Albert Ayler - 'Live in Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings'

One of the greatest pioneers of the Free Jazz in the 1960s, Albert Ayler is universally recognized for his contributions but remains the most controversial of the period’s figures.  There are quite a few reasons for this controversy: his relatively limited output (due to his tragic death in 1970 he recorded just for about 9 years between 1962 and 1970), his background (he arrived at the Free Jazz scene from Rhythm And Blues unlike Ornette Coleman or John Coltrane who had years of Be Bop behind them) and his radical approach to improvisation based less on personal virtuosity and more on expressiveness and attack.  In addition, he based his improvisations on many world music influences, rather than on the blues and jazz standards.

Albert started his career in Scandinavia, where he lived in the early 1960s and where his recording career began, leading Swedish and Danish groups on radio sessions and jamming as an unpaid member of Cecil Taylor's band in the winter of 1962–63

Upon his return to New York City in 1964, Albert recorded a series of visionary and now legendary albums: 'Bells', 'Prophesy' and 'Spiritual Unity' for Bernard Stollman's ESP-Disk label.  This was the first American label to provide its artists a total artistic freedom and control of their output.

In 1967 Albert signed with Impulse! Records, where he recorded until his untimely (and mysterious) death.   

On November 5, 1970, he was found dead in New York City's East River, which was treated as a suicide.  Rumors circulated that Albert had been murdered; tied to a jukebox, and dumped in the East River by organized crime.

'Live in Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings', a 2CD set, collects the live recordings 'In Greenwich Village' and 'The Village Concerts', plus an unreleased track, Albert Ayler made for Impulse between 1965 and 1967 at various venues in Greenwich Village.

Albert's group includes his brother Don on trumpet, Michael Sampson on violin, Henry Grimes on bass, Beaver Harris on drums and a few other New York Free Jazz players.  This is an indispensable piece of Free Jazz and Avant-garde history, providing a remarkable portrayal of an artist at his peak.

This is a surprising eclecticism of approaches. While there are some typical raucous free jazz pieces, there are also gospel, soul, classical marches, and an undefinable strange warmth.  It's unrefined, unrelenting free jazz from another realm, and it's some of the best within the niche.

Frenzied, ferocious, and majestic are the words I would use to describe Albert's sound.  At times, his compositions remind me of a marching band or a New Orleans funeral band from another planet parading down a street.  My husband Jerry used to say it sounded like a Mariachi band after taking a handful of acid. 

The first time I saw the film, 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind', during the scene where François Truffaut's character talks to the alien spacecraft through an ARP 2500, which was wired to a keyboard and could play colors as well as tones.  Then the computers take over and it sort of goes off on its own into some sort of alien cerebral disco, when that happened, I was reminded of Albert Ayler's music.

While, I know many of you are not fans of Free Jazz and Avant-garde music.  Humor me here, give it a listen or two, but don't play it and stare at your speakers or listen to it with headphones on.  Instead, listen to it while doing housework/chores or cooking, and let it get into the Gray matter that way.  It's long been my observation that sometimes we try too hard to get into the unfamiliar.

If you are into Free Jazz and Avant-garde music, this album is (for lack of better term), "a pisser"!

For the freeload, what's your favorite scene in 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'?