Albert Ayler Albums (19)
'Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe'
Release Date 3/11/2003
Tracks 6
Label Verve
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What The Critics Say
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe is a powerful and often ignored recording from the Albert Ayler catalog. It is a prophetic statement dealing with guilt, confusion, sorrow, and hopes of redemption. A powerful rhythm section of Bobby Few on piano, Stafford James and James Folwell on bass, (Folwell on electric fender bass), and Muhammad Ali on drums manage to take a backseat to the prominent vocals of Ayler's business associate and girlfriend Mary Parks, listed on the record as Mary Maria. Her emotional vocals are featured on "Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe," "Man Is Like a Tree," and "Island Harvest." Throughout these tracks Maria sounds as if she is pleading and reasoning not just universally, but directly with Ayler, trying to convince him of the positive aspects of life and her evangelistic shouts of "be healed" on the title track can prove uncomfortable. "Masonic Inborn" is an instrumental track finding Ayler not only overdubbing cacophonous bagpipe solos but also playing ocarina. "Oh Love Is Life" is Ayler's sole vocal performance on the album, his words and vocal delivery are truly frightening. This is a dreamlike plea to the sources haunting his soul to succumb to universal love. Following the intensity of the previous five tracks, the album closes with the hazy gutbucket blues of "Drudgery" reminiscent of the New Grass sessions, adding guitarist Henry Vestine of the blues rock band Canned Heat. Ayler's musical curtain was eerily closing the same way it started -- playing the blues of his high school summer vacations as a member of Little Walter's band. Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe, along with tracks that were released posthumously on the Last Album, were recorded at the same session. While not easy listening, they complete an important portrait of a man facing a life and death inner struggle beyond the boundaries of jazz. The inevitable outcome culminated on November 25, 1970, when Ayler's drowned body was found floating in New York's East River. Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe was reissued for the first time on CD by Verve in March 2003. ~ Al Campbell, All Music Guide
'The Hilversum Session'
Release Date 11/26/2002
Tracks 6
Label Coppens
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What The Critics Say
The Hilversum Session by Albert Ayler is one of those legendary recordings in free jazz. It was recorded in a Netherlands radio studio in front of a small invited audience, at the end of the Ayler Quartet's European tour on November 9, 1964. The band -- Ayler, Don Cherry, Gary Peacock, and Sunny Murray -- had been playing Ayler's tunes for months and were uncanny in their ability to hear one another and improvise together at that point. It was also the last time the group would record together under Ayler's name as a quartet, and they went out at a peak. The recording itself remained unissued until 1980 when it appeared on an LP on the long-defunct Osmosis label. It made a brief appearance on CD on the Coppens imprint before the most recent edition -- and likely its final home on the ESP-Disc label (which has also acquired the rights to the Holy Ghost: Rare & Unissued Recordings (1962-70) box set originally released by Revenant). Most of the tunes were, and remain, fairly common Ayler creations. "Ghosts" was recorded numerous times in 1964, and "Spirits" first appeared on Witches & Devils but also appeared on a record with the same title; both appeared on Spiritual Unity; while the tune "C.A.C," is actually the original title for the cut "The Wizard," also from Spiritual Unity. According to the liner notes, the closing number "No Name" was added as a coda to the infamous "Bells," issued in 1965, and in its relatively melodic beauty reveals another dimension to the fierce but inspiring improvisation by this quartet, who would take Ayler's skeletal melodies and move them to the margins of musical language itself. "Infant Happiness," by Cherry, is the only piece not authored by Ayler. The saxophonist kicks it off before he is joined by the trumpeter near the end of bar four in a knotty but wonderfully nursery rhyme-like melody that is reminiscent of the music Cherry had played with his former and future boss Ornette Coleman. This set is a defining moment, not just historically, but musically. The intense listening and interplay that goes on here is inspiring. Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray may have played better elsewhere, but they never played with the kind of deep communication they enjoyed together as a rhythm section and with other front-line players than they do here. Ayler is no longer striving to find the outer limits of spiritual expression in his music; it's all on display here, and Cherry, the inveterate and outrageously talented listener/musician is in full bloom, untethered as a soloist, yet, like the other three, remaining an inextricable part of a band. These cats play together with the kind of intuition and foresight only a seasoned group can; they understand the nuances of the language they are speaking and know how to offer those to the listener emotionally, musically, and even culturally. Finally, as for the sound of the recording, it has never been better. The remastering job is excellent, providing excellent fidelity and balance -- not always the case on the ESP-Disc offerings in the past. Included in the package are fine liner notes by Russ Musto, and a neat poster of Ayler. If someone would take the same care with Ayler's Lörrach, Paris 1966, recordings (owned by Hat in Switzerland) and reissue those in this fashion, we would have a definitive recorded portrait of the great saxophonist. This is a welcome issue. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Nuits de La Fondation Maeght, Vol. 1'
Release Date 9/3/2002
Tracks 8
Label Water
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What The Critics Say
These recordings were previously available as separate volumes and now are packaged together as a double set. These concerts were recorded after Albert Ayler's attempts at more commercial efforts and shortly before the discovery of his death...This was a historically important recording without a doubt, and if not given concentrated attention, very satisfying in many ways. ~ Bob Rusch, Cadence, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Possibly the most notorious Albert Ayler release and universally misunderstood (i.e., hated) by fans and critics alike. When New Grass was released in 1968 it received a hostile outcry of "sell-out." Listening to New Grass in hindsight; it must be taken into account that even though commercial elements are apparent -- a soul horn section, backup singers, boogaloo drumming from Bernard "Pretty" Purdie, and electric rock bass -- Ayler's vocals and tenor playing could hardly gain commercial radio exposure at any time. It's likely Impulse prodded Ayler to move into a more pronounced blues-oriented sound and he went willingly. Ayler wasn't a stranger to R&B or gutbucket blues; he had started his career playing saxophone with Chicago bluesman Little Walter in the '50s. Ayler's screeching tone remains intact on New Grass, but it's mixed with definite R&B riffs like the obvious honkin' nod to "Slippin and Sliddin" on "New Generation." Ayler's attempt to explain himself on the opening track with "Message from Albert Ayler," reveals his impending dread over controversy concerning the material. It is a problem many artists face at some point in their careers when trying to move in a different direction, no matter what the reason; they may end up losing a majority of their audience by taking a foreign approach. Interested listeners now have another chance to hear New Grass, as it was issued for the first time in America on CD in 2005 by Universal/Impulse. ~ Al Campbell, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The two concerts presented on this disc represent two of the finest dates of Albert Ayler's European tour of 1966. The band -- with brother, Don, on trumpet, violinist Michael Sampson, drummer Beaver Harris, and bassist William Folwell -- was in fantastic shape and performed beyond expectation on both evenings. What is most noticeable about these dates and how they fill in a part of the Ayler mystique as a performer was to hear how immediately he would dictate a marching rhythm, theme, or folk song melody, or even perhaps a child ballad. It was important to acknowledge, right from the beginning in these tunes for a European audience, where this music came from and what continuum he was part of. The opener is "Bells," and for the longest time a Sousa marching rhythm precedes an eight-note melody. Like Ornette Coleman, he uses Sampson's violin and Donald's trumpet to move that melody through the modulation of the rhythm section before taking off into something else, someplace where the saxophone can become a real and true extension of the human voice. The squealing and honking and wailing all become part of a choir of voices forgotten by history, yet inextricably tied to it as ciphers and ghosts. The theme of "Bells" and those of "Our Prayer," "Ghost," "Holy Ghost," and "Spirits" all come from the entryway of emotional clarity and parade churchlike through the band, transferring themselves out onto an audience that must have been staring in disbelief. The shock is how well Ayler moves through his harmonic inventions and involves the band without regard for their involvement. He knows they are there; that's enough, and so he speaks freely. His timbral modulations carry emotions directly from the heart through the horn onto the band, who fills them and sends them out, whether tenderly or terrifyingly, onto those in the seats. This is an amazing document, like the Hilversum sessions but better, because the sound is respectable here and matches the grandeur and shocking emotional immediacy of the performances. ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
'Albert Smiles With Sunny'
Release Date 1/1/1996
Tracks 10
Label Bellaphon
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What The Critics Say
Oddly titled, perhaps, but this double disc performs the valuable service of unearthing a 1964 live concert at New York's Cellar Café of the outstanding trio with Ayler, bassist Gary Peacock, and Sunny Murray. The performance is essentially nonstop, seguing from theme to theme with very ample solo space. The music is just about as free and raucous as Ayler ever got. It sometimes sounds as though he's paying the merest lip service to the heads before impatiently investigating the free-form implications of them. Indeed, almost 40 years hence, the music contained herein would still raise eyebrows at most establishment jazz venues. Murray, by this point, is fully into his non-linear, implied pulse form of drumming and Peacock isn't far behind. But it's Ayler upon whom one's focus is riveted, his instrumental voice straining furiously against the bounds of the timeless-sounding melodies he favored, seeking desperately for new footholds. It's at once scary and thrilling hearing a musician put so much on the line, leaving nothing in the bag. If Ayler doesn't quite resolve his issues as forcefully and beautifully as he did on other dates, the quest is no less gripping for it. The recording quality is a little bit boomy, especially the bass, but Ayler fans will find that this is a necessary pickup. The booklet includes some rambling and very bitter notes from Sunny Murray as well as a disjointed but info-packed essay by poet Hartmut Geerken. ~ Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The Slug's Saloon dates are among the recordings that established Albert Ayler's reputation as the iconoclastic legend he was. This May Day performance featured Albert on tenor saxophone, brother Donald on trumpet, Lewis Worrell on bass, Michael Sampson on violin, and a very young Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums. While the recording quality may not be up to some modern-day stereo fascist's standards, there's plenty of fidelity here for most listeners. This is Ayler at his most beguiling and powerful. The set opens with "Truth Is Marching In," which begins with the refrain line from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and turns it inside out into a gospel chant before Ayler just turns his saxophone on the audience like he's some Old Testament prophet, screaming and screeching through the middle as Jackson sticks with him every step of the way, triple timing his bull-roaring wail. The theme is one note played in various cadences; each member begins his solo in turn and soon the entire process of music-making has been reversed -- speaking in tongues has been realized, although everyone on the bandstand and in the audience realizes what's happening. Next up is Donald Ayler's "Our Prayer," which begins with a beer polka theme crossed with a carnival song and turns into marching band music, before becoming unglued in an atonal fury of pure gospel shouting and blues hollering to the heavens. Vol. 1 (the stronger of the two) closes with the truly astonishing "Bells." It's true that Ayler only had a few compositions to his name, but it didn't matter since they were all so open they could be reinterpreted a thousand ways. "Bells" is Ayler's masterpiece, beginning with a mournful violin line that's doubled by Donald and then harmonically amended by Worrell and Albert. This is an offering, a funeral march about to happen. The end of the world has already come and the dead are being mourned. The one phrase is repeated over and again, changed little by little, until at five minutes it is a song of joy. And at nine minutes it's a free jazz blowout that is so thunderous there are dropouts in the mikes. By 16 minutes the cover has melted from your skull and the sun is shining from within and without and you have been transformed forever. Yeah, you need this that bad...what are you waiting for? ~ Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Recorded live at New York's Judson Hall in 1965, Spirits Rejoice is one of Albert Ayler's wildest, noisiest albums, partly because it's one of the very few that teams him with another saxophonist, altoist Charles Tyler. It's also one of the earliest recordings to feature Ayler's brother Don playing an amateurish but expressive trumpet, and the ensemble is further expanded by using bassists Henry Grimes and Gary Peacock together on three of the five tracks; plus, the rubato "Angels" finds Ayler interacting with Call Cobbs' harpsichord in an odd, twinkling evocation of the spiritual spheres. Aside from that more spacious reflection, most of the album is given over to furious ensemble interaction and hard-blowing solos that always place in-the-moment passion above standard jazz technique. Freed up by the presence of the trumpet and alto, Ayler's playing concentrates on the rich lower register of his horn and all the honks and growls that go with it; his already thick, huge tone has rarely seemed more monolithic. Spirits Rejoice also provides an opportunity to hear the sources of Ayler's simple, traditional melodies becoming more eclectic. The nearly 12-minute title track has a pronounced New Orleans marching band feel, switching between two themes reminiscent of a hymn and a hunting bugle call, and the brief "Holy Family" is downright R&B-flavored. "Prophet" touches on a different side of Ayler's old-time march influence, with machine-gun cracks and militaristic cadences from drummer Sunny Murray driving the raggedly energetic ensemble themes. For all its apparent chaos, Spirits Rejoice is often surprisingly pre-arranged -- witness all the careening harmony passages that accompany the theme statements, and the seamless transitions of the title track. Spirits Rejoice is proof that there was an underlying logic even to Ayler's most extreme moments, and that's why it remains a tremendously inspiring recording. ~ Steve Huey, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
From the time he was signed to Impulse in 1966, it was assumed that Albert Ayler's releases on that label would be motivated by an attempt at commercialism. While the music was toned down from his earlier ESP recordings, by no means did Ayler ever make commercial records. Much in the same way John Coltrane's later-period Impulse releases weren't commercial, Ayler simply took advantage of a larger record company's distribution, trying to expose the music to more people. Ayler's uncompromising musical freedom mixed with his catchy combination of nursery rhythms and brass band marches remained prominent on Love Cry. The interplay between the Ayler brothers also remained fiery as younger sibling Donald is heard playing trumpet for the last time on a recording with his brother. Donald was fired from the band (at the suggestion of Impulse) and, unfortunately, was committed to a mental institution for a short stay after these sessions were made. The rhythm section of Alan Silva on bass and Milford Graves on drums continually instigates and propels this music into furious militaristic march territory. Unhappily, the four tracks in which Call Cobbs is featured on harpsichord tend to drag the music down; it's unfortunate his gospel-inspired piano or organ playing couldn't have been utilized instead. The CD reissue contains alternate takes of "Zion Hill" and "Universal Indians." ~ Al Campbell, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Despite the title, this was not Albert Ayler's final album. Music Is the Healing Force was recorded at the same sessions (although it came out first) and a concert from a year later was released on two albums. In any case this date is a bit infamous due to the R&Bish material and a few throwaway tracks. Albert Ayler, an important avant-garde tenor innovator, plays bagpipes on a weird duet with the rock guitarist Henry Vestine, takes an odd vocal on "Desert Blood," backs Mary Maria's singing on "Again Comes the Rising of the Sun" and does what he can on a few passionate but weak instrumentals; Ayler sounds as if he had definitely lost his way. This album is of more interest for its novelty value and historical importance than it is musically. ~ Scott Yanow, All Music Guide
