"His music is more an exhibition of feelings than notes."
—Ralph Gleason
First of all, I proclaim that it is difficult for me to write about Albert Ayler. He is a musician I take very seriously, who was as much a commercial failure as he was as a visionary genius. Creating magical art, he was a giant of American culture.
Lester Young said, “You Got to Be Original, Man!” Albert Ayler was original; however, like Lester Young and Charlie Parker before him, being original came at a price.
Albert Ayler’s music defined the foundations of a revolutionary style that started with Ornette Coleman. This revolutionary style was not well accepted by many of the jazz critics and musicians of the 1960s. I love how Marion Brown defends this new music in the following exchange from a 1966 CODA magazine article:
Ted O’Reilly: Avant-garde music is rather hard to listen to at first and it doesn’t seem to have any relevant viewpoint to what most people are used to. Is this planned in any way Marion?
Marion Brown: I don’t think so.
TR: Do you think it is a natural outgrowth of previous music?
MB: Let us say hope for and not imagine. There’s a link that is direct enough to say for sure that it has its roots in earlier jazz, which is New Orleans. The various phases of development and periods of jazz led to today’s music. It’s an outgrowth of all those things plus a phenomenon of the times.
TR: What other way could jazz have developed? Could you conceive of any other way? A lot of people say that jazz has taken a wrong turn. What other turn was available?
MB: Well, actually none because the influence of Charlie Parker was so overwhelming until his death. He left most jazz musicians lost for a direction to go. Everything was centered around him and, of course, when he died it left a void that no other contemporary of his could fill.
Jazz music up until then had been within the clearly defined limits of bebop, until Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, and Ornette Coleman created a bridge. However, Albert Ayler jumped off the bridge and into the void, creating what he called: “free spiritual music.”
Take a minute and listen to Albert Ayler talk about himself and how he ended up across the pond in Scandinavia to record his first record.
Young Albert with his horn:
John Adams High School in Cleveland, Ohio:
…where he played in the orchestra:
He later joined the US Army:
…and played in the band:
In 1962, he traveled to Sweden leading Swedish and Danish groups on radio sessions and jamming with Cecil Taylor's band at the Golden Circle in Stockholm:
In Sweden, he met Bengt Nordström, a pioneer of free jazz music.
When Nordström heard Albert playing, he asked Albert to record for his independent record label Bird Notes. Recorded in 1963, Something Different !!!!!!!! was Albert Ayler’s first recording:
I like how Swedish saxophone player Mats Gustafsson breaks down Ayler’s first recording:
Ayler is in mean form here… he is biting hard… and struggling… and creating one of the most amazing pieces of music ever.
Some “experts” always claim that the bass and drum was not up to his level and that this music is just a parenthesis in the Ayler discography.
We don’t agree.
Torbjörn Hultkrantz and Sune Spångberg is backing up, commenting and struggling with Ayler in a most creative way. We LOVE this. The research… The struggle… The interaction.
We can hear the music about to come!!!
And isn’t that the most interesting periods in music anyway? Before the new music is defined…. When the research is still happening?
This is exactly right before the term “free jazz” was defined by Ayler himself and his colleagues Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp, Bill Dixon, and others.
It is “jazz” but free… the way the musicians move around the themes and the harmonies… is free… in a way not heard before or after this session, that was recorded by Bengt Nordström himself at the Academy of Arts ( Mejan) or (?) the main hall of the royal academy of music. This has yet to be confirmed, where it actually was recorded.
Now is a good time for an in-depth bio on Albert Ayler, watch My Name Is Albert Ayler, an excellent 2005 Swedish-American 80-minute documentary film. JazzTimes called it, "one of the most starkly beautiful and moving documentaries ever made about a jazz musician.” At the very least, watch the beginning for the rare opportunity to see and hear the Ayler Quintet playing live.
During the mid-1960s, album titles like Jackie McLean’s One Step Beyond, Grachan Moncur III’s Evolution, and Andrew Hill’s Point of Departure signaled a new movement in jazz that would become known as “the New Thing”, a completely new and freer music intended to replace the waning bebop.
This was revolutionary music and like other revolutionary art of the 20th century, Picasso’s Cubism, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, and Pollock’s abstract expressionism, it rocked the status quo.
In 1964, saxophonist Archie Shepp told Downbeat magazine, “The new music reaches back to the roots of what jazz was originally. In a way, it’s a rebellion against the ultra sophistication of jazz.”
My favorite album from this revolutionary period is Albert Ayler’s Spiritual Unity, an absolute masterpiece of modern music.
Albert Ayler explains, “This is the blues - the real blues. It’s the new blues, and the people must listen to this music. This is the only way that’s left for musicians to play. All other ways have been explored.”
Much of Ayler’s exploring took place at Slug’s Saloon in NYC’s East Village. Here is a Slug’s handbill - note at the bottom that Sun Ra and His Atro-Infinity Music play every Monday night:
Here is Ayler in the white coat outside Slug’s with his quintet: his brother Donald Ayler (trumpet); Lewis Morrell (bass); Ronald Shannon Jackson (drums); and Michel Sampson (violin).
However, while Ayler’s music was reaching new artistic heights, the gigs at clubs like Slug’s weren’t paying the bills. Sadly, his peak years as an artist in New York left him financially impoverished. He needed to find a way to get his music across to a larger audience.
Following John Coltrane’s death in July of 1967, Ayler’s life became a series of extremes. Through Coltrane’s advice, Impulse! signed Ayler to a record deal that provided a certain degree of financial stability. At the same time, Ayler’s music was on the verge of a dramatic transformation toward a more commercial rock and R&B sound. Not unlike Miles Davis, Impulse! executives encouraged Ayler’s transformation in order to bring his music to the broader youth culture. However, perhaps the biggest change occurring at this time was Ayler’s relationship with Mary Parks.
Like Betty Mabry’s immediate impact on Miles Davis, Ayler’s new girlfriend, Mary Parks, known professionally as Mary Maria, had a profound impact on him. She encouraged his mystical pursuits and collaborated with him on this transformation.
Here are a couple of photos of Albert and Mary together:
This is an example of where his music was going in 1968 - stick around for his wonderful message at the 2:40 minute mark:
On November 5, 1970, Albert Ayler vanished from his New York home. Three weeks later, his body was found in the East River. The burial took place in Cleveland, his hometown. He was 34 years old.
Here’s one more for the road, Goin’ Home from his Swing Low Sweet Spiritual album recorded in 1964:
Next week, on that Big River called Jazz, we step away from the waterfall and venture into the musical eddies and backwater of Gunter Hampel….
If you like what you’ve been reading and hearing so far on our journey and would like to share this with someone you think might be interested in learning more about our great American art form: Jazz, just hit the “Share” button at the bottom of the page. Also, if you feel so inclined, become a subscriber to my journey by hitting the “Subscribe” button here:
Also, find my playlist on Spotify: From Fred Astaire to Sun Ra.
Feel free to contact me at any time to talk shop. I welcome and encourage that….
Until then, keep on walking….