Albert Ayler

The first time I heard Albert Ayler's playing, I felt exhilaration that such a sound was even possible! HUGE! Sonorous! Cutting! Penetrating! Coming up through R&B and Bebop, Ayler became a true titan of the avant-garde Free Jazz movement in the 1960s. If you've never heard his playing, before diving into his truly 'outside' music, give his performance of the classic "Summertime" a listen. All of it is there to be heard in a recognizable melody which helps one to situate themselves in the essentials of his technique: strong vibrato, some overblowing, and large leaps in timbre. 

While immersed in the culture of Free Jazz, Ayler was unique. In some ways, his music harkened back to the earliest days of New Orleans Jazz, with frequent marching band melodies (as in the blistering Bells), as well as his integration of children's songs and gospel hymns. Ayler grew up in a religious family, and spiritual concerns were always present in his music, as his titles clearly show. However, Ayler deconstructed the melody and harmony and presented his playing as a deep exploration of the actual physicality of the saxophone and the physical act of blowing a sax. His use of a thick plastic reed too brings its own physicality to the overall sound and volume!

Ayler, like Eric Dolphy, was also interested in microtonality, trying to find the sounds between the notes of any particular scale or mode. Similarly, he sought to do the same rhythmically, resisting rigid time signatures for a more breathy pulsing, which fell right in line with the approach of his drummer, the legendary Sunny Murray! Jazz historian, Ted Gioia, writes about Ayler as a "virtuoso of the coarse and anomalous" and claims that Ayler aimed to break away from the constraints of playing notes and instead to "enter into a new realm in which the saxophone created 'sound'" When I first read that, I recognized what thrilled me about Ayler's playing: I've always been more interested in music as sound -- the sound of music -- more than any other aspect, and Ayler definitely produced sounds no one else before him ever had. Of course, there were also those who only heard noise where I heard joy-infused soul music!

My first exposure to his music was through the records released by ESP-Disk Records. His trio featuring Gary Peacock on bass and Sunny Murray on drums recorded Spiritual Unity in 1964 and was released in early 1965. This album includes his signature theme, "Ghosts" which he recorded frequently over the years. "Ghosts" was one of the first pieces I learned to play on sax, though I played alto. Give a listen and you can here his emphasizing of timbre as a central aspect of his improvisation, along with melody and harmony. 

That same year, Ayler recorded an improvised soundtrack for Canadian filmmaker, Michael Snow's New York Eye And Ear Control. For this album, Ayler had Don Cherry on trumpet, John Tchicai on alto sax, and Roswell Rudd on trombone added to his band. And then later that year, Ayler, Peacock, Murray, and Cherry traveled to Scandinavia for a tour where they recorded another three albums!

The next year's Spirits Rejoice features a rousing march that explodes into some furious jamming, featuring an expanded band with his brother Donald on trumpet, Charles Tyler on alto sax, Call Cobbs on harpsichord on "Angels" and adding Henry Grimes on bass alongside Gary Peacock. 

On May Day, 1965, at Greenwich Village's Judson Hall Church, Ayler recorded a 20-minute frenetic improvisation which once again features his signature military-march influenced melody. The one-sided album that resulted from this, Bells,  features liner notes from a Downbeat review written by Dan Morgenstern writing "... there seems to be a great deal of wild humor in Ayler's music. Though often vehement, it is a celebration rather than a protest: much of it has the sheer 'bad boy' joy of making sounds."

At the urging of John Coltrane, a big fan of Ayler's music, Impulse Records signed Ayler in 1966. But even with the support of a larger and more respected label, Ayler never achieved a substantial audience. His first album was a live recording, Albert Ayler Live In Greenwich Village.  John Coltrane was in attendance, and Ayler played a song in honor of his friend, "For John Coltrane" in which Ayler played alto sax for the first time in years. 

Coltrane died in 1967 from liver cancer, and before his death he requested that Ayler perform at this funeral. Twice during his performance, it was reported that Ayler pulled the sax from his mouth. The first time was to emit a cry of anguish, and the second time a cry of joy to symbolize his friend's ascension into heaven. Ayler later reported: "John was like a visitor to this planet. He came in peace, and he left in peace; but during his time here, he kept trying to reach new levels of awareness, of peace, of spirituality. That's why I regard the music he played as spiritual music -- John's way of getting closer and closer to the Creator."

There were other albums, some of which hewed more closely to tightly written compositions, some including vocals and a glance back to his early R&B days. His last, Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe, even features rock musicians like Henry Vestine of Canned Heat. 

Ayler went missing on November 5, 1970 and was found dead in New York City's East River on November 25, a presumed suicide. Ayler had, indeed, shown some increasing mental instability for some time before he disappeared.