stand-alone vocal group that they actually were. In 1964, James & the Flames had another top 40 hit with the powerful soul/blues ballad "Oh Baby, Don't You Weep", which reached number 23 on the pop chart, and number four on the Cashbox R&B chart. Later that year they released their last recording together, "Maybe the Last Time", which was a B-side of James Brown's recording "Out of Sight". On this last studio release, as on all of their Smash recordings, The Flames did not receive label credit.

Brown's ascension and the group's decline
In 1964,when the Flames where still together, James Brown and Bobby Byrd formed their own production company, Fair Deal, in an attempt to promote their recordings to a crossover audience. As a result, Brown signed a contract with Smash Records, a subsidiary of Mercury to distribute the records and Brown released 8 albums from Smash Records.  After the release of first funk song "Out of Sight", however, King Records stopped Brown from releasing any more recordings since he had not obtained the label's consent. After that year-long standoff, King Records (who couldn't afford to lose him, as by then Brown had become the label's biggest star), offered him a new contract, which gave him full creative control over his recordings Upon his return to King, Brown recorded by himself, without The Famous Flames' vocal backing, though they continued to receive label credit, and continued performing with Brown on live appearances (and on live albums) through 1968. In 1965, King released Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", which became Brown's first number 1 as a solo artist on the R&B charts, as well reaching the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100. Hit singles such as "I Got You" and "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" followed his hit song "Out of Sight".

The group performed in Hollywood movies such as Ski Party and appearing twice on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1966 (where The Flames were uncredited). The group also began to perform overseas and became a major attraction. About their success outside America, Famous Flame Bobby Bennett said, in a 2012 interview with the Cleveland Plain Dealer;
"We were drawing crowds everywhere we went," says Bennett. "Not just in America. We'd go to London or Paris and we couldn't even leave the hotel to go sightseeing because we were getting mobbed by people."

Brown's solo aspirations led to further dissension within the group, who felt they weren't being compensated properly. Lloyd Stallworth left the Flames shortly after the group's first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in early 1966, leaving Brown, Byrd, and Bennett. Dissension continued to grow throughout 1966 and 1967, and in 1968 the rest of the members of the Famous Flames (Bobby Byrd and Bobby Bennett),decided to go on with their own separate careers, and the group quietly disappeared. In 1968, King released the group's Live at the Apollo, Volume II but edited out the Famous Flames' introduction, since the group had left Brown by then.However, years later, on the 2001 Deluxe Edition CD release,the complete introduction by MC Frankie Crocker, including The Famous Flames' name, was restored.

Later years and litigation
Although Byrd reunited with Brown on several occasions in the ensuing decades, the Famous Flames never performed with him as a group again. Brown wrote dismissively of them in his 1986 autobiography, claiming that though "they were a good stage act, [they] couldn't really sing all that good." However, elsewhere he referred to them favorably as "a bunch of real fine quartet singers".

In 2003, Byrd and his wife, Vicki Anderson, along with Famous Flames Bobby Bennett and Lloyd Stallworth, sued Brown and Universal Records (which now owned the King Records catalogue), claiming they were cheated out of royalties from samples of Byrd's 1971 hit "I Know You Got Soul" and numerous other Famous Flames hits over the years. Despite rumors of bad blood, Byrd contended he "still loved" Brown and felt the matter was more due to issues with Universal than with Brown.

Lloyd Stallworth died in 2001, followed by Johnny Terry in 2005 and James Brown died December 25 in 2006. Bobby Byrd performed at Brown's public funeral in Augusta, Georgia. Byrd died nine months later, in September 2007. Bobby Bennett, the last living member of The Famous Flames, lived long enough to see the group inducted into the 2012 class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, before himself dying on January 18, 2013. The Famous Flames were posthumously inducted into The National Rhythm and Blues Hall of Fame in two separate inductions: James Brown in 2013, and the remaining Flames, Byrd, Bennett, Stallworth, and Johnny Terry, in 2020.

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame controversy and 2012 induction
In 1986, the first committee of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame announced that James Brown would be one of the Hall of Fame's first charter members to be inducted. However, Brown's former singing group, the Famous Flames, were not included in this induction. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's criterion states that only artists whose first recording had been out for more than 25 years were eligible for induction. Brown's first solo recording did not meet that criterion. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame president and chief executive officer Terry Stewart contended that Brown was indeed eligible for induction but as a member of The Famous Flames. Concerning the Hall of Fame's failure to induct The Flames with Brown back in 1986, Stewart went on to say: "There was no legislative intent why they weren't included; somehow they just got overlooked."

In 2011, a special committee was set up to correct exclusions which might have occurred during the first two years of Rock Hall inductions (1986 and 1987) due to the impact of the bands' lead singers or front men. The Famous Flames (Byrd, Bennett, Terry and Stallworth) were inducted in April 2012 alongside other "backing groups" such as The Midnighters (Hank Ballard), The Comets (Bill Haley), The Crickets (Buddy Holly), The Blue Caps (Gene Vincent) and The Miracles (Smokey Robinson). Since all these lead singers were actually members of these groups, these were not really "backing groups" at all. This was highlighted by Smokey Robinson, who did the induction honors for all of the groups, including his own Miracles, who stated, "These people do not stand behind you. They stand with you."  "These are not backing groups. These are the groups." Bennett, as the Famous Flames' only surviving member, accepted the honor in person in Cleveland on April 14, 2012. Bennett further stated the induction was not only a correction for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame committee's mishap in 1986 but also a reunion: "For years, I felt like we were all separated," said Bennett. "I feel like we're whole again, I wish we could all be here as one group. Yes, James Brown was the most famous of the Flames, but we were all Famous Flames."

Onstage, during the induction ceremony, Miracles lead singer Smokey Robinson, said, "If James Brown was the Hardest Working Man in Show Business, The Famous Flames were the hardest-working group".

In 1993, James Brown and The Famous Flames as a group were awarded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award by Foundation co-founder Ruth Brown and Bonnie Raitt .
in 1998, Famous Flames founder Bobby Byrd received the Pioneer Award from the same organization.

The Famous Flames did appear in the James Brown biopic Get on Up, which was released in U.S. theatres nationwide on August 1, 2014.

In May 2012, the oldies music magazine Goldmine inducted James Brown & The Famous Flames into their first class of The Goldmine Hall of Fame.

Lineup

 James Brown
 Bobby Byrd
 Johnny Terry
 Sylvester 'King' Keels
 Nash Knox
 Nafloyd Scott
 Bobby Bennett
 "Baby Lloyd" Stallworth

 Troy Collins
 Fred Pulliam
 Roy Scott
 Doyle Oglesby
 Robert Gram
 JW Archer 
 Louis Madison 
 Bill Hollings 
 Willie Johnson

Discography
 1958: Please Please Please
 1959: Try Me (re-released as: 16 Hits:The Unbeatable James Brown & The Famous Flames)
 1960: Think!
 1961: The Amazing James Brown
 1962: "Shout and Shimmy"
 1962: "Excitement (Mr. Dynamite)"
 1962: "James Brown and His Famous Flames Tour the USA"
 1963: "Live at the Apollo"
 1963: "Pure Dynamite! Live at the Royal"
 1964: "Showtime"
 1967: "James Brown & The Famous Flames Live at The Garden"
 1968: Live at the Apollo, Volume II

Awards
Grammy Hall of Fame:
 "Live at The Apollo" (King Records, 1963) -James Brown & The Famous Flames* (Inducted 1998)
"Please Please Please"-James Brown & The Famous Flames (Federal (King) Records, 1956 R&B Single) – Inducted 2001
"Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" – The Famous Flames (Inducted 2012) James Brown (Inducted 1986)
Goldmine (magazine) Hall of Fame  – James Brown & The Famous Flames (Inducted 2012)
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"Live at The Apollo" (1963) – James Brown & The Famous Flames*  (Awarded 2003)
"United States Library of Congress-National Recording Registry"
"Rhythm and Blues Foundation" Lifetime Achievement Award (James Brown & The Famous Flames-1993)  
"Rhythm and Blues Foundation" Pioneer Award - (Bobby Byrd alone) - 1998.
"National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame" The Famous Flames (Inducted 2020)  (James Brown inducted solo in 2013).
"Live at The Apollo" (1963) –  James Brown & The Famous Flames*  (Awarded 2004)
"The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's"
"500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll"
"Please Please Please" – James Brown & The Famous Flames* (Federal (King) Records, 1956
R&B Single (list compiled 2004)
Billboard – "Try Me" – James Brown & The Famous Flames
48 Pop, #1 R&B, and the Best-Selling R&B Hit Song of 1958, .
Incorrectly credited solely to James Brown.*

See also
 Marva Whitney
 Lyn Collins

References

Other sources
 White, Cliff and Weinger, Harry (1991). Are You Ready for Star Time?. In Star Time [CD liner notes]. London: Polydor Records.
 Wolk, Douglas. (2004). Live at the Apollo. New York: Continuum Books.

External links

 "Keep On Doin'What You're Doin" Bobby Byrd, James Brown, and The Famous Flames
 Bobby Byrd (of The Famous Flames) bio and eulogy- The Washington Post September 15, 2007
 The Famous Flames' Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Site
 The Famous Flames on the Future Rock Hall website
 The Official Facebook Page of The Famous Flames
 The Famous Flames on the Soulful Detroit website
 I'll Go Crazy from "Live at The Apollo" (1962) by James Brown & The Famous Flames -from YouTube
 2012 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Bobby Bennett, The last surviving member of The Famous Flames, talks to The Rock Hall.
 Famous Flame Gets His Chance to Shine-from The Burlington Times-News-by Molly McGowan
 YouTube video- James Brown on David Letterman Show (1982)- verifies that The Famous Flames were a singing group NOT backup musicians
 YouTube Video-James Brown & The Famous Flames LIVE at The Olympia Theatre in Paris, France- mid 1960s
 YouTube Video: James Brown & The Famous Flames in the 1965 American International Pictures film "Ski Party"(1965).

African-American dancers
American dancers
African-American musical groups
American rhythm and blues musical groups
American soul musical groups
American vocal groups
James Brown vocalists
Federal Records artists
King Records artists
Musical groups established in 1953
Musical groups disestablished in 1968
Musical groups from Georgia (U.S. state)
Ascension is a jazz album by John Coltrane recorded in June 1965 and released in 1966. It is considered a watershed in Coltrane's work, with the albums recorded before it being more conventional in structure and the albums recorded after it being looser, free jazz inspired works. In addition, it signaled Coltrane's interest in moving away from the quartet format. AllMusic called it "the single recording that placed John Coltrane firmly into the avant-garde".

Background
At the time of the Ascension recording session, Coltrane was one of the world's most successful jazz artists in both the artistic and commercial sense. His best-selling album A Love Supreme was nominated for a Grammy Award, and was voted "album of the year" by Jazz and DownBeat magazines. In addition, Coltrane was elected to DownBeat's Hall of Fame, putting him in the company of Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. At the same time, in the months since A Love Supreme was recorded, Coltrane's music had become increasingly turbulent, moving further in the direction of free jazz. Coltrane had befriended saxophonist Albert Ayler, and was heavily influenced by his music; meanwhile, he had also become somewhat of a father figure for a number of younger avant-garde players, some of whom would appear on Ascension. According to writer Bernard Gendron, "At the height of his career, riding on the momentum of the critical and popular triumph of A Love Supreme, Coltrane was the modern jazz star of the 1960s, with a large following of serious jazz fans and great respect from his musician peers. He was in an ideal position to bring into the orbit of the avant-garde fans and musicians who had previously hesitated, been puzzled or mildly hostile."

Additional musicians 
The musicians that Coltrane chose to supplement the members of the classic quartet were a mix of players ranging from established to relatively unknown, all of whom were younger than Coltrane, and many of whom had played with Coltrane in the years preceding the recording of Ascension. Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard and bassist Art Davis were well-known and well-recorded by that point, and both had recorded with Coltrane on Africa/Brass and Olé Coltrane. (Davis also appeared on The John Coltrane Quartet Plays, recorded earlier in 1965.) Saxophonist Archie Shepp recorded his first Impulse! album, Four for Trane, in 1964 after Coltrane recommended him to producer Bob Thiele, and went on to release over a dozen albums on the label. Shepp, along with Art Davis, also appeared on an alternate take of the "Acknowledgement" section of A Love Supreme, which was released more than thirty years after the appearance of the original recording. Shortly after the recording of Ascension, Shepp appeared on New Thing at Newport, a split LP with Coltrane's quartet appearing on side one and Shepp's quartet on side two.

Shepp also introduced Coltrane to saxophonist Marion Brown, and Coltrane soon used his influence at Impulse! to help Brown secure the recording date for Three for Shepp. Saxophonist John Tchicai had previously recorded with Shepp as part of the New York Contemporary Five and on Four for Trane, and also sat in with Coltrane during one or more performances at the Half Note. Trumpeter Dewey Johnson had played with Marion Brown and repeatedly sat in with Coltrane's group before being asked to participate in the recording of Ascension. Saxophonist Pharoah Sanders had performed with Sun Ra, whose music Coltrane admired, and had also played and practiced yogic breathing exercises with Marion Brown. In 1964, Coltrane invited Sanders to sit in with his group after hearing his debut recording on the ESP label and attending a concert by Sanders's band, which featured John Hicks, Wilbur Ware, and Billy Higgins, at the Village Gate. (Ware and Higgins had both previously recorded with Coltrane.) Sanders was invited to join Coltrane's band in September 1965 and went on to play and record on many of Coltrane's later recordings.

In addition, drummer Rashied Ali, who would eventually join Coltrane's group, was invited to participate in the recording of Ascension, but passed up the opportunity, a decision he would soon come to regret. Saxophonist Frank Wright was also invited, but reportedly felt that his skills were not up to the demands of the music.

Recording session
The recording took place, unrehearsed, at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, on June 28, 1965. At the start of the session, Coltrane handed out lead sheets. According to Archie Shepp, "The ensemble passages were based on chords, but these chords were optional... In the solo plus quartet parts there are no specified chords. These sections were to be dialogues between the soloists and the rhythm section." Marion Brown added: "Trane had obviously thought a lot about what he wanted to do, but he wrote most of it out in the studio. Then he told everybody what he wanted: He played this line and he said that everybody would play that line in the ensembles. Then he said he wanted crescendi and decrescendi after every solo. We ran through some things together, until we were together, and then we got into it."

The group recorded two takes of roughly equal duration. These would become known as Edition I and Edition II. At the end of the second take, Elvin Jones "flung his snare at the studio wall, signaling his decision that for him, the date was over." Marion Brown was more enthusiastic; later he described the session as "wildly exciting", the kind of record "you could use... to heat up the apartment on those cold winter days," and stated that both takes "had that kind of thing in them that makes people scream. The people who were in the studio were screaming. I don't know how the engineers kept the screams out of the record." John Tchicai recalled: "It was a feast, incomparable. On the day of the recording, ecstasy and excitement were the prime movers. All of us did our very best to contribute and to carry out the few instructions the Master had given us. It was very African! Our Ancestors were definitely among us more than usual!"

Coltrane later stated that, during the session, "I was so doggone busy; I was worried to death... I couldn't really enjoy the [recording] date. If it hadn't been a date, then I would have really enjoyed it." At some point, he called Albert Ayler and explained: "I recorded an album and found that I was playing just like you", to which Ayler replied "No man, don't you see, you were playing like yourself. You were just feeling what I feel and were just crying out for spiritual unity."

On July28, 1965, Coltrane and his quartet performed a version of Ascension on a concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris. A recording of the performance appears on Live in Paris, incorrectly titled "Blue Valse".

Music 
Coltrane described Ascension in a radio interview as a "big band thing", although it resembles no big band recording made before it. The most obvious antecedent is Ornette Coleman's octet (or "double quartet") recording, Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, which—like Ascension—is a continuous 40-minute performance with ensemble passages and without breaks. However, on Ascension (and unlike on Free Jazz), ensemble sections alternate with solos, which take up about equal space. According to Shepp, "Free Jazz created a new form, and Ascension is a further step in the development of that form". Shepp also noted the influence of Sun Ra and Cecil Taylor on the recording, and concluded: "The precedent for what John did here goes all the way back to New Orleans... This is like a New Orleans concept, but with 1965 people". (Sun Ra's influence on Ascension was also suggested by Coltrane biographer J. C. Thomas, and by Val Wilmer, who pointed out that Coltrane was exposed to Sun Ra's music through his friendship with John Gilmore.)

Structurally, Ascension is organized around a succession of modes which serve as starting points for the musicians. Ekkehard Jost identified three modes: B Aeolian, D Phrygian, and F Phrygian, while David Such added a fourth, G Lydian. Changes of mode were signalled by Coltrane, Hubbard, and Tyner. The melodic germ of Ascension is a short motive which resembles the main theme of A Love Supreme'''s "Acknowledgment" section; however, this motive is secondary in importance to the presence of descending lines which serve to define and articulate the modes. Jost noted that, in contrast with Free Jazz, "the central idea is not to produce a network of interwoven independent melodic lines, but dense sound complexes." He explained: "a large number of rhythmically independent lines are set against one another by seven wind instruments, with the resultant overlappings. This superimposition produces rapidly moving sound-fields whose rhythmic differentiation is provided as a rule by the rhythm section, rather than coming from within. When seven independent melodic-rhythmic lines coincide, the relationships between them lose clarity, fusing into a field of sound enlivened by irregular accentuations." Jost summarized this as follows: "A new type of group improvisation emerges in which melodic-motivic evolution gives way to the moulding of a total sound... the macro-structures of the total sound are more important than the micro-structure of the parts." Similarly, Such wrote: "The overall texture in the collectively improvised sections of Ascension is extremely dense. As a result, the listener has difficulty separating the individual lines of the seven improvisers. In comparison, the three lead soloists in Coleman's Free Jazz remain distinguishable." Shepp's comments are in agreement: "The emphasis was on textures rather than the making of an organizational entity. There was unity, but it was a unity of sounds and textures rather than like an ABA approach. You can hear... a reaching for sound and an exploration of the possibilities of sound." Ben Ratliff called Ascension "the first major piece of work from the jazz avant-garde to valorize the idea not only of sheer volume but of texture in jazz-group interaction", and noted that "immediately thereafter, the idea of texture would become very basic to experimental jazz."

With regard to the solo sections, Jost also differentiated between players like Tchicai who tended to organize their solos motivically, as opposed to "sound" players like Sanders and Shepp, who tended to use extended techniques in an expressive way. According to Jost, Coltrane's solo is a synthesis of the two approaches: "Into a context that is melodic-motivic, all possibilities of tone coloration are incorporated, partly as a constructive device - when they serve as a means of formal articulation - and partly to provide for emotional intensification".

Shepp pointed out that Coltrane "didn't want any stars on this record" and noted that "he took no more solo time than anybody else". Such also commented that "the roles among performers in Ascension are minimally differentiated", and wrote that this approach "enables soloists and improvisers to fuse their emotions and personalities more effectively". Similarly, writer Tony Whyton stated that "Although this type of nonhierarchical experiment is typical of several collective practices in the 1960s, the role that Coltrane fulfils within the sound world of Ascension is diametrically opposed to canonical aesthetics, where the iconic genius is presented as the center of creativity and performance practice," and noted that "Coltrane's involvement in the creation of an ensemble sound is somewhat antithetical to the album's cover design, which shows the artist seated alone in quiet contemplation". Ben Ratliff wrote that the album suggested "the notion of the jazz band as community, a collective effort to make large-scale textural music rather than an exclusive, carefully structured machine", and offered these comments: "Within the individual group, the leader-with-sidemen idea seemed suddenly old; a freer and more simultaneous notion of group playing was moving in. Jazz had never been less hierarchical. The spirit of musicians' collectives was making obsolete the old story of band-versus-band competition... If there is any truth to the rumors that Coltrane was taking acid between '64 and '67, it would only amount to more similar evidence. LSD commonly encourages the user to see the ideal of life as cooperative and nonhierarchical."

Reaction
Reaction to Ascension was swift and generally intense. ABC executive Alan Bergman recalled receiving an advance copy of the album prior to its release; he stated: "I listened to about five minutes... I walked into Bob Thiele's office and I can see myself holding this thing up with my mouth open. He says, 'I know, I know'... He says, 'It's going to be a classic!'" Since its release, the album has been portrayed as a turning point in the history of jazz. According to Dave Liebman, the album "blew everybody out of the water", and was "the torch that lit the free-jazz thing. I mean, it really begins with Cecil [Taylor] and Ornette [Coleman] in '59, but Ascension was like the patron saint saying, 'It's OK—this is valid.' I think that even had much more of an effect on everybody than A Love Supreme." George Russell stated that the recording of Ascension was "when Coltrane turned his back on the money." Coltrane biographer Eric Nisenson wrote that the album "signaled Coltrane's full embrace of the New Thing and its players", and that, with the album, "he finally became a full-fledged member of the free jazz avant-garde, with no turning back."

A review by Wilfrid Mellers shortly after the album's release called the album "the most impressive example of 'free jazz' that has come my way. Its relationship both to jazz tradition and also to developments in avant-garde music from Varèse to Cage's wilder disciples is clear..." In a review for DownBeat, Bill Mathieu called Ascension "possibly the most powerful human sound ever recorded".

Others were less positive. Saxophonist Frank Foster stated: "The main complaint came after the album Ascension. That was the turning point for some musicians who had been Coltrane enthusiasts up to that time; after that they turned off. I thought it was a little extreme, but he was always my man." Violinist Leroy Jenkins recalled having heard Coltrane's group at around the time Ascension was recorded, and recalled: "They were playing this music, screaming and ranting and raving, and, Lord - I was so drug. I said 'What?'... I dug Coltrane but I didn't know what was happening." Audiences began walking out of his concerts, as they did in August, 1965, at Soldier Field in Chicago following the album's recording but prior to its release.

More recent reviews have been positive overall. In 1998, Gary Giddins wrote: "After nearly thirty-five years, it is still impossible to speak of Ascension without a word of caution. It is the single most vexatious work in jazz history. So, a word of caution: It can't hurt you. In fact, contrary to its reputation as the apogee in '60s free-jazz rants, the piece goes down as smooth as bourbon, at least after you've heard it a few times and can no longer be intimidated by its shock tactics... Coming to the end of the music's long night, you may blink at the silence in stunned relief and inscrutable rapture. Or you may not. In any case, return visits to Ascension reveal it as decreasingly monolithic. Fake notes—cackles and hollers and shrieks and squawks—are still notes, and fortuitous harmonies and melodies, forged in the cauldron of chance, will on repeated exposure seem as preordained as composed music." In a review for AllMusic, Sam Samuelson awarded the album five stars, and wrote: "this can be a difficult listen at first, but with a patient ear and an appreciation for the finer things in life, the reward is a greater understanding of the personal path that the artist was on at that particular time in his development."

Writing for All About Jazz, Derek Taylor admitted that his initial encounters with Ascension were difficult, but "like anything worth investigating the logic and effulgence of this work eventually started to reveal itself with repeated listenings. In the intervening years the elements I first mistook for anger and discord have exposed themselves as those of spirituality and unification. This is music that emancipates both players and listeners- it challenges at the same time it educates." Chris Baber, in a review for Jazz Views, called the album "one of the most significant recordings in the canon of what people might call 'free-jazz'", and wrote: "it begins by shaking any preconceptions from you and pinning you back so that you are ready to follow the logic and coherence of the piece as it unfolds.  After a total immersion in the piece, you emerge, perhaps cleansed, perhaps relaxed, but definitely changed to the way you were before the piece began." He concluded: "there is a strong case to be made that Ascension is Coltrane’s best, most coherent and clearest statement of what he felt music should be for and what it could achieve." The authors of the Penguin Jazz Guide wrote: "There is nothing else like Ascension in Coltrane's work; indeed, there is nothing quite like Ascension in the history of jazz... It is a work that synthesizes the rules of classic jazz with the freedoms of the New Thing. Its success is difficult to gauge; its impact is total, overwhelming. Only slowly has it been recognized, not just as an iconic record, but a great composition."  Regarding the two Editions, they commented: "After a time, they resemble a rock formation seen from a subtly different angle, but still unmistakably the same grand and forbidding outcrop."

Influence and legacy
A number of younger musicians found inspiration in Ascension. Peter Brötzmann's Machine Gun, recorded in 1968, was heavily influenced by the album. Glenn Branca intended his 1981 album The Ascension to be a continuation of Coltrane's album, as well as Olivier Messiaen's L'ascension. The music produced by the members of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians was frequently the result of an emphasis on a collective approach to the creation of unique textures, often using non-traditional instruments. The Rova Saxophone Quartet have repeatedly explored Ascension, recording interpretations of the work on John Coltrane's Ascension (Black Saint, 1997), Electric Ascension (Atavistic, 2005), and Rova Channeling Coltrane Electric Ascension (RogueArt, 2016). In 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2012, saxophonist Jeremy Strachan organized performances of the work, and documented the experience in an essay. In 2018, the new music group wild Up presented a concert titled "Of Ascension" featuring a set of compositions inspired by Ascension.

During their 1985 United States tour, the band Minutemen played a tape of Ascension in its entirety for their audiences prior to their live sets.

 Order of soloists and ensembles 
The solo order differs slightly between the takes; Elvin Jones does not solo in Edition II.

Edition II
 (Opening Ensemble)
 Coltrane solo (3:10–5:48)
 (Ensemble)
 Johnson solo (7:45–9:30)
 (Ensemble)
 Sanders solo (11:55–14:25)
 (Ensemble)
 Hubbard solo (15:40–17:40)
 (Ensemble)
 Tchicai solo (18:50–20:00)
 (Ensemble)
 Shepp solo (21:10–24:10)
 (Ensemble)
 Brown solo (25:10–27:16)
 (Ensemble)
 Tyner solo (29:55–33:26)
 Davis and Garrison duet (33:26–35:50)
 (Concluding Ensemble)

Edition I
 (Opening Ensemble)
 Coltrane solo (4:05–6:05)
 (Ensemble)
 Johnson solo (7:58–10:07)
 (Ensemble)
 Sanders solo (11:15–13:30)
 (Ensemble)
 Hubbard solo (14:53–17:50)
 (Ensemble)
 Shepp solo (18:55–21:40)
 (Ensemble)
 Tchicai solo (23:11–24:56)
 (Ensemble)
 Brown solo (26:23–28:31)
 (Ensemble)
 Tyner solo (29:39–31:36)
 Davis and Garrison duet (31:36–33:30)
 Jones solo (33:30–33:55)
 (Concluding Ensemble)

 Track listing 
Two recordings of "Ascension" exist, called Edition I and Edition II. The latter replaced Edition I (also as A-95, with "EDITION II" etched on the vinyl runout circle) some months after the original release. Both versions are available on the single-CD version released by Impulse!/Verve/Universal in 2000 and were previously available on the 1992 double-disc collection The Major Works of John Coltrane'' on Impulse!/GRP/MCA.
Edition I
"Ascension" (John Coltrane) – 38:30
Edition II
"Ascension" (Coltrane) – 40:49

Personnel
 Freddie Hubbard – trumpet
 Dewey Johnson – trumpet
 Marion Brown – alto saxophone
 John Tchicai – alto saxophone
 John Coltrane – tenor saxophone
 Pharoah Sanders – tenor saxophone
 Archie Shepp – tenor saxophone
 McCoy Tyner – piano
 Art Davis – bass
 Jimmy Garrison – bass
 Elvin Jones – drums

References 

1966 albums
Albums produced by Bob Thiele
Avant-garde jazz albums
Free jazz albums
Impulse! Records albums
Instrumental albums
John Coltrane albums
Albums recorded at Van Gelder Studio The Ascension frigatebird (Fregata aquila) is a seabird of the frigatebird family Fregatidae which breeds on Boatswain Bird Island and Ascension Island in the tropical Atlantic Ocean.

The Ascension frigatebird is a large lightly built seabird with brownish-black plumage and a deeply forked tail. It has a wingspan of around . The male has a striking red gular sac which he inflates to attract a mate. The female is slightly larger than the male and has a brown breast-band and sometimes a white belly. They feed on fish taken in flight from the ocean's surface (mostly flying fish), and sometimes indulge in kleptoparasitism, harassing other birds to force them to regurgitate their food.

Taxonomy
The Ascension frigatebird was described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae under the binomial name Pelecanus aquilus. His specimen had been collected from the Ascension Island by the Swedish explorer Pehr Osbeck.

The names "frigatebird" and Fregata derive from the French mariners' name for the bird La Frégate, a frigate or fast warship. The specific aquila is Latin for an eagle, and refers to the dark plumage and rapacious habits.The genus Fregata formerly included all four species of large frigatebirds but in 1914 the Australian ornithologist Gregory Mathews split off the other three species leaving Fregata aquila to denote the Ascension frigatebird. An analysis of ribosomal and mitochondrial DNA indicates that within the genus Fregata'', the Ascension frigatebird is most closely related to the magnificent frigatebird.

Description
The Ascension frigatebird is a dark coloured seabird with long slender pointed wings, a long deeply forked tail and a long hooked bill.  It measures  in length, has a wingspan of  and weighs around . Male birds are entirely black except for the nape, mantle and scapulars that are covered with elongated lanceolate feathers that have a green metallic sheen. The birds have a striking red gular sack that they inflate to attract a mate. Their bills are pale blueish grey, their eyes are dark brown with a black eye-ring and their legs are grey. Female birds are brownish black and lack the green lanceolate feathers. Birds with the more common dark morph have a brown panel on the front that stretches from the collar down to the chest. Their eye-rings and the base of the bill are pale blue. Birds with the pale morph have some white on their chest. It is possible that they are young breeding females that have not yet acquired the full adult plumage.

Distribution
The bulk of the Ascension frigatebird population nests on a  plateau on top of Boatswain Bird Island, which lies  off the northeast coast of Ascension Island. The species formerly bred on Ascension Island itself, but the colonies were exterminated by feral cats introduced in 1815.  A program conducted between 2002 and 2004 successfully eliminated all the feral cats and, as a result, two pairs of frigatebirds returned to nest on Ascension Island in 2012. In 2014 twelve nests were reported on Letterbox Peninsula at the extreme east end of the island.

As with other frigatebirds, its movements outside the breeding season are little known because of identification problems within this difficult group, but it occurs off West Africa. It feeds on fish and similar surface prey such as small turtles.

A juvenile frigatebird found dying in 1953 in Tiree, Scotland was identified at the time as magnificent frigatebird but the specimen was re-examined in 2002 and found to be an Ascension frigatebird. In July 2013 a juvenile was photographed at Bowmore on the island of Islay in Scotland. In late June 2014 one was tracked by satellite to within 100 nautical miles of the Brazilian island of Fernando de Noronha, some 200 miles from the South American mainland.

Status
A census of the Ascension frigatebird population on the islet of Boatswain conducted in 2001–2002 recorded around 6,250 breeding females. As female frigatebirds normally only breed every other year, this implied a total population of 12,500 birds. This number is similar to an earlier estimate of between 8,000 and 10,000 birds obtained in a study conducted in 1957–1959. The species is classified as "vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as it breeds on just a single tiny island.

References

External links

BirdLife International species factsheet
Internet Bird Collection: photos, videos and audio recordings

Ascension frigatebird
Birds of Ascension Island
Ascension frigatebird
Ascension frigatebird