Jazz Articles about Albert Ayler

About Albert Ayler

Album Review

Albert Ayler Quartet: Reference: Albert Ayler Quartet Goin' Home 1964

Read "Reference: Albert Ayler Quartet Goin' Home 1964" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
October 12, 2026

On February 24, 1964, Albert Ayler entered Atlantic Studios in New York City to record a series of compositions that would help define the saxophonist's legacy and, arguably, alter the course of jazz. The Cleveland, Ohio, native had recently returned from Europe, where he had performed with Cecil Taylor's quartet and at the urging of Swedish saxophonist and clarinetist Bengt Nordström, Ayler recorded a program of jazz standards. That February New York session would eventually be released under ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler Quintet: Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release

Read "Copenhagen, Bordeaux 1966 & Newport 1967 Live First Release" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 9, 2026

Heroin addicts often speak of chasing that first high for the rest of their lives. A similar impulse can be found among devoted listeners of Charlie Parker, the Grateful Dead and especially free jazz, perhaps most intensely among followers of saxophonist Albert Ayler. That initial encounter with Ayler's music, whether live or on record, can feel transformative, even overwhelming. Once experienced, it becomes something listeners spend years trying to rediscover. Maybe you were fortunate enough to hear Ayler ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler Trio: Prophecy Live, First Visit

Read "Prophecy Live, First Visit" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
May 2, 2025

This 1964 New York City recording, now remastered and released on the Ezzthetics label, captures Albert Ayler with Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray at a crucial juncture in the saxophonist's development. This performance at the Cellar Cafe marks an early, vital snapshot of a trio that would become foundational to the free jazz movement. It is a chance to hear Ayler's radical sonic explorations in their initial stages before his sound fully solidified into the intensely spiritual and often ecstatic ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler Trio: Prophecy Live, First Visit

Read "Prophecy Live, First Visit" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
April 13, 2025

No jazz artist has been as polarizing as Albert Ayler. Listeners either revere him as a prophet or dismiss him as a charlatan. To some, his music is a divine revelation; to others, an indecipherable cacophony. But while Ayler's music was undeniably radical, he was no insurrectionist-- he was simply a true original. His sound was Ayler being Ayler. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1936, Ayler's life ended in mystery in 1970 when his body was found floating ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler: Live Greenwich Village to Love Cry Revisited

Read "Live Greenwich Village to Love Cry Revisited" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
December 2, 2024

Nel 1996, quando fu pubblicata la prima edizione della sua biografia dedicata ad Albert Ayler, Spirits Rejoice!, il contrabbassista e musicologo tedesco Peter Niklas Wilson scriveva nella prefazione: “La sua musica resta controversa: per alcuni fu un profeta, per altri un ciarlatano. (...) Ayler resta oggi tanto controverso quanto esile è la base per una discussione obiettiva sul suo contributo alla musica degli anni Sessanta." Anche tra i colleghi musicisti c'era chi ne apprezzava la potenza innovativa e propulsiva e ...

Album Review

Albert Ayler With Don Cherry: 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed

Read "1964 Recordings First Visit Completed" reviewed by John Eyles

by John Eyles
September 2, 2024

In 2020 the ezz-thetics label released the two-disc CD European Recordings Autumn 1964 Revisited which comprised the six November 9th 1964 radio recordings made in Hilversum, the Netherlands, by the quartet of Albert Ayler, cornetist Don Cherry, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, “Angels," “C.A.C.." “Ghosts." “Infant Happiness" (composed by Don Cherry), “Spirits" and “No Name." That album also contained nine other recordings by the same quartet, made in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September 1964. In 2016, the HATology label, ...

Album Review

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

Read "Albert Ayler With Don Cherry 1964 Recordings First Visit Completed" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 26, 2024

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 ...