Home » Jazz Articles » Albert Ayler
Jazz Articles about Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler: Quartets 1964: Spirits To Ghosts Revisited
by Chris May
Before considering the music on this disc, something else has to be celebrated—the resurrection of Werner X. Uehlinger's Hat Hut label (see past profiles). Founded in 1975, the Swiss-based company's hatOLOGY series championed European and American outer-limits jazz, producing a large catalogue of newly recorded and legacy material. Sadly, in 2016, financial pressures obliged Uehlinger to sell the back catalogue and the hatOLOGY name to Outhere Music. But just three years later, Uehlinger and Hat Hut are back, with hatOLOGY ...
Continue ReadingAlbert Ayler: Copenhagen Live 1964
by Giuseppe Segala
Il 1964 fu un anno cruciale nella vicenda artistica di Albert Ayler: l'abbondante pubblicazione di suoi lavori, tra cui Spiritual Unity e New York Eye and Ear Control, focalizzò l'attenzione sul sassofonista, sulla sua musica abrasiva e tenera, tellurica e spirituale. Epica. Fu anche l'anno in cui Ayler venne in Europa per la seconda volta, lasciando tracce indelebili del suo passaggio. Copenhagen Live, registrato al celebre Club Montmartre, intreccia le proprie gesta con l'altro CD pubblicato in precedenza dalla stessa ...
Continue ReadingAlbert Ayler: Copenhagen Live 1964
by John Sharpe
Even more than 50 years on, there's still never been anyone quite like Albert Ayler. Or for that matter like this 1964 Quartet, which was one of the few ensembles during his career to match the tenor saxophonist against equally forward thinking peers. Bassist Gary Peacock was fresh from pianist Bill Evans' Trio, cornetist Don Cherry was based in Europe having worked with both Ornette Coleman and Sonny Rollins, while Sunny Murray had held the drum stool in pianist Cecil ...
Continue ReadingAlbert Ayler Quartet: Copenhagen Live 1964
by Mark Corroto
It's almost as if the phenomenon that was saxophonist Albert Ayler was just a dream. Nearly fifty years after his death, listeners (and musicians, for that matter) are still catching up to him, and realizing his gift. His life, like that of Charlie Parker, ended at age 34. But where Parker (an originator of bebop) developed in the musical world of Kansas City, Ayler seemingly stepped off a spaceship to deliver his provocative free jazz. Ayler's early career, ...
Continue ReadingAlbert Ayler Quartet: European Radio Studio Recordings 1964
by Giuseppe Segala
Cosa si può aggiungere alle precise, esaustive note discografiche stilate nel gennaio 2016 da Andy Hamilton per questa splendida edizione delle registrazioni radiofoniche di Albert Ayler effettuate in studio e in concerto nel 1964? Certo, aggiungiamo qualche nostra considerazione a questo ascolto tuttora straordinario di materiali già in precedenza pubblicati, scelti ora dalla svizzera hatOLOGY per European Radio Studio Recordings 1964, ma ribadiamo prima alcuni concetti e informazioni delle note di copertina di questo imperdibile CD. In ...
Continue ReadingAlbert We Hardly Knew Ye
by Mark Corroto
The Chinese mystic philosopher Lao Tzu wrote, “the flame that burns twice as bright, burns half as long." Although he never heard the music of Albert Ayler, we're sure that he would agree the saxophonist's fire music was luminescent. Ayler's career was indeed quite brief, recording only for a period of eight years until his untimely dead at age 34, in 1970. The description of the flame is also apropos, as Ayler was quoted as saying, “Trane was ...
Continue ReadingAlbert Ayler: Spiritual Unity
by Mark Corroto
Fifty years after the recording of Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity, the music (and the man) are still causing tumult. It is not so much that free jazz hasn't been on our radar these past decades, it's just that this recording remains one of those “where were you, when you first heard it?" experiences. Recorded in a very small, hot studio in July of 1964, the album which thrust the new label ESP onto the map, consisted of just ...
Continue Reading
