Remembering Albert Ayler at the London School of Economics in November 1966

[Dave Garrett]

http://www.londonjazznews.com/2016/11/feature-ghosts-and-spirits-remembering.html

 

Quote

Fifty years Ago next Tuesday 15th November, ALBERT AYLER made his only British appearance when BBC2 recorded a programme at the London School of Economics and later erased the untransmitted tapes. George Foster was at the recording …and in the pub afterwards. Here he writes about his own memories of the evening, and tells the story of what happened to the recording

Edited November 15, 2016 by Dave Garrett

[Eric]

Interesting read, thanks for posting.

[Gheorghe]

Indeed very interesting.Imagine there are still enough people who don´t want to hear 60´s avantgarde. How difficult must it have been then in ´66 for audiences to understand that music.

[sidewinder]

What a great little article by George Foster. Don Ayler sounds like he might have been a handful and a half, on the day. I think I heard that amongst the front row 'seers' was Stan Tracey.

George Foster was also to thank for that Rendell/Carr Qunitet recording at the UCL Union - doff of the cap to him for that and this article.

Edited November 15, 2016 by sidewinder

[JohnS]

I was there too.  I don't remember any interruptions during the performance and there was no evidence that I could see that there were any back stage problems.  I seem to recall that Harris played in a sleeveless vest.   I do remember that it was an astonishing performance dominated by Ayler's sound which had to heard to be believed.    A real spine tingling event and one the most memorable concerts I've attended.

[clifford_thornton]

On 11/15/2016 at 1:31 AM, JohnS said:

I was there too.  I don't remember any interruptions during the performance and there was no evidence that I could see that there were any back stage problems.  I seem to recall that Harris played in a sleeveless vest.   I do remember that it was an astonishing performance dominated by Ayler's sound which had to heard to be believed.    A real spine tingling event and one the most memorable concerts I've attended.

other than Guy K (brownie), are there any other board members here who witnessed Ayler perform?

[paul secor]

I did.

[Caravan]

I heard Ayler in 1964 and 1966.

[erhodes]

I was at the Village Theater concert from February(?) 1967 that was partly released on the Impulse album.

[clifford_thornton]

Sweet, thanks guys. Must've been something else.

[JSngry]

I was blessed with a chance to chat with Shannon Jackson a year or two ago, and that was one of the first things I asked him, what was Ayler's sound like? He got excited about that, and compared it to King Curtis! Not like, literally, but coming from that place and then going out from there.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, I could imagine that -- certainly other interviewees have said as much.

[ep1str0phy]

Two recollections come to mind--(1) Roscoe Mitchell said that Ayler was the loudest saxophonist he'd ever heard, apropos of a conversation he and a friend of mine were having about Coltrane, and (2) an old friend of mine saw Ayler in person in NY in the early 60's--when I quizzed him about which album best captured Ayler's sound, my friend said (almost instantly) "Spiritual Unity." 

Edited November 16, 2016 by ep1str0phy

[Larry Kart]

I heard Ayler in person c. 1965 in a loft above the Village Vanguard with a version of the New York Eye and Ear Control band -- Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, probably Lewis Worrell, and Milford Graves -- and he was by far the loudest saxophonist I'd heard. But I'll qualify that by saying that Ayler's "loud" wasn't at all PAINFULLY loud. Rather, the effect was of an almost impossibly overtone-rich sound that seemed to come up through the soles of your feet and come out the hair on your head. Further, and perhaps most important, the overtone-richness meant that it was not a BLUNT sound; it didn't strike one externally, like a blow to the head or gut, but animated one's being internally. 

[clifford_thornton]

Wow. Thanks Larry!

[ombudsman]

An older friend of mine who is not much for the internet recently told me about seeing Ayler a couple of times. The second time was at Slug's later in the 60s, so, nothing really new to report there. But the first time was a cute story.

He was about 16 or 17 (I think he said it was in '64)  living outside of Cleveland and had just gotten access to a car for the first time. What to do ? So he and his friend decided they should go to a strip club. They found one one Euclid Avenue and went in, where they were the only white people inside. There was an organ trio doing soul jazz type tunes to go along with the strippers, but with this saxophonist who was playing in a way he had never heard. On a break the saxophonist came up and spoke to them at the bar for a minute. Jess didn't recall if he mentioned his name but remembered him being in a suit, being short, and having this white patch in his beard.

He also saw Peter Brotzmann in Cleveland in '69, which was earlier than I realized he had played in the US. He and Peter were reminiscing about that at a show here in Cincinnati a few months ago.

[Steve Gray]

 

I have only just seen this thread.

I was at the LSE gig. 

I was at UCL at the time and George Foster was running the Jazz Club there.

My feelings pretty much match George's.

A friend of mine, also at the LSE gig, found himself in a lift with some of the band including Beaver Harris.

When the lift went up, Beaver made a comment something like "Rocket to the Moon..."