From: ujwb@uxa.ecn.bgu.edu (Jeff Beer)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Re: Albert Ayler
Date: 30 Sep 92 17:29:57 GMT
Organization: Educational Computing Network

In article <9209301607.AA04766@top.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu> skovitz@MAGNUS.ACS.OHIO-STATE.EDU (Sonia Kovitz) writes:
>OMC: I think I LIKE Ornette Coleman--his "almost" free jazz (not yet ready for
>all-the-way free--referring to myself, not Ornette) thanks to our
>homeboy-data-freak-ground-meat-loaf-librarian.
>
>But Albert Ayler--I just don't GET it?!?!?!!?  (yet)
>
>Sonia

Which Ayler did you listen to?  He has a couple doing standards that are
funny, but his purity of sound wins the day.  Actually, his Summertime
is real deep on that one.

There is "Love Cry" on Impulse that has a harpsichord.  That's the one
I would recommend to Roof.

There are two with Ronald Shannon Jackson, but the sound quality is not
good.  But the playing is.

There are two aspects to his music.  The compositions are usually very
simple folk melodies, from New Orleans.  It is interesting that one of
the first free jazzers goes back to New Orleans the way he did.  Sort of
like they have have to start over, so they go back to the beginning and
take it to a different direction.   It should be noted that the
compositions lead to some very good ensemble improvisations.  I think
Dan Morgenstern once said that Albert Ayler's band sounded like the
Salvation Army Band on acid.  And I think he meant it in a good way,
though coming from Dan Morgenstern (at the time, editor of Down  Beat)
you wouldn't have guessed if you hadn't read the context.

The second aspect is his tenor playing.  I don't know what to say, all
you have to do is keep listening.  This might help:  Ayler said "it
isn't notes, it is feelings".  Pitch classes aren't so important, It is
the rhythmic energy on two planes.  1.  Vibrato  2.  Density of his
sound.  He uses multiphonics on his sax, that is to say, plays more than
one note at a time.  It might be similar to a guitarist using a wah-wah
on a fuzz tone, at least conceptually.  Ayler is perhaps the most
primitive of the jazz avant-gardist.  But he made it easier for a lot of
people, especially John Coltrane.  It is reported that John Coltrane
said to Ayler:  "You play the way I heard myself play in a dream, but
haven't yet been able to figure out how to play."  Pretty good
endorsement.

I don't know what you got, but there is a good recording with Don
Cherry, Gary Peacock, and Sunny Murray.  On Impulse, there is Greenwich
Village, which has a nice Albert Ayler with strings number (sic).  
Then there is Love Cry, which has the harpsichord.   I think his last
album on New Grass is with an R&B band.  Generally, the Impulse sides
have a greater variety of compositions, and they are more
structured in terms of each instrument keeping to their roles.  The
Cherry sessions are what they call in the jazz scene "blowing dates."
That means they play simpler well known themes that everyone knows, with
a minimum of arranging, and then line up to take solos.  Or in free
jazz, everyone takes solos together.

There is a larger ensemble on the ESP disc NEW YORK EYE AND EAR CONTROL.  
It also basically a blowing date too.

Jeff
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