Albert Ayler — The Albert Ayler Story

This lengthy, rigorous compilation is a digital only release, arriving accompanied with a short pdf of liner notes. Its also a really interesting concept for a release, blending interview extracts from pertinent persons with passages of music. I’ve seen this kind of thing before, but often on cd; whereas it seems to me that the mp3 route is perfect for this idea: you can arrange files/playlists to just listen to the music tracks (for example), given that you might want to skip the interview tracks over time. The release, as it says in the title, tells the story of Albert Ayler; a key figure in free jazz, and arguably the most “out there” of the major players. If you’re unaware of Ayler’s work, this compilation is made for you. Personally, I sit in an awkward limbo, where I’ve heard a few recordings but can’t pretend to any great knowledge or even appreciation of the man; so listening to this has been an education as well as a spur to further listening.

I’m not going to pick my way through the entire compilation - its truly expansive, and it probably wouldn’t serve much purpose anyway - and I don’t want to write you a history of Albert Ayler, either - the compilation does that. So instead, I’ll give a vague sense of the contents, as well as as few things that particularly resonated with me. Essentially, the album follows Ayler from his birth until his death; with the earliest recording dating from his time in the US army in the early Sixties. I must admit that, without any help in the matter, I’ve constructed this idea of Ayler as some kind of odd “blip” in jazz: an outsider, a “wild man”. However, his interviews recount him as a child prodigy - and a child prodigy allowed to flourish: he was touring with jazz bands when he should have been in school! This undeniable technical prowess is interesting, given the conservative jazz notions that “he couldn’t play”. He suffered these misunderstandings throughout his time, but was fortunate enough to find receptive ears and minds; indeed, he recounts an episode where he played with Coltrane and Dolphy, only to be asked to leave the stage - whereupon Dolphy told him, “Stick with what you’re doing…”. Throughout his life, his singular vision led him to play with a who’s who of free jazz greats: Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Rashied Ali, Sunny Murray, Gary Peacock, Milford Graves, Henry Grimes… all of which are documented on here. The music tracks cover his entire career (though obviously concentrate on his ESP recordings - the label he was most associated with), from fantastic early pieces - like a wonderful version of “Summertime” with the Herbert Katz Quintet or his solo section from a 1962 date with the Cecil Taylor Quintet - to the more well known recordings from albums like “Spiritual Unity”, “Bells”, and “Spirits Rejoice”.
 
Whilst the music might be the obvious initial attraction, it soon becomes apparent that the interviews are just as important and imbued with spirit. All of the interview extracts are lively and informative, bringing out the many facets of the 60s free jazz scene: the warmth, the love, the energy, the struggle, the humanity. Listening to Sunny Murray chat away is just as pleasurable as listening to his drumming - and the same can be said for Milford Graves. Don Cherry’s hushed tones, as he describes hearing meeting and hearing Ayler for the first time, are genuinely affecting and entrancing. Bernard Stollman, the figure behind ESP, is a regular presence on the compilation and offers an interesting, more distanced view of the proceedings; his thoughts on silkscreening the unusual “Bells” release (one-sided, clear vinyl) will strike a chord with any diy label owner!
 
To some extent, this review would have been better served by just printing two large words: JUST LISTEN. For anyone with an interest in Albert Ayler, or curious to learn more, this is simply essential. For the uninitiated, this is truly a treasure trove of an introduction - what we call a “no brainer”: no further persuasion needed. For those already in love with Ayler, the interviews here may well be the attraction (I don’t think that any of the tracks here are unreleased - if they are, its not flagged up). Beyond the incredible content of the release, I think the music/interview format itself is really worthy of note - a truly great way to present an artist’s work. It would be great to see other labels take on this idea. All “introductory” compilations suffer the fate, that if they do their job well they become redundant - with the listener progressing to the full albums; but the inclusion of interview extracts stop the compilation from being something discardable, and turn it into a statement, a source. It’s obviously ESP-heavy, and the Impulse! years are lighter in coverage, but, taken as a history of Albert Ayler through ESP’s eyes, its a wonderful document… and no ears should miss out on Ayler and Ali slugging it out in 1966!