The New Jazz Musings

The December '66 issue of Britain's Jazz Monthly featured an interview with Albert and Don Ayler by Val Wilmer. As in previous years, Albert Ayler was bemoaning the lack of widespread acceptance and commercial success in the US, and comparing it to Europe. Still almost poverty stricken, they gave a strident interview in support of their Music as Art. Another interesting point was Albert's answer on classical music. Unlike other jazz musicians such as John Coltrane or Charlie Parker, who would listen to and learn from Igor Stravinsky, Albert was likely talking about Charles Ives, who I think was a big influence. Not just in the incorporation of marching band music, but also in identifying with another US musician who didn't get major respect or recognition during his lifetime. ON A RECENT visit to New York I had the good fortune to spend some time talking with Albert Ayler and his trumpeter brother Don. I call it fortunate because the Aylers are not often in New Yo...

During the JATP European Tour of late 1961, Val Wilmer sat down with John Coltrane for an interview, published in the January 1962 edition of Jazz Journal, below. I also have two other blog entries covering this period : John Coltrane's Only British Tour in 1961 John Coltrane in 1961 Conversation with Coltrane - Valerie Wilmer “Melodically and harmonically their improvisations struck my ear as gobble- degook,” wrote John Tynan in the November 23rd Down Beat. He was speaking of the recent musical experi- ments of John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy, experiments which confounded even ar- dent Coltrane supporters when he toured England last year. The in-person sound of Coltrane was so different from his recorded work that most people wondered whether their auditory processes were in order. It seems they were, for Coltrane himself confirmed that his music had radically altered over the last twelve months or so. Meeting the man himself, it is hard to believe that su...

Paul Bley was an important activist and musician in the Free Jazz movement, playing in some pivotal groups. He was a key player in the 1964 October Revolution, and founder of the Jazz Composers Guild. He also became an important proponent of improvised synthesiser music in the early 1970s. The New Jazz Musings - The Jazz Composers Guild AN INTRODUCTION BY KEITH KNOX PAUL BLEY was born on November 10th, 1932, in Montreal, Quebec and commenced his music studies early, playing violin at five and piano at the age of eight. When eleven he obtained a junior music diploma from the McGill Conservatory. At high school he led his own school band, but his first professional job came in 1945 when he took a quartet into the Chalet Hotel, Montreal, for a residency lasting some three years. In 1949, when Oscar Peterson left Canada for the U.S.A. and eventual fame, Paul Bley took over Peterson’s abandoned bassist and drummer, Ozzie Roberts and Clarence Jones, to form a highly successful cockta...