Bright Moments

i keep mine in the box! And is the box stored in the attic? we don't have attics (or basements) in florida!

i keep mine in the box!

got mine today! thanks!!

happy birthday!!

happy birthday!!!

is the one on the TVT label the same? also how is sound?

Very sad news. "The bottle" is "Winter in America", originally issued on Strata-East. It was reissued on CD in Europe by Bellaphon (660-51-015) in 1992. I bought my copy off Gil, when he played here soon afterwards. Don't know if this is still available. MG thanks MG!

enjoyed this one but not so much for the cello. would like to track down some of the recommended peggy lee though.

sad news. btw has "the bottle" been issued on cd?

funny thread!

I hear ya! I been checking his website. Can't find a show in New York! Friends Seen and Unseen is my only album of his. It's damn awesome! agreed!!!

i like the friends seen and unseen album!

good luck!!!

pms sent on the 3 bernes and the douglas!

Joe Keenan - My Lucky Star Joe is this Generation's P.G. Wodehouse!

happy birthday!

wow!

fyi - http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=201-MD-CD

from: http://www.geocities.com/jeff_l_schwartz/chpt6.html Chapter 6: 1970 Saxophonist Noah Howard reported seeing Albert Ayler for the last time in the summer of 1970, wearing a fur coat, gloves, and Vaseline on his face. Ignoring the heat, Ayler insisted that he had to "protect himself." Mustafa Abdul Rahim saw Albert after the July 1970 shows in France. Albert was in Times Square with two women who were working with his band. He seemed happy about the French shows, some upcoming recording, and a Japanese tour that was being planned (Wilmer 1980: 110). On November 25, 1970, Albert Ayler's body was found floating in the East River, at the foot of Congress Street Pier, in Brooklyn. He was 34 years old, the same age Charlie Parker had been at his death. Call Cobbs identified the body with Edward Ayler (Wilmer 1997). The medical examiner declared that Ayler had drowned and there was no autopsy (Wilmer 1980: 238) Beaver Harris: I don't know anything about his death, because I'm not a death master. But I have an idea, I feel it wasn't as mysterious as maybe people thought. I don't think anyone did anything to Albert Ayler. 'Cause he was really beautiful ...I don't think Albert would ever do anything to cause that. I think that maybe by some freak accident Albert just drowned. Maybe he was on the bridge and, you know, I don't think anyone did anything to him (Rusch 1983: 19). Charles Tyler: Al was really a sad person despite of his charisma and everything. That "old-time religion" was what caused his sadness; it was in his music. Al was a heavy guy, and there won't be nobody like him. And it seems that in his death he's going to be more so. When he was living everybody thought he was a faker, but now there's a lot of interest in him. Didn't nobody know that he had studied being a musician all his life, that he knew the basics as well as he did. When Al and I played together, we could suppress the natural shit we had learned and make ourselves sound like two crazy people who didn't know nothing about music! But still, someone said Al got depressed and jumped off the bridge. I wouldn't be surprised his religious background followed him through to the end (Wilmer 1980: 111). Bob Rusch (interviewer): Do you know any of the circumstances surrounding your brother's death? Donald Ayler: Naw...I couldn't really tell you. See, like I said, it was only between Mary and him. I guess they know what happened to him. B.R.: No explanation was ever given? D.A.: There have been several situations that possibly came up but nothin' really clear. As far as I'm concerned, I don't know. If it wouldn't be for that situation, I'd be up in New York City right now playing. But the strange situation around my brother's death has always left me kind of leery of the whole situation there. B.R.: Do you fear for your life? D.A.: No I don't really think that 'cause I haven't did anything wrong or like that, against anything that would possibly bring that on myself ...I just don't...it's like a bad vibe, you know. B.R.: Do you feel it was something your brother brought on? D.A.: It's a possibility that he could have brought it on himself, but what can I say. I know that if we had both just been playin' together that the situation between him and that girl there...we'd probably went to the top of the mountains. B.R.: Do you feel she was connected with his death? D.A.: I don't know if she's connected with it, but she probably knows something about it which nobody here knows about it, you know (Rusch 1979: 15-16). Rumors immediately began to spread about the "true" causes of Albert's death: that he was shot by police, that he was killed by the FBI in a plan to suppress Black culture that also engineered the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Malcolm X, Eric Dolphy, Martin Luther King, John Coltrane and others, that his body had been found tied to a jukebox (Swenson 16), that he had been killed by the Mafia, that his death was related to drugs-either that drug use had driven him insane or that he was killed for nonpayment of drug debts, etc. Of all these, the drug rumors especially should be refuted. Though both Beaver Harris and Sunny Murray report smoking marijuana during their tours with Ayler, his substance intake almost certainly never included addictive drugs such as heroin or cocaine. Albert Ayler: Since we are the music we play, our way of life has to be clean or else the music can't be kept pure. I couldn't use a man hung up with drugs, because he'd draw from the energy we need to concentrate on the music. Fortunately, I've never had that problem. I need people who are clear in their minds as well as in their music, people whose thought waves are positive. You must know peace to give peace (Hentoff, "Truth." 17). The cause of Ayler's death remained a mystery until 1983, when Mary Parks, tired of the rumors, shared her knowledge with English discographer Mike Hames. Mike Hames: The strains of surviving as a musician in New York seriously affected the mind of Albert's brother, Donald. Their mother blamed Albert for introducing Donald to the musician's life. She and Donald continuously pressed Albert to look after Donald. Albert helped in several ways, but he did not want Donald to live with him or play with him. After two years of aggravation from his brother and demands and threats from his mother Albert could no longer cope. Although Donald was finally receiving hospital treatment after a nervous breakdown, Albert could not be convinced by Mary that the situation would end. Albert told Mary that his blood had to be shed to save his mother and brother. He even told her how he wanted the rights to his music to be divided after his death. She rang his father but he didn't seem to believe it. Mary's sister then tried to dissuade Albert from taking his life and he promised to think it over (Hames 27). On the evening of November 5, Albert again told Mary, "My blood has got to be shed to save my mother and my brother." After an argument, he smashed one of his saxophones over their television and stormed out of the house. Mary called the police to report Albert missing. Albert took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and jumped off as the boat neared Liberty Island (Hames 27). Edward Ayler: He was truly a genius. Some make it and some don't. He didn't want to push out in front. That's all he wanted-to play. He had all the titles but not a dime ("Albert Ayler, 36"). On December 5, in the afternoon, Albert Ayler's body was buried at the chapel of Highland Park Cemetery in Cleveland, with 55 people, mostly family, in attendance ("Albert Ayler Dies"). Mysterious death came to two musicians closely associated with Ayler in the next year. Henry Grimes moved to California to become an actor and vanished without a trace (Wilmer 1980: 109). On September 21, 1971, Call Cobbs Jr. was killed by a hit and run driver ("Final Bar"). Albert Ayler: The cats, they say the better you are, the harder it is for you to make it but when you make it, you make it big. That's what America is, see. 'Cause they'll copy it from you (Koyama). There is really no way to end this book. I first discovered Albert Ayler's music through the song "Change has Come" on the No Energy Crisis sampler, which I found in a bargain bin and bought because it had a Coltrane song on it. I was stunned by the music and, as I attempted to discover more about Ayler, I found that the intensity of his music was only surpassed by that of the reactions to it. One cannot passively absorb this music. The mind must constantly follow multiple strands of improvisational logic and spontaneous structure. As I write this, in 1993, Ayler's albums are being re-issued, after being unavailable for about 15 years. On trips to rare record shops in L.A. in September of 1990, every store I visited had sold out of the Ayler records they had had in stock in March. Some current musicians, such as Gary Windo, Eugene Chadborne, Lester Bowie, Crazy Backward Alphabet, David Moss, and Gary Lucas have recorded versions of "Ghosts." Pianist Giorgio Gaslini released a CD consisting entirely of solo interpretations of Ayler's compositions. Michael Brecker, a saxophonist who has played with everyone from Horace Silver to Steely Dan to Parliament/Funkadelic to Bruce Springsteen, performs an unabashed tribute to Albert on "Folk Song No.1" from Pat Metheny's 80/81 album. Hardcore punk singer Henry Rollins, in a fall 1990 guest D.J. appearance on a L.A. college station, played over 30 minutes of Albert's music on the air. John Lurie, of the Lounge Lizards, has scored a ballet called "The Resurrection of Albert Ayler"(Perl 115). Many of today's best musicians besides these, such as Vernon Reid, John Zorn, David Murray, Bill Frisell, Elliot Sharp, Peter and Caspar Brotzmann, Universal Congress Of, Borbetomagus, Sonic Youth, the Kronos Quartet, and even David Sanborn, are working in compositional, timbral, or technical territory opened by Albert Ayler. Simply, it is time for this music to rise again.

from: http://www.cleveland.oh.us/wmv_news/jazz39.htm Jazzed in Cleveland Part Thirty-Nine a jazz history by Joe Mosbrook a special WMV Web News Cleveland series Story filed July 31, 1998 More than a quarter of a century after his death, the free jazz music of Cleveland native Albert Ayler continues to receive attention around the world -- and the circumstances surrounding his death at the age of 34 continue to both fascinate and confuse jazz fans around the world. Born in Cleveland in 1936, Ayler was introduced to jazz by his father, Edward Ayler, a lathe operator at the TRW plant in Euclid. Young Albert studied at Benny Miller’s Music School at East 105th and St. Clair and played ball with a childhood friend named Bobby Few. Few told me, "Albert and I used to play baseball together along with his brother, Don Ayler." Few, who later became a world-famous jazz pianist with the Steve Lacy group in Paris, said they were playing jazz gigs together when Albert was going to John Adams High School. "We would play cabaret parties and strip-tease shows," said Few, and I remember very well playing the blues with Albert. He was a very good blues artist at that time." He was also a very good golfer when he was in high school. After serving in the army and being exposed to some American jazz expatiates in Europe, including free jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor, Ayler returned to New York in 1963. He came home to Cleveland the following year and married Arlene Benton. They had a daughter, Desiree. Ayler tried playing his free-form jazz in several clubs around East 105th and Euclid, but hardly set the world on fire. Albert and his brother Donald, a trumpet player, went to New York later in 1964. In New York, according to Jeff Schwartz, in his book Albert Ayler: His Life and Music, Albert met a woman named Mary Parks who became his lover, constant companion, sometimes collaborator and manager of his business affairs. Schwartz quoted Parks saying later, "I would like to think that I was a force who continually inspired him at times when he only wanted to meditate." By August of 1968, Albert Ayler had made several records and was playing in New York City with his regular group which included pianist Call Cobbs, bassist Bill Fowell and drummer Beaver Harris. Ayler had fired his brother, Don, from the group. Donald Ayler later said he left the group because of the increasing influence of Mary Parks on Albert’s music and his life. On November 25, 1970, Albert Ayler’s body was pulled from the East River in New York City. Over the years there have been a variety of theories about how Ayler died. Some said he was shot by the police. Others said he was killed by the FBI in a plot to suppress black culture. Still others said he had been killed by the Mafia with his body tied to a jukebox. In an article in the November 23, 1997 Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday Magazine, writer Michael Drexler wrote, "Most people who knew him say he was murdered over mounting drug debts." But, Ayler’s father, Edward Ayler, told Drexler that he could not accept the theory that his son was killed over drugs. According to the elder Ayler, "He may have smoked a little reefer, but nothing hard." Ayler’s brother, Don, has said that some of Albert sidemen told him marijuana was smoked during some of their shows, however, he said, "Albert’s substance intake almost certainly never included addictive drugs such as heroin or cocaine." Albert, before his death, said, "Since we are the music we play, our way of life has to be clean or else the music can’t be kept pure." Ayler added, "I couldn’t use a man hung up with drugs. Fortunately, I’ve never had that problem." Mary Parks told her version of the death of Albert Ayler to English discographer Mike Hames in 1983. She said, "The strains of surviving as a musician in New York seriously affected the mind of Albert’s brother, Donald. Their mother (Myrtle Ayler) blamed Albert for introducing Donald to the musician’s life and continually pressed Albert to look after Donald." "Albert helped in several ways," added Parks, "but he did not want Donald to live with him or play with him. After two years of aggravation from his brother and demands and threats from his mother, Albert, she said, could no longer cope." According to the English discographer, Mary Parks said Albert told her "his blood had to be shed to save his mother and brother." Thinking very seriously about death at the age of 34, Ayler even outlined how he wanted the rights to his music divided after he was gone. The night he disappeared, Ayler again told his lover, "My blood has got to be shed to save my mother and my brother." He smashed one of his saxophones over their television set and stormed out of the house. Mary called the police to report Albert missing. According to Hames, she said Albert took the ferry to the Statue of Liberty and jumped off as the boat neared Liberty Island -- committing suicide. Ten days after his lifeless body was found in the river, there was a burial service at the chapel of Cleveland’s Highland Park Cemetery. Fifty-five people attended, mostly family members. Donald Ayler, who had suffered a breakdown earlier, was deeply shaken by his brother’s death. For years, Ayler’s father, Edward, frequently played golf at Highland Park Golf Course near his Warrensville Heights home. On the 11th hole of the Red Course, near the cemetery, where there is a simple headstone that says, "Albert Ayler, 1936-1970, the elder Ayler usually pauses to shake his head and remember the tragedy of his older son, the jazz musician many around the world still call "a genius." Edward Ayler tries to make some sense of what happened to his son. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 1998 Joe Mosbrook

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happy birthday!!!