The New Jazz Musings

In my search for articles I'm finding that quite a few are articulate, intelligent, incredibly insightful and interesting. None more so than this 1971 piece by Barry McRae, published in the Jazz Journal. McRae writes about John Coltrane - The Impulse Years, but expands further outside for perspective and his contemporary position during the 1960s. I've noticed some earlier British articles on Trane miss out versus US journals because it was more difficult to get all the albums. Here however, McRae references not just Trane's Impulse output, but also that of Pharoah Sanders and Alice Coltrane. John Coltrane - The Impulse Years by Barry McRae That jazz has moved forward in both spiritual as well as a musical sense in the sixties is an obvious fact. Preoccupation with aesthetic values has sometimes obscured the total evolutionary picture, however, and a great number of words has been dissipated on the significance of the music rather than its style and format. The early free f...

Words for Albert Ayler : Albert Ayler restored much of the primitive innocence of early jazz to modern music. He either made me laugh or shook me to the depths. There was so much evidence of a warm personality in his tunes and in his sound, and of an honest and truly spiritual dedication in the things he said about his music. Like Jimi Hendrix, his spirit lives on. (From the Letters Page, Down Beat April 1971) THE LEGACY OF ALBERT AYLER by John Litweiler TO BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING. It was Ornette Coleman who revolutionized jazz at the start of the 1960s. It was Coleman with his contemporaries Dolphy, Rollins, Coltrane, and Taylor-who determined that the New Music would be a revolution of sensibility: they did not just introduce new techniques into jazz, they opened the art to a wholly new realm of emotions, discoveries, human statements. Albert Ayler was part of the New Music's second wave, as Joseph Jarman would say. After Coleman and his fellows, an entire musical generation of s...

 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...

 Albert Ayler was considered a leading light in Free Jazz (or The New Thing) where form, structure and timing was broken down and restructured in a prepared or improvisational way. Ayler has been the subject in quite a few other of my blog posts, and one thing is for sure, he lived for his art. In a large part, that wasn't too dissimilar to other artists of the period. He struggled to make a decent living from his music, and for prolonged periods of time he was living in poverty.  In the journal Jazz Monthly from September 1967, WA Baldwin argued that Ayler wasn't so revolutionary in a "free" sense, but he was in his sound. Ayler was heavily influenced by composer Charles Ives, and the way he incorporated marching band music into his compositions. Like Ayler, Ives' main recognition only came after his death. I don't have all the articles, but it appears to be a series of five, the last of which I've previously posted  In Defence of Albert Ayler and The New...

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...