ep1str0phy

The HG boxed set is a great document, not least because the book is one of maybe three solid compositional documents we have on Ayler at present (the others being the Jeff Schwartz biography online and the Wilmer chapter in As Serious As Your Life--which is actually included in the book). Also, the boxed set gives a great overview of Ayler's career, and follows through essentially all of the important strains in his recording life. I'd say, ultimately, that it's worth however much money you can get it for (around $90-95 seems to be the basic price). I'm not sure how great it is as a starting point, though, because, as a claimed "rarities" set, it doesn't cover the major recorded junctures (i.e., it gets the periods in there, but it doesn't include many of the pivotal documents that have shaped our understanding of Ayler over the years--the ESPs, the Impulses, etc.). So it's really the choice of the listener--you can come in headlong (and collect the supposedly most "important" documents later on), or you can take the well-tread, if less ambitious steps with the "classic" material. Either way, if you end up loving this stuff enough, you will need to hear all of it.

Go with the ESPs--especially Spiritual Unity--to get some sense of what Ayler could do in a longer-form small group recording. These recordings (w/Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray, and Don Cherry made it a quartet) are, for me, just as important as the "string" band albums toward "getting" some sense of Ayler's overall approach to improvisation and spiritual "ethos".

Hey, whatever the whys and wherefores, at the end of the day, I think the New Grass recording of "Heart Love" is awesome.

..and that was part of the revolution, no? Like Air Lore (like MG suggested, a modern band w/"old" tunes) was pretty much an AACM joint, and Lester Bowie was the preeminent trumpeter of the pre-Wynton generation (and afterward, in my estimation, although the situation gets more ingrained toward the 80's...). But, on a different perspective, just because we're caught up in the connotations doesn't mean that we can't struggle. In fact, I think it might do a disservice to the struggle to say that subconscious predilections can be so easily subsumed--and we struggle against our prejudices, in everything, both because it's hard and because we want something else. But sometimes the hot-wiring is too strong to write off as simple close-mindedness, and then you can look for different ways to deal with it... Brass Fantasy is a perfect example. Under a certain revolutionary structure, you can turn the tools of convention in upon themselves. Part of a reason that that group's revisionings are so potent is that we can't write the preconceptions out--and here are some cats telling us that what we think a song is is perfectly alright, so long as we know that, simultaneously, it can mean something else. And it's terrifically humbling knowing that, even if I still reel whenever I think of "Save the Best for Last", it's possible to take those same connotations and parse out the beauty, and maybe the art. Not to whine about the idea that it's "too hard to open up your mind"--only that, while we're struggling to do so (and we can play the music, but we'll still be biting our lips trying not to grimace), there's something to be said for the confrontation itself. I'm with MG, at least, in saying that it's unprofessional to let prejudices shape your choices--now that's being a whuss.

(Referring to New Grass when you say "kind of a mess?" Because I don't think that Love Cry is anywhere near the oddity that the "R&B" sides are--"art" and "commerce" is right, and was surely what the Ayler/Thiele camp was aiming for on some level, but there were doubtless elements--marketing, preconception-wise, etc.--that got in the way.). Agreed on Vestine, as I think the "drone" piece is just as interesting and ambitious for the period as anything that any of the great free music guys were putting together. Strangely, I find that the sax quartet pieces on the last couple of Impulses are generally the less involving spots (Ayler seems caught in this Stellar Regions sort Coltranish vibe--maybe a commercial suggestion?--and only seldom pops into his more hardcore self)... but the guitar pieces, and even the Mary Maria tracks, are quite unusual and, in their own way, innovative. There's talk, at least, that Ayler was among the first (in Europe in the early 60's) to do the whole sax-vocal poetry thing--too bad the evidence is only in account, and that we'll never have recordings. As far as the "old time religion" thing--sure, his craziness could have been expressed in secular terms, but then he would not have been Ayler. At the very least, we would not have the same arc, and surely not the same music (tho that's a marginally different issue)--now, whether or not religion was the corrupting force is one thing, but I'm with the earlier statements in holding that Ayler's story has a sort of morbid poeticism about it that couldn't have happened any other way. I'm not sure we'd be celebrating his music with the same sense of mythological worship had he not taken the plunge with such a conscious sense of messianic redemption (and the whole Holy Ghost thing--spirit box, flower and all--would only be a quoted footnote, and not a legacy). In the end, maybe the "sacrifical arc" just makes us a lot more fetishistic about an intrinsically talented artist, whose music could have gone on being just as spiritual without the horrendous death. As it is, we've got not only an innovator and a genius, but also a legend.

On an operational level, thinking of a so-called "crappy pop song" generally arouses memories of an associated crappy recording (and vice-versa with "great songs" of any color and great recordings). So yeah, I would agree that there's nothing intrinsically wrong with, say, anything that Tom Jones sings, but whenever I think "Young New Mexican Puppeteer", I think cheese. Like Otis Redding kills "Try A Little Tenderness", but, in certain hands, it can been an irredeemable, sentimental mess.

If you're referring to the life of the band itself (rather than where it fits into Bowie's history), than any. The idea of the group is just so mindblowing to me that I'd like to hear more.

Did anyone here ever catch Lester's 59-piece Sho' Nuff orchestra in action? (one of the legendary ensembles that, it seems, is lost to lore--featuring many of the major AACM and BAG saxes, plus guys like Frank Lowe, Frank Wright, Charles Tyler...)

Red Callender John Carter Horace Tapscott

Ha! Both Lester Bowie and Rahsaan were great with crappy pop tunes. Take your pick.

I've seen that one all over the local stores. Now Bailey was a fine duet player... On a related note, I just purchased the "unofficial" Material album Improvised Music New York 1981 featuring--get this--alongside Bill Laswell, John Zorn, and Charles K. Noyes, the nigh-holy triumvirate of Bailey, Fred Frith, and Sonny Sharrock. It's not quite the blowing affair it could be, but it's a wicked little surprise (and some nice quasi-EAI stuff).

Something to add (and more along JS's perspective)--a quote from a Litweiler Ayler article I actually like: "The most likely explanation for his last two LPs is that this philosphically assured revolutionary was convinced of his ability to communicate within any medium." From a purely romantic perspective, that's as good an explanation as any.

Agree with Simon on these points. There's a gulf between pure "business decision" and economic dynamics conspiring with a desire for money/reaching more people. Then you factor in the psychlogical aspect, and that Ayler was living in dire straits throughout the better part of his stay in NY, and the family situation... As far as the Tyler quote (it was in the Wilmer book, I think)--I subscribe to the old time religion thing. Ayler's Christian messianism is as crucial part of the puzzle as any, at least inasfar as concerns these later years (and the motivation for reaching folks) and the tragic end...

My God, that's hilarious. (Apologies for your plight, if any.)

"with Henry Grimes and gang" ...man, what a wild, in the mix board. I sometimes feel as if you guys are just so in as part of a generation that I can only remotely admire. I heard about this exhibit, and wish I could go (writing a thesis/coping with kid stuff).

It's late, but it's nice to hear so much passion about this stuff... I'm not sure that Ayler's music ever really had a "width"--only that his music sounds truly self-designed up to the Impulse sides. I think the '65-'66 band is one of the most stylistically "centered" ensembles of the whole free generation (hence, I'm sure, why some folks don't like it). I feel as if the Impulse material is more "all over the map", if you will, but it's certainly not Ayler's map--that's for sure (that's what the Cricket New Grass review was saying, in more vitriolic terms).

Sad news--RIP...

That "mixed" group they strung together for Scorsese's "Blues" (the Electric Mud backup group + a few rappers) is a good indication of this. The younger beat/groove crowd loves the hell out of Electric Mud (maybe Verve was counting on a similar thing with the New Grass reissue?).

Glib, JS, but I guess in all the erudition it's easy not to say the basic point (I guess the way Ayler dealt with his desires for a wider audience was just less successul than, say, Ornette--and maybe that had something to do with the specific intensity of the desire, I don't know)... I like Electric Mud.

I'll concur with Soul Stream on this one. I don't have the liners with me, but Pete Brown (Cream's lyricist and one-time head of the Battered Ornaments and Piblokto!) said something very much to that effect. For my part, I think it's clear that Thiele was a driving force in the more "commercial" direction of the Impulses. However, several accounts suggest that Ayler was always involved with the prospect of reaching a wider audience (Nils Edstrom's essay on the Ayler website points to some interesting connections between the saxophonist's capacity for sound projection and his desire to affect the audience; Charles Tyler suggests in numerous spots that Ayler was making overt "commercial" concessions as far back as the Samson band; the 1966 Hentoff interview, of course, has the classic "putting more form in the free form" quote, as well as lots of stuff about reaching a wider audience). Maybe Ayler was embarassed about these later recordings, but, if so, he didn't let it show to too many people (the interviews on the HG boxed set have Ayler dishing what sounds like praise regarding the compositions on New Grass, alongside lots of stuff about the frustrations of the jazz business). Personally, I like a lot of the Impulse stuff--and not talking critically/historically/musicologically, just that, commercial machinations notwithstanding, there's some fine groove/playing there. Perhaps it's just easier to like in hindsight (I think Love Cry is pretty mark, although even Last Album--which is not quite the jarring affair that New Grass is, and probably better on the whole than Music Is...--suffers from some overly restrained playing).

Even Ayler's "Holy Ghost" had a sense of humor...

The debate over Ayler's technical and philosophical influence can go on for days and days (I for one believe that, if no one has emerged who has fully integrated Ayler's style into his/her own, then we've at least had scores of musicians who've come about just as influenced by Ayler as anyone else... Ayler's de-idiomizing, personalist philosophy carried over into dozens of "energy" players who may not have assumed so optimistic a perspective on self-liberating musical innovation). What's clear, though, is that, difficult as it is to understand Ayler, there are scores of folks who are unwilling to so much as take the plunge (which is why I admire the effort, chewy). On the death thing--Mary Parks more or less confirmed it as a suicide, but (from what I can gather) a number of guys still think it wasn't. Speculation is idle, and it's a sad loss (although, perhaps, a self-conscious one on Ayler's messanic part), but I feel as if this is one of those mysteries that the community will never come to agreement on.

Albert Ayler's body was found on November 25, 1970--he had disappeared weeks earlier, spouting messianic rhetoric (detailed in the old WIRE piece and summarized in the infamous but still valuable Schwartz biography). Whatever the circumstances surrounding his death--and they're still a point of controversy--he was a light upon the music, and surely one of the great revolutionaries in modern improv. Spinning Bells right now...

Agreed that the Ellington side acts as a good "gateway", but you gotta go with the original material to get the feel of just what that band could lay down. I think the whole run on Elektra/Nonesuch is a pretty good entrance point in and of itself. What was the deal with Woods?

A terrific player--I'm sorry to see him go. RIP.