Albert Ayler's first record for Impulse was a live recording. Taped at the Village Vanguard in December 1966 and the Village Theater in February 1967 it became the last record of his most critically acclaimed musical period (albeit much of this acclaim came after his death), and before he changed direction. A wonderful record, it's really interesting to have two contemporary reviews. One is from Elisabeth van der Mei, a definite "New Thing" believer (see her separate Pharoah Sanders interview). The other from the un-believer (or not convinced) side, but shows how you could be swept away by an Ayler live concert.
Unfortunately I don't have the review sources, which come from a bound folder of Ayler interviews, magazine articles, album and live reviews I recently acquired. The Village Theater review ties in well, the Village Vanguard review looks to be several months prior, but still contemporary.
Albert Ayler
Village Theater, New York City
Personnel: Donald Ayler, trumpet; George Steele, trombone; Albert Ayler, tenor and alto saxophones; Michel Sampson, violin, viola; Joel Friedman, cello; William Folwell, Alan Silva, basses; William (Beaver) Harris, drums.
This concert was the first time I heard the Ayler brothers in person.
Before going, I reread the interview with the Aylers that Nat Hentoff did (DB, Nov. 17, 1966) because I wanted to check the two major impressions I'd had when I first read the article: 1, the Aylers had been unusually articulate about what they were trying to do musically, and 2, they both expressed an interest in, and a knowledge of, New Orleans jazz. The few times I'd heard them perform on records had not led me to believe that they knew where they were going or had ever heard any jazz other than their own.
A chance to share either revelation or misery with someone else became possible when an artist, Phil Featheringill, agreed to go with me. (Older jazz fans will recall that Featheringill once operated a jazz record shop in Chicago and had his own label, Session, during the ’40s.)
Featheringill and I, jazz fans whose involvement predates the swing era, have always had a similar feeling about old and new jazz. In the midst of the moldy fig v. bopper controversy, we didn’t take sides—to us, an essential of jazz was the freedom it allowed a creative artist to express himself now, the way it is.
After hearing Ayler, we still agreed. The group had a valid “sound” of its own. It’s still experimental, far from perfect, and sometimes tedious (as in this concert’s overlong performance of, I assume, Truth Is Marching In), but the over-all feeling we both had was that we had experienced moments of high stimulation and excitement.
I recalled the comments made by the brothers during the aforesaid interview. “Don’t focus on the notes,” said Don in explaining how to listen to the music.
“You have to relate sound to sound inside the music and try to listen to everything together,” Albert added.
In this connection a curious thing happened, While the group was playing Light in Darkness, Featheringill nudged me and said, “Try listening with your eyes closed.” Upon following this suggestion, I began to understand what Don Ayler meant when he said, “Follow the sound, the pitches, the colors. You have to watch them move.”
The entire program featured Ayler music, Printed sheets distributed to the listeners listed 10 compositions by Albert and three by Don, but only eight were played. Since no announcements were made, I’m not sure what the titles were, perhaps Albert's were were Jesu, Light in Darkness, Change Has Come, Heavenly Home, Space Race, Ghost!!, Spirits Rebel, Truth Is Marching In, Passing Through, and Divine Peace Maker; Don’s were Our Prayer, Spiritual Love, and Peace.
Two-thirds of the concert was actually performed by a septet. The harpsichord player, Call Cobbs, listed on the program, failed to appear. For the last three numbers, trombonist Steele joined the group.
Absent from the music was the nihilistic impulsiveness that has been saxophonist Ayler’s on some of his recordings. His harsh sounds are being replaced by a much more lyrical approach. His brother, with whom he is in close musical alliance, performs with thought waves that emulate, but also offer contrast to, Albert’s playing.
But the most significant facet of Albert’s current group is the rapport and inspiration between the horns and the strings. Albert is able to achieve a saxophone timbre that is near a violin’s.
There also were fascinating improvised solos by cellist Friedman.
Albert used two basses, and when he was not soloing, he seemed to devote his time listening closely, with an appreciative smile, to the bass duets. Bassist Folwell, like Sampson, is a classical player. He played almost exclusively arco, while the other bass player, Silva, alternated pizzicato and bowing. Rarely have I been as intrigued by the use of strings in a jazz context; Ayler’s music somehow seems tight for their use.
Albert Ayler
Village Vanguard, New York City
Personnel: Don Ayler, trumpet; Albert Ayler, tenor saxophone; Michel Sampson, violin; Lewis Worrell, bass; Ronald Jackson, drums.
For one Sunday in May the Village Vanguard was engulfed by the Ayler sound. Again Albert Ayler managed to have his music sound different from the last time I heard him, which was only recently.
The addition of a young Dutch violin player, Sampson, gave a different dimension to the music. Sampson joined Ayler when in Cleveland, Ohio, recently, where the violinist was a soloist with the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra.
The group started with Ghosts, one of those hauntingly simple compositions, designed, however, to show all the leader’s virtuosity. A dexterous player, in no way slowed by technical shortcoming, Ayler extracted from his tenor saxophone a wildly varied series of sounds, making “ghosts” travel through an abundance of emotions, playing freely at a height most tenor players can hardly reach and then diving deep into the huskiest ranges of his instrument, coming back to the theme, from which a sparkling trumpet solo grew into a crashing wildfire of sound. Tenor then joined trumpet, surging into a splashing waierfall of music.
Once one learns to listen, patterns become apparent, and their intricacy can be astounding.
Technically brilliant, Sampson was remarkable in showing how two different worlds of music blended into a new sound so exciting and with such a forcefuly feeling of joy for life that it literally stirred a cheering audience to its feet.
Spirits Rejoice and Bells were marchlike tunes with a lot of collective improvisation, quick-moving and kept interesting by keeping the solos on the brief side, bringing a curious resemblance to the marches of the grand days of New Orleans jazz.
Albert Ayler took the opportunity to try out quite a number of new tunes.
There was a tune, untitled as yet, with changing tempos, that builds into a near symphonic pattern; there was what could have been an East European folk song, full of nostalgia, during which sometimes the sound of the tenor and of the violin could hardly be distinguished, together creating a delicate musical weave of exquisite beauty; and Our Prayer, written by Don Ayler, a majestic tune and a real powerhouse, permitting Albert to plunge into a devastatingly forceful solo, with the rest of the group repeating the melody line.
Worrell’s inventive bass playing added greatly to the excitement, and Jackson, although with Ayler only a few months, created an illusion of rhythm rather than a beat. He and Worrell gave that particular brand of strong vibrations indispensable behind the strong Ayler horns.
Albert’s sound has changed again. Some of the harsher aspects of his music have been abandoned, leaving more room for lyrical moments and getting closer to a direct translation of emotion into sound.
When first encountering this free-flowing force, one might be slightly taken aback, but in the end one walks away overwhelmed by the force, joy, and excitement of the Ayler sound.
- Elisabeth van der Mei
Comments
Post a Comment