In June of 1965, two young saxophonists, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp, gathered at New Jersey’s famed Van Gelder Studio as part of an 11-piece band convened by John Coltrane. At the time, Coltrane was leading his so-called classic quartet , one of the most celebrated bands in jazz , but he was looking toward a wilder, more expansive sound. And he’d enlisted a crew of hungry up-and-comers to help him get there. Joining fellow new faces like Marion Brown and John Tchicai on the date — the results of which came out the following year as Coltrane’s watershed free-jazz epic Ascension — Sanders and Shepp both brought their avant-garde A games, stoking the session’s fire with hoarse cries and bizarre textural effects wrung from their respective tenor saxes. Related Stories How to Stream the 'Soul' Soundtrack and Trent Reznor's Original Score Online U.K. Jazz Artist Theon Cross to Perform as 3D Digital Avatar at SXSW Related Stories 12 Thrilling … [Read more...] about Saxophone Legends Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp Are Still Pushing Jazz Forward