From: smehta@kwela.nynexst.com (Sandeep Mehta)
Subject: Re: Ayler's musical shift
Reply-To: smehta@nynexst.com
Organization: Speech Technology, AI Lab, NYNEX S&T Inc, White Plains, NY
Date: 1 Oct 92 10:36:07


> vek@spacsun.rice.edu (Vincent E. Kargatis) writes:

> Bob Blumenthal's Ayler summary. While discussing NEW GRASS and
> Ayler's shift towards R&B type musics, he says that Ayler "verbally
> denounc[ed] his past excesses". Does anybody know exactly what
> Ayler said about the music he had made in previous years?
> [Curiousity piques as I listen to NEW YORK EYE AND EAR CONTROL.]

In AS SERIOUS AS YOUR LIFE, Val Wilmer alludes to the changes in
Ayler's personality/life-style/companions which seems to be loosely
correlated with his R&B dabblings. Now a lot of this is based on
hearsay from musicians etc. but most of his earlier musical
companions felt that Ayler's relationship w/ Mary Maria (Parks) was
strange and rather unexplicable. In fact, when his body was fished
out of the East River (in Manhattan) it seems that he hadn't been
seen for a while and before that with only Mary Maria. Lots of
speculative stories abounded but I, for one, don't know what really
happened?

There is an album on Impulse! which is called THE LAST ALBUM and I'm
not sure if it was ever officially released (mine is a "demo copy")
but it display some of the electric+r&b influences on Ayler. There is
a chilling blues on side 2 and some unusual vocals on side 1 plus
liners that seem deeply religious/spiritual which I don't dig. Also
note that most of the material is Parks'. Does anyone know what his
last recorded musical output was?

Ayler, Albert                                             Impulse! AS 9208 (LP)
Title: The Last Album                                                          
Recorded: 8/26/1969 - 8/29/1969 at Plaza Sound Studios, NYC                    
Released: 1969
With: Albert Ayler (leader), tenor sax, bagpipe chanter, vocals (vocals on 5,
                             chanter on 1.)                                    
      Mary Maria (Parks), vocals (on 2.)                                       
      Henry Vestine, electric guitar (on 1,4.)                                 
      Bobby Few, piano (on all except 1.)                                      
      Bill Folwell, bass, Fender bass (on all but 1.)                          
      Stafford James, bass (on all but 1.)                                     
      Muhammad Ali, drums (on all but 1.)                                      
Contents: 1) Untitled Duet (Parks/Vestine)                             ( 04:32)
          2) Again Comes The Rising Of The Sun (Parks)                 ( 06:52)
          3) All Love (Parks)                                          ( 08:59)
          4) Toiling (Parks/Vestine/Folwell)                           ( 05:06)
          5) Desert Blood (Parks)                                      ( 05:58)
          6) Birth of Mirth (Parks)                                    ( 05:20)
          7) Water Music (Parks)                                       ( 06:10)
          Total:                                                       ( 42:57)
Purchased: No Date
Comments: prod. by Ed Michel. possibly released posthumously.                  
 

/sandeep
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smehta@nynexst.com
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               "Why do you compose atonally? You've got talent!"
                 -- Strauss to Hindemith, Donaueschingen, 1921.
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