Michael Eaton

2025 is the 60th anniversary of saxophonist John Coltrane's 1965 landmark album, "Ascension". To mark the occasion, I'll be playing it live with a large ensemble in Kansas City at the Westport Coffee House theater.

Ascension marked Coltrane's historic entree into the jazz avant garde, and it is often regarded as one of the most blistering jazz sessions on record.

"This is strong stuff." - A.B. Spellman

"It achieves a certain kind of unity; it starts at a high level of intensity with the horns playing high and the other pieces playing low...It builds in intensity through all the solo passages, brass and reeds, until it gets to the final section where the rhythm section takes over and brings it back down to the level it started at. The idea is similar to the action painters do in that it creates various surfaces of color which push into each other, creates tensions and countertensions, and various fields of energy." - Archie Shepp

Marion Brown: "We did two takes, and they both 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. Spontaneity was the thing. Trane had obviously thought a lot about what he wanted to do..." - Marion Brown

This is a large ensemble and a high energy workout.* The personnel will be:

Michael Eaton - soprano saxophone Henry Scamurra - alto saxophone Charles Perkins - alto saxophone Dave Scott - trumpet Loren Broaddus - French horn Rich Wheeler - tenor saxophone Isaiah Petrie - vibraphone Shante Clair - electronics Seth Davis - guitar, electronics Dwight Frizzell - wind controller, electronics Sebastian Arias - bass John Kizilarmut - drums Marty Morrison - drums

$10 cover / food and drinks available next door at the Green Room