I wanted to put some mp3s on this site for the sake of those people who had maybe heard Ayler's name mentioned somewhere but had never actually heard his music. I hope the record companies involved will understand my motives (I'm trying to promote Albert Ayler in order to keep his records in the catalogue) and will let the mp3s remain on the site, but of course, if anyone objects, just let me know and I'll take them off. Three of the tracks were chosen because they're short. The versions of 'Ghosts' and 'Bells' seemed an obvious choice, and I really like 'Holy Family'. As for 'Change Has Come', that just happens to be my favourite Ayler track of all time.

Ghosts from GHOSTS (1964):

Holy Family from SPIRITS REJOICE (1965)

Change Has Come from IN GREENWICH VILLAGE (1967)

Bells from LOVE CRY (1967)

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Albert Ayler Sheet Music

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I have also added a couple of pages, one listing other people’s versions of Ayler’s tunes, the other listing various musical tributes to Albert Ayler. The full list is also available for download as a text file.

Versions

Tributes

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Finally, I thought the following item about Albert Ayler’s most famous composition should be included here.

The Origin of ‘Ghosts’

From Dan Warburton’s sleevenotes to The Copenhagen Tapes:

“Ayler Records’ Jan Strom claims that ‘Ghosts’ originates in a song called ‘Torparvisan’ (‘Little Farmer’s Song’) which was a hit on Swedish radio in 1961, and the late Bengt Frippe Nordstrom, who recorded Albert at the time, confirmed that Albert performed the song while touring the country with local musicians. A close listening to the 78 rpm recording as sung by Gunde Johansson reveals little melodic similarity between the folk material and any extant Ayler composition to my knowledge, though the harmonic correspondences are clear enough. Then again, it could be argued that, in Scandinavian folk music, Ayler rediscovered the universal tonic-subdominant-dominant cornerstones of Western music, the basic building blocks of the gospel and blues tradition he grew up with.”

Gunde Johansson’s performance of ‘Torparvisan’

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