Jesus's Response to _Ascension_
March 08, 2018, by Jesús
While reading the excerpts from Eric Nisenson’s Ascension, I found myself drawn to the instances that revealed the backbone or logistics of the jazz music business. Perhaps my fascination with these elements has to do with my field of study or because my grasp of jazz music techniques (and attraction to the genre) is not large. Therefore, I gravitated to the revelations of social (and perhaps economic) conditions influencing a musician’s style and artistry.
For example, Nisenson reveals that Miles Davis had a deep understanding of his audience and what they expected from him and his group. Miles had to shut down Coltrane’s solo during a performance of “Walkin” when the group was on a European tour. Nisenson notes that Coltrane’s playing was “so adventurous that it [bordered] on the outrageous” (83). Although Miles, as Nisenson puts it, “had always been an experimenter…he would let the limits of his art be pushed only so far and no further” (83).
Also, the Free Jazz movement was beginning and at the forefront was Ornette Coleman, ushering in a frantic “unfettered melodic improvising” to the jazz music world (77). While Coltrane admired Coleman’s playing, he wasn’t sure if he was ready “to explore these radical new concepts in jazz” (79). When Coltrane finally formed his own band he revealed that “torn” about Coleman’s music; he admired it and wanted to pursue something radical and new but Coltrane also feared he would lose his audience (88). Nisenson goes on to explain that when Coltrane was finally the leader of his own group he was much more “aware of the exigencies of the music business” and much more “wary of challenging his audience too much” (88).
All these worries and ideas about alienating each respective artists’ core audience are tied to the concept of the image of the artist. As much as Coltrane perhaps would hate to admit, just playing the music is not always enough. They were all hyperaware of how deviating too far from their sound could alter their image and what repercussions that could have (Coltrane was given a $50,000 advance by the time he was signed to Impulse. Would he want to jeopardize that?). So, when Coltrane decided to make The Avant-Garde with compositions by Coleman, he did not make it with his own group. Coltrane wanted to separate their image from his foray into a Coleman-esque free jazz and not risk losing his audience.
Still, Miles, perhaps by having been the leader of his own group for longer, was much more apt (or at least more concerned notes Nisenson) with the “effect of his group” (97). While Coltrane’s group consisted of a “relentless thickness and density,” Miles’ group was a “contrast of styles” that provided variety for his audience.