Albert Ayler
Of all the protagonists of free jazz, Ohio-born tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler (1936) had the shortest career (he first recorded in 1962 and committed suicide in 1970 at 34), but he nonetheless managed to articulate one of the most radical aesthetics, second only to Cecil Taylor's. He often sounded like someone who wanted to create a virtuoso art out of anti-virtuoso playing. Ayler started out playing rhythm'n'blues. By the time he landed in New York, he had developed his idiosyncratic style. One of the giants of free jazz, Albert Ayler was also one of the most controversial.
Of all the protagonists of free jazz, Ohio-born tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler (1936) had the shortest career (he first recorded in 1962 and committed suicide in 1970 at 34), but he nonetheless managed to articulate one of the most radical aesthetics, second only to Cecil Taylor's. He often sounded like someone who wanted to create a virtuoso art out of anti-virtuoso playing. Ayler started out playing rhythm'n'blues. By the time he landed in New York, he had developed his idiosyncratic style. One of the giants of free jazz, Albert Ayler was also one of the most controversial.
Nuits De La Fondation Maeght Volume 2 (LP)
1971 Japanese pressing on RCA of volume 2 of the 1970 live album.
Nuits De La Fondation Maeght (2LP)
1974 Japanese pressing on RCA of the double LP set with the full 1970 concert.
The Last Album (LP)
Original Japanese pressing on Impulse of the 1971 album. With insert and obi.
Swing Low Sweet Spiritual (LP)
Original Dutch edition of the 1971 album with recordings from 1964 featuring Henry Grimes, Sunny Murray ad Call Cobbs, later re-issued with the title Goin' Home.
Goin' Home (CD)
1994 first CD re-issue on Black Lion with different title of the 1971 album originally titled Swing Low Sweet Spiritual with recordings from 1964 featuring Henry Grimes, Sunny Murray ad Call Cobbs.
Prophecy (LP)
1980 Japanese re-issue on ESP-Disk's "ジャズ名盤 Collection" of the 1975 album with recordings from 1964 featuring Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray. With obi.
The Hilversum Session (LP)
Original 1980 Dutch LP on Osmosis with recordings from 1964 featuring Gary Peacock, Don Cherry and Sunny Murray.
At Slug's Saloon Vol. 2 (LP)
Original Japanese pressing on DIW/Base of the 1982 album with a live recording from 1966 featuring Donald Ayler. With insert.
New York Eye And Ear Control (CD)
First 1992 CD re-issue from ESP-Disk' / ZYX Music of the 1964 LP with the soundtrack to the Michael Snow film.
Reference: Albert Ayler Spirits & Spirits Rejoice
The album "Spirits," released by a debut label based in Copenhagen, marked the first opportunity for Ayler to record his "free music" in February 1964 in New York. The musicians selected by him included notable figures such as Cecil Taylor (with drummer Sunny Murray), members from Sonny Rollins' band (bassist Henry Grimes), and musicians from his Cleveland period (trumpeter Norman Howard, bassist Earl Henderson). This work also represents his first focus on his own compositions, which includes H…
Europe 1964
Super tip! Holy ghost music. The real deal. The sound of four men tearing a hole in the fabric of what jazz was supposed to be and letting something else pour through - something ancient and raw and utterly new. In their short time together, Albert Ayler and Don Cherry created a body of music that genuinely exists in the moment. Oblivious to rules and aesthetic boundaries, they played what they felt on their nerve-ends, embracing mistakes and wrong turns as part of the experience of making art i…
New York Eye And Ear Control
Originally released in 1966. Featured artists: Albert Ayler (tenor sax), Ed Blackwell(trumpet), Don Cherry (trumpet, cornet), Sunny Murray (drums), Gary Peacock (bass), Roswell Rudd (trombone), John Tchicai (saxophone, alto sax). Michael Snow is a Canadian national treasure, a true Renaissance man. He assembled a stellar group to improvise a sound track for his art film, titled Walking Woman, featuring a silhouette that is rumored to have been inspired by Carla Bley. Digitally remastered. Manufa…
Sonny's Time Now
** Rare original copies. Early 80s LP reissue. Unplayed copies from a dead-stock, minor wear due to ageing on covers ** A seismic moment in the history of free jazz, Sonny’s Time Now stands as a raw, uncompromising manifesto of musical liberation. Recorded in New York City in November 1965 and released on the visionary Jihad label founded by LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka), this is the first album led by the revolutionary drummer Sonny Murray-and it’s nothing short of essential.
With a lineup that re…
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe
Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe is a powerful and often ignored 1970 recording from the American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer Albert Ayler. Apart from the posthumous album The Last Album, this was to be Ayler's last studio album, recorded and released before his death in November 1970. The album was initially judged as too difficult by Down Beat, then recognized by the most as “an important portrait of a man facing a life and death inner struggle beyond the bounda…
The Copenhagen Tapes
2002 release ** "When you give birth to a free jazz record label by the name of Ayler Records, you must be dreaming of putting out an album of long-forgotten sessions by the great saxophonist Albert Ayler. It took a while (then again, not that long), but producer Jan Ström managed to get hold of two important sessions recorded in Copenhagen. The suitably titled Copenhagen Tapes contain 45 minutes of a performance at Club Montmartre, September 3, 1964, and another 20 minutes recorded in the studi…
Live On The Riviera
2025 stock When Albert Ayler's band went through Customs in July 1970 on their way to play at a festival in France, keyboardist Call Cobbs got held back and arrived a day late. Minus the keyboards, the band played anyway. The music-making of the resulting ensemble is freer and more adventurous than on the quintet's following Maeght Foundation concerts. This unique document, Ayler's penultimate recording, thus brings him back to something close to the trio setting in which he first found fame on …
Live Greenwich Village To Love Cry „Revisited“
"The two reissues presented herein include the last sessions that Donald would record with his brother, bookending a turning point in Ayler’s music. The Village Theater sessions, from late 1966 and early 1967 (the latter without Donald) mark, arguably, a high point in his work to that date, where the musical ecstasy he sought was as close to realization as he ever achieved – and new avenues may have been opening up – whereas ‘Love Cry’, from the summer of 1967, indicates at least partially a piv…
More Lost Performances (Revisited)
"The almost five year span bookended in this particular Ayler revisitation marks, in a certain sense,
the beginning and end points of the most lasting and creative portion of his remarkable, though
sadly brief, career." – Brian Olewnick
Vibrations
2023 stock. "Vibrations is the second album released by American free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler's quartet featuring Don Cherry, Gary Peacock, and Sonny Murray. The album was recorded in Copenhagen in September of 1964. Originally issued by the Freedom label, it also been released under an alternate title, Ghosts. Previously out of print for decades, the recordings were remastered for an audiophile-grade pressing on 180gram vinyl at Pallas in Germany."
Europe 1966
Super tip! Europe 1966 is a box set consisting of live performances from free jazz visionary Albert Ayler. Each of the 4 LPs highlight some of the most magnificent moments on this European tour, showcasing Ayler and his bandmates at the height of their powers. The release includes performances from Berlin, Lorrach, Stockholm and Paris, all of which occurred within a two week span. Ayler's masterful band on this tour included his brother Donald on trumpet, Michel Samson on violin, William Folwell…