July  1  2010

News

First Annual Albert Ayler Festival - July 10th

Rather than commemorate the 40th anniversary of Albert Ayler’s death, there are a couple of concerts in July, one in New York, one in London, celebrating the 74th anniversary of Albert’s birth. The First Annual Albert Ayler Festival takes place on Saturday July 10th on Roosevelt Island, New York, and is a free, outdoor festival running from 2 to 10 pm, featuring performances from Giuseppi Logan, Charles Gayle, Gunter Hampel, Marshall Allen and many more. The event has been part-organised by ESP-Disk and full details are available on the festival’s website.

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The Albert Ayler Life Celebration! - July 13th

And on Tuesday, July 13th (Albert’s birthday) there’s a concert at the Vortex Club in London. The concert kicks off at 8.30 pm, tickets are £10 and you can book online on the Vortex site which describes the event thus:

“A very special evening honouring the 74th birthday of the legendary saxman whose influence pervades modern improvised music to this day.

Bassist Jair-Rohm Parker Wells will lead a sextet of some of the leading voices on the scene today. The legendary John Sinclair (spoken word) will provide a narrative backdrop to the spirited group improvisations of Tony Bianco (drums and cymbals), Shabaka Hutchings and Lol Coxhill (saxes), Ian Smith (trumpet) and Simone Weissenfels (piano).”

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Jeff Schwartz Site

Thanks to David Colosi for letting me know that Jeff Schwartz’s biography of Albert Ayler (which was the second website I ever went on - I think the first was yahoo to find it) has changed its address following the closure of GeoCities (rather ironically by yahoo). It’s now available at http://www.reocities.com:80/jeff_l_schwartz/ayler.html. Apologies if there are some dead links to Jeff’s site scattered around this one.

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News of the site

Cricket

Don’t worry, I’m not going to wax lyrical about the most boring game known to man - The Cricket was a magazine produced by Amiri Baraka back in the sixties, and one issue contained the slightly worrisome essay by Albert Ayler, ‘To Mr. Jones - I Had A Vision’. I transcribed that and put it on the site a while back, but it always bothered me that it was one of the things used by various commentators to indicate the slightly questionable state of Albert’s mental health towards the end of his life. I always felt it was just a product of its time. Back in the sixties we were all a bit daft and we all thought (and wrote) daft things to keep in with the current trends. So, when Pierre Crépon sent me a copy of The Cricket 4 containing Ayler’s essay, I thought it might be worthwhile putting the whole magazine on the site to give Albert’s vision of flying saucers and the bible and all the rest, a bit of context. The actual work of scanning the magazine had been done by Richard Koloda in Cleveland, and I’m grateful to him for allowing me to do this. As well as ‘To Mr. Jones - I Had A Vision’, this issue also includes a damning review of New Grass and in the Gossip section, an equally scathing review of a Don Ayler concert, which has also been quoted extensively (admittedly with more reason) as evidence of Don’s declining mental state at the time. So, for a trip back down memory lane when all was peace and love and we all wore flowers in our hair, play your Spanky & Our Gang records, for a trip back to weird and crazy backbiting times read

The Cricket.

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Did the F.B.I. kill Albert , or was it the ghosts?

Pierre Crépon also sent me some issues of Actuel magazine and pointed out a couple of Ayler-related items. The first, which is in the Articles section of the Archives, exemplifies that overtly political approach to Ayler which the French magazines of the time seemed to take. It was published, in response to the news of Albert’s death, in the January 1971 issue of Actuel under the title:

UNE PANTHÈRE NOIRE DE PLUS DESCENDUE PAR LE F.B.I.
(Another Black Panther shot down by the F.B.I.)

The other one is quite bizarre. As bizarre in fact as that French release of The First Recordings with the sleevenotes consisting entirely of quotes from H. P. Lovecraft.  Maybe it’s coincidence, but I do wonder if, while the rest of us either took Albert’s tune titles at face value or dismissed them as hippy nonsense, the French saw a much darker side to his spiritual nomenclature. Click the thumbnails for the full effect and the back button to continue the terrifying tale.

From Actuel (No. 2, November, 1968) - Cartoon (A. Ayler) by J. Tallieu.

                          1                                                        2                                                     3

                          4                                                        5                                                      6

The Wall Street Journal photoshoot?

Pierre also sent me a Byron Allen interview from a 1978 issue of Cadence which contained the following intriguing item:

“CAD: In the early 60s you were considered one of the new, young bright stars of the new music. What were your impressions of that period?
BA: I was never in it at all. As a matter of fact, we all went to a shooting - Albert Ayler’s. And all those people involved in that movement gathered in Central Park one day for the Wall Street Journal and the National Observer could take pictures of us.”

So, here’s the question. Has anybody out there access to the archives of The Wall Street Journal to check on this? The National Observer did run an article on the new music in June 1965 under the title ‘The Moody Men Who Play The New Music’, which was included as an insert in the initial copies of Bells. The article by Robert Ostermann is on this site and there are some small photos accompanying it but nothing suggesting a special photoshoot in Central Park. If anyone can shed any more light on this Pierre (and I) would be grateful to hear from you.,

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And finally ...

Two last items courtesy of Pierre - both adverts. The first for the Fondation Maeght from Jazz Hot (June, 1970) just to make us all weep for past glories. And the second for Live in Greenwich Village (Actuel No. 3, Jan/Feb 1969) which is a great photo of Albert Ayler being hotly pursued by Bill Folwell.

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June  1  2010

News

Albert Ayler: témoignages sur un Holy Ghost

A new book about Albert Ayler has just been published in France. Albert Ayler: témoignages sur un Holy Ghost edited by Franck Médioni, has a preface by Archie Shepp, contributions from Francis Marmande, Michel Le Bris, Robert Latxague, Daniel Caux, Gérard Rouy, Yves Buin, P-L. Renou, Philippe Robert, Jean-Pierre Moussaron, Jean-Louis Chautemps, Daniel Berger, Jacques Bisceglia, Christian Désagulier, Didier Levallet, François Tusques, Raphaël Imbert, Zéno Bianu, Yoyo Maeght and Franck Médioni, and témoignages (testimony) from Gary Peacock, Sonny Rollins, Sunny Murray, Alain Corneau, Bertrand Denzler, Bobby Few, Joëlle Léandre, Archie Shepp, David Murray, Aldo Romano, Michel Portal, François Jeanneau, David Liebman, Joe Lovano, David S. Ware, Charles Gayle, Oliver Lake, Daunik Lazro, Peter Brotzmann, Joe McPhee, Marc Ribot, Ronald Shannon Jackson, Noah Howard, Steve Lacy, Urs Leimgruber, François Corneloup, Sylvain Kassap, Louis Sclavis, Evan Parker, Cecil Taylor and Wayne Shorter. It’s published by Le Mot et le reste, has 332 pages and the ISBN No. is 9782915378887. It’s listed on amazon.co.uk, though not the US site, and there’s a review (in French) here.

The programme on the Paris-based radio station TSF JAZZ about the book which was broadcast on Thursday (and which I did a quick update about last week) turned out to be a three -minute segment. I missed it, of course (Thursday I was painting the landing), but Axel Van Looy recorded it and sent me a copy, and since it hasn’t appeared on the TSF website yet, and since it’s short, I thought I might as well put it on the site:

“His name was Albert Ayler”: Franck Médioni on Albert Ayler: témoignages sur un Holy Ghost

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Calling all Members of the 76th Army Band stationed in Orléans, France in 1959 - 1961.

Donning the mantle of Bing Crosby (I already have the pipe) I now get to do that scene from White Christmas where I call on all Albert Ayler’s army buddies who were stationed with him in France to please get in touch. Not for my benefit, but for Steve Geng who’s currently writing a novel about Paris in 1960 that culminates on Bastille Day when Albert Ayler marched in the Bastille Day Parade with his Army Band. There’s a character in the story loosely based on Albert himself and Steve is hoping to get in touch with some of the fellow members of the band in order to get some background material. Steve himself was an ‘army brat’ who spent some time in Orléans and might even remember hearing Albert practising in a music room in the EM Club at Coligny Caserne. His first book, Thick As Thieves, was published in 2007 and Steve’s website has a mound of fascinating information about that. So, if there is anyone who served with Albert Ayler in France with the 76th Army Band who happens to read this - a bit of a longshot, I know - Steve would love to hear from you. Cut to Rosemary Clooney.

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La Cave

Richard Koloda has emailed to say that Steve Traina is writing a book about the La Cave club in Cleveland (venue for many iconic acts over the years, including Albert Ayler). He’s also putting a reunion show on at a local club at the end of this month featuring some La Cave stalwarts and is talking about the show on his radio programme on WCSB, Saturday, 9 - 11 am (EST).

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May  23  2010

News

Albert Ayler - French Radio Programme - Thursday 27th May

Axel Van Looy has just let me know about a programme to be broadcast on the Paris-based radio station TSF JAZZ this Thursday (27th May) with the title: “His name was Albert Ayler”. I’m not sure whether you can listen to the programme over the internet (it’s on at 8.30, 11.30 and 16.30) but the station’s website has a podcast section, so presumably the Ayler show will be available there after Thursday. The reason for the programme, aside from this year being the 40th anniversary of Albert’s death, is the publication of Albert Ayler: témoignages sur un Holy Ghost by Franck Médioni. This is just a quick update to let you know about the radio programme; I’ll do a feature on the book in my regular update on 1st June.

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May  1  2010

News

Sant’ Anna Arresi Jazz 2010

The focus of this year’s Sant’ Anna Arresi Jazz Festival on Sardinia is Albert Ayler. The festival (the 25th) runs from 24th to 30th August and will feature musicians who either played with Albert or were influenced by his music. The festival website is under construction at the moment but if you’re planning an Italian holiday in August, it’s worth keeping an eye on it for further details.

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Albert in England

As we know, Europe played a big part in the career of Albert Ayler. France saw his first experiments with a new form of jazz when he was stationed there with the army band, and was also the venue for his final recorded concerts. Scandinavia gave him the space to develop his music and Sweden, with the film, My Name Is Albert Ayler, continues to keep his memory alive. The Netherlands gave us The Hilversum Session, Germany, the only published biography of Albert (Peter Niklas Wilson’s Spirits Rejoice) and that tantalising glimpse of the band in full flight during the 1966 tour in Kasper Collin’s film. As far as I know Albert never played in Italy but there is still a positive connection. Prophecy, Live at Slug’s Saloon, Live In Europe 1964-66 and Live on the Riviera all originated in Italy and, of course, in 1980, Donald Ayler recorded that 3 LP set in Florence. And then there’s England.

Apart perhaps from Val Wilmer’s iconic photographs and her chapter on Albert in As Serious As Your Life, England’s main connection with Albert Ayler will always be the infamous concert at the London School of Economics on November 15th 1966, recorded by the BBC, which they then refused to broadcast and subsequently destroyed. I recently came across Humphrey Lyttelton’s account of the concert in his book, Take It From The Top. Humphrey Lyttelton, I should explain for our foreign viewers, was pretty much the face of British jazz when I was growing up in the 50s and 60s. He was part of the trad boom, had a hit with ‘Bad Penny Blues’ (courtesy, it must be said, of the genius producer, Joe Meek) and hosted a long-running radio show on the BBC about jazz. He also fronted the BBC TV series, Jazz 625 and Jazz Goes to College. Later in his career he was also the host of a radio comedy show and when he died a couple of years ago he was generally mourned as a national treasure. However, back in 1966, he was regarded as a bit of an enemy of the avant-garde - definitely part of the old guard, and I always had a sneaking suspicion that he was the one who decided Albert’s show must not go on. So, when I came across his account of the L.S.E. concert quite by accident when I was on the google books site, my imagination filled in the gaps of the annoying ‘snippet view’ and I purchased myself a cheap copy of the out-of-print book, thinking that Humph would own up to the crime. No such luck of course, he just blames ‘the men upstairs’. Still, I thought his account was interesting enough to reproduce below, particularly since it’s the view of someone who was no particular fan of Albert’s.

From Take It From The Top by Humphrey Lyttelton (London: Robson Books, 1975.):

And just to remind ourselves what those wild and crazy guys sounded like just a few days before, here’s the unreleased Stockholm concert from the same tour:

‘Truth Is Marching In’ (8:43)
‘Omega Is The Alpha’ (9:59)
‘Our Prayer’ (7:49)

Donald Ayler (t), Albert Ayler (ts), Michel Sampson (vln), Bill Folwell (b), Beaver Harris (d)
Koncerthus, Stockholm, Sweden, November 10th, 1966

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April  1  2010

Sessionography for Don

Alfie Cook wrote and suggested I add a sessionography for Donald Ayler to the site and provided me with the details. Good idea, so I did it and it’s here:

Donald Ayler Sessionography

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A couple of compilations

Checking out ebay I came across these two Japanese LPs which weren’t listed on the Compilations page of the Discography.

The Artistry of Albert Ayler, a double LP, twins Spiritual Unity with Spirits Rejoice. This Is Freedom is a sampler record for the Freedom label and includes ‘Saints’ from Witches and Devils.

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Albert in Stoke

Not sure whether this will be of interest, but one of the more obscure items on the Tributes page is a song by The Western Trio called Albert Ayler (Dying Words) issued on cassette in 1983. This has now appeared on a website devoted to music from Stoke-on-Trent under the title Bells 2 by The Sons of Monkeys.

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March  1  2010

Sunny’s Time Now

I’ve heard differing reports about the Sunny Murray DVD released last December (haven’t seen it myself yet since it only seems to be available from the distributor and I cling to my faith that everything must one day end up in Poundland), but here’s a review on the Dark Forces Swing Blind Punches blog. And there’s a 2 minute clip from the film at The Wire.

February  5  2010

Ayler’s Christmas Carols

Bernard Stepien has just put an mp3 of Spirits vs. Angels from the Realm of Glory on his page about the Ayler Christmas Carol Concert held in Ottawa on December 22nd. Even though Christmas is over, you should give this a listen - it is really fascinating.

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Are you young or old?
Scared or confident?
Albert Ayler will tell you
who and what and where you are.

[I’m old, scared and live in Stoke.]

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January  1  2010

News

Tribute To Albert Ayler - Live at the Dynamo

A nice way to start the new decade, a new Ayler tribute album from Roy Campbell, Joe McPhee, William Parker and Warren Smith. Released in November on the Future Marge label the CD features a live performance from the Dynamo in Pantin, Paris, recorded on November 21st, 2008. I have to thank Pierre Crépon for sending me the CD which I would have mentioned last month if the Royal Mail hadn’t decided it would be more fitting to wait a while and deliver it on Christmas Eve. So, thank you Santa Crépon.

Ayler tribute CDs are tricky things. On the one hand you don’t want slavish imitations (why bother since we can listen to the originals), on the other, there has to be more than a passing nod to the great man (otherwise it’s just an advertising gimmick). Marc Ribot’s Spiritual Unity group (which also features trumpeter, Roy Campbell) gets round the problem by effectively replacing Albert’s saxophone with a guitar. Henry Kaiser’s Healing Force album (still my favourite tribute CD) does it by giving a fresh insight into the songs of Ayler and Mary Maria, which tend to get overlooked in the Ayler oeuvre (not least by me). Here, we have a classic jazz quartet and one might expect a straightforward recreation of the Ayler/Cherry material. But with musicians of this calibre you’re bound to be surprised. Apart from one obvious nod to Cherry, with the inclusion of DC followed by Vibrations, the bulk of the tunes have more to do with that other trumpetting Don. Anyone who reads these pages knows of my affection for Don Ayler and it’s nice to see someone else who shares it. The following is from the sleevenotes:

“What is the sense of your gathering for a tribute to Albert Ayler?

Joe McPhee: I started to play music when I was 8 years old because my father was a trumpet player. Until I was 28, I only played the trumpet. In the meantime, I heard Albert Ayler’s music and the very first thing that I heard, that grabbed me, was the sound that was completely different from what I’d heard, there was an intensity, there was a spirituality, there was something very special about it that made me want to play the saxophone, so this tenor that you’ll see me play today, it’s all because of Albert Ayler. There are other people, John Coltrane or Ornette Coleman, who are very important in my life, but it was Albert’s sound that made me want to play that.

Roy Campbell: That’s how I felt about his brother playing trumpet, Donald Ayler. I’d never heard nobody playing trumpet like that and it just electrified me and excited me and then, I always thought that Albert’s music and his brother’s was like a circle, was the beginning and the end at the same time—so any point you hit, it’s still a circle. And in different periods of music, they were playing music like March themes and New Orleans and traditional themes, you know, almost like national anthems, but in the same time, when they soloed, they were playing in a vibrational level that was completely different. You know, they came from a circle, so they were playing the beginning and the end at the same time.”

The tracklist in full is:

1. Music is the Healing Force of the Universe (Albert Ayler)                   6:30
2. Muntu (Miriam Makeba) (Tribute to Miriam Makeba)                         15:18
3. Obama Victory Shoutout & Truth Is Marching In (Albert Ayler)           13:49
4. DC (Don Cherry) & Vibrations (Albert Ayler)                                     16:51
5. Prophet John (Don Ayler)                                                               15:05
6. Universal Indians (Albert Ayler)                                                        6:40

Nice to get another version of Don Ayler’s Prophet John (still the standout track for me in the Holy Ghost box). Two items in the set are not strictly Ayler-related but are completely understandable given the date of the concert - Miriam Makeba died on 10th November, 2008 and Obama was elected on November 4th. And what better way to follow the Obama Victory Shoutout than Truth Is Marching In.

There’s a review of the CD on this free jazz blog, which also includes a youtube clip of the band.

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Another Tribute

And speaking of tribute CDs, Sean Wilkie let me know about another, older, Italian one, which I hadn’t got listed on the Tributes page. The Preacher & The Ghost by Nexus (Tiziano Tononi and Daniele Cavallanti), was released in 1991 (Splasc(h) CDH 349) and comprises two ‘suites’, the first called ...Of Ghosts, Witches & Devils. Another approach to an Ayler tribute, not using the tunes, but going with the spirit of the music. Full details, reviews and a clip from one of the tracks are available on the Nexus site.

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Happy New Year from Steve Tintweiss

Steve sent his greetings for 2010 along with the information that Nuits de la Fondation Maeght is now available on youtube. So, if you haven’t already heard Albert’s final recordings, you can sample them here:

1.   In Heart Only
2.   Spirits (part 1, part 2)
3.   Holy Family (part 1, part 2)
4.   Spirits Rejoice
5.   Truth Is Marching In
6.   Universal Message
7.   Spiritual Reunion
8.   Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe

The source for these postings on youtube is the Albert Ayler Depot which is also worth a visit.

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Have Yourself An Albert Ayler Christmas Singalong

Christmas carols played in the style of Albert Ayler, now that’s right up my street, except it wasn’t, it was in Canada. I wish I’d picked up on this earlier but I only came across it the other day. The concert took place at the Mercury Lounge in Ottawa on December 22nd and featured the Bernard Stepien Sextet. There was a preview of the concert on the Ottawa Citizen site:

“If Wynton Marsalis' Christmas Jazz Jams is not your thing, why not attend the Albert Ayler Christmas Carols Tuesday night at the Mercury Lounge in Ottawa?

Three of Ottawa's intrepid free-playing saxophonists are involved -- Bernard Stepien (tenor saxophone, accordion), Linsey Wellman(alto saxophone and bass clarinet) and David Broscoe (baritone and alto saxophones). They will be joined by singer Anna Williams, cellist Mark Molnar, pianist Jennifer Giles, bassist Philippe Charbonneau, and drummer Scott Warren.

Stepien, the project's instigator, says: "The concept of playing Christmas Carols with extreme avant-garde material of the late saxophonist Albert Ayler is no longer considered as adventurous. By now, everybody knows it works .... The reason for this enthusiasm is very simple: Albert Ayler based his compositions mostly on spiritual music which makes the transition to Carols a natural but also all of that avant-garde hype seem to mix well with the energy usually found in Black Church where Ayler played in his teens."

Singing along is welcome, Stepien says.”

And more information is available on Bernard Stepien’s site.

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Joe Rigby

From the snows of Canada we now wing our way to Bonnie Scotland. Sorry, just got a touch of the Alan Whickers. Roy Morris, who runs the Homeboy Music label and has been mentioned in these pages several times before, emailed to say a new Joe Rigby CD  is now available.

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Three from Pierre

Where now? Into the time machine and back to the past courtesy of three items from Pierre Crépon. The first is an article from the Cleveland Call & Post from near the start of Ayler’s career, February 1st, 1964, and it’s especially interesting since it concludes with a reference to “an album of spirituals on the Debut Recording Label” which confirms that Swing Low Sweet Spiritual (which is probably better known in its CD form of Goin’ Home) was not some whimsical afterthought of the Witches and Devils recording session, but was fully intended to be Albert’s next release.

And so to the end. Archie Shepp’s obituary of Albert from The New York Times, December 20th, 1970.

Pierre also sent me a copy of the French Jazz Magazine No. 185 from January 1971, which contains the long article about Albert Ayler  La Bataille d’Ayler n’est pas Finie, with photos from the Fondation Maeght concerts. So, here’s a big picture of a smiling Albert to welcome in the new decade.

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And as the sun sinks slowly in the west ...

... the messageboard once more rises into view, as it always does at the start of a new year. That’s because I’ve archived last year’s What’s New page along with the others. Just thought I’d mention though that Dikko Faust has posted a couple of items there related to Sean Wilkie’s breakdown of the La Cave sessions, so it’s worth a look.

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And finally ...

I used to get my Guardians a day late from the man next door but he’s now switched to the Daily Mail for the free dvds and one does have one’s standards, so I missed this item. Thanks to Richard Leigh for sending me the link and I shall bear it in mind every time I get a promotional email from Verve.

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This site went online in June 2000. The ‘What’s New’ pages from previous years are available below:

Archives

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If you have any information about Albert Ayler (new CD releases, unreleased recordings, personal reminiscences)  or if you can fill in any of the gaps in the discography, or correct any mistakes on the site, then email me, Patrick Regan.

The Message Board is for those wishing to discuss aspects of Ayler’s life and work, so post your topics there. That’s also the best place if you have any questions about Albert Ayler that aren’t covered on this site. Hopefully the real Ayler experts (I’m just a fan) will stop by and give you the answers.

Finally, if you just want to make a brief comment about the site, I’ve added a Guestbook.

Email

Message Board

Guest Book

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