Albert Ayler / Don Cherry: Albert Ayler With Don Cherry 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed

It is possible that in his liner notes for this album, Brian Morton has unraveled the riddle that is Albert Ayler. Was he a genius? A hoaxer? An outsider artist before the term was coined? A person in the grip of autism? An avant-gardist who decided to become a (whisper it) populist? A religious evangelist? A leather fetishist? An out-of-his-tree stoner? The list goes on, the speculation will continue, and it is permissible to tick multiple boxes, or none. But through family circumstances, Morton has been gifted with a unique, or uniquely shared, qualification to peer inside Ayler's head.

There is no need to reveal Morton's conclusion here. As he writes, it is hardly the issue. The music exists on its own plane. One mentions the essay only because it is typical of the sort of take-away extra that Ezz-thetics' liner notes often contain.

The 2xCD set, Albert Ayler With Don Cherry 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed (they may not be snappy but you know where, or at least when, you are with Ezz-thetics album titles), comprises 21 tracks recorded in September and November 1964, live at Club Montmartre in Copenhagen, Denmark, and at a radio station in Hilversum, Netherlands. Ayler and Don Cherry are accompanied by Ayler's rhythm section of bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, the same duo who had recorded with Ayler on his chef d'oeuvre, Spiritual Unity (ESP-Disk, 1965), back in the US a few months earlier.

Six of the tracks on 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed were first released as Ghosts on the Dutch label Debut in 1965, and later released as Vibrations on Freedom in 1973. They have since been released multiple times on various labels. All six tracks were recorded in Copenhagen on 14 September (they make up tracks 10-15 on the Ezz-thetics album). The beauty of the Ezz-thetics release is that it bookends the Ghosts / Vibrations tracks between nine other Copenhagen tracks recorded on 3 and 10 September, and six more recorded on 9 November in Hilversum.

Enough discographical data. This is Ayler during his most happening period, and if you are still reading this, you know that already. And you also know that anyone attempting to describe the music in words is on a fool's errand. So, later.

P.S. The YouTube selection (below) was a tough choice between the music and an audio interview with Cherry, in which he talks about his first meeting with Ayler. Cherry notes that during the encounter he "felt the spirit being in the room. A feeling of bliss." If one makes oneself open to it, the same feeling comes across on Albert Ayler With Don Cherry 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed.

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