I used to listen at Ascension and Free Jazz (and Ayler, AEOC, etc.) when I was preparing my examination at the end of Art School. Because it was pure avantgarde, we were pure avantgarde at Art School, and my parents hated that music B-) .
At that time I snobbed "mainstream" music, that in my judgement included Ellington, Pink Floyd, Dylan and Art Blakey, (the only admitted rock group were the Clash).
Now I am older, bought a little Ellington, more Dylan and Floyd, a lot of Blakey, but I still love Ascension
PS, I have an old italian Lp, wich version do you think I knew?