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Tag: Albert Ayler

2020

Thursday, December 24th

sounds of Chicago

Saturday I posted the first of these two (wonderful) performances; here’s the second.

Mars Williams presents: An Ayler Xmas Vol. 4 (Night 2) (Mars Williams, tenor saxophone, toy instruments; Josh Berman, cornet; Jim Baker, piano, viola, ARP synthesizer; Krzysztof Pabian, bass; Brian Sandstrom, bass, guitar, trumpet; Steve Hunt, drums; Peter Maunu, violin), live (performance begins at 5:15), Chicago (Constellation), 12/19/20

 

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lagniappe

random sights

other day, Oak Park, Ill.

*****

reading table

An empty day without events.
And that is why
it grew immense
as space. And suddenly
happiness of being
entered me.

I heard
in my heartbeat
the birth of time
and each instant of life
one after the other
came rushing in
like priceless gifts.

—Anna Swir (1909-1984), “Priceless Gifts” (translated from Polish by Czesław Miłosz and Leonard Nathan)

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2019

Tuesday, June 18th

like-nobody-else x 2

Cecil Taylor Trio (CT, 1929-2018, piano; Jimmy Lyons, alto saxophone; Sunny Murray, drums) with Albert Ayler (1936-1970, tenor saxophone), “Four,” excerpt (C. Taylor), live, Copenhagen, 1962

 

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lagniappe

reading table

A Bomb upon the Ceiling
Is an improving thing –
It keeps the nerves progressive
Conjecture flourishing –

—Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), from 1150 (Franklin)

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2019

Monday, June 3rd

what’s new

Mavis Staples with Ben Harper, “We Get By” (B. Harper), published 5/15/19

 

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Another take.

Live (TV show), published 5/21/19

 

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lagniappe

musical thoughts

Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe

—album title, saxophonist Albert Ayler, 1969

(Taking a break—back in a while.)

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2018

Sunday, December 16th

timeless

Albert Ayler (tenor saxophone, 1936-1970) with Donald Tyler (trumpet), et al., “Our Prayer” (A. Ayler), Live in Greenwich Village (Village Vanguard), 1967

 

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Oak Park, Ill.

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2016

Monday, August 22nd

wake up!

Albert Ayler (1936-1970), live, Europe, 1966

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2014

Sunday, August 24th

four takes

“Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”

Isaiah, live, Chicago, 2014


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Albert Ayler, recording, 1964


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Parliament Funkadelic (“Swing Down, Sweet Chariot”), live Houston, 1976


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Fisk University Jubilee Quartet, recording, 1909

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2013

Sunday, September 8th

two takes

“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”

Bessie Griffin (with Charles Barnett, piano), live, Switzerland (Montreux Jazz Festival), 1981


*****

Albert Ayler (AA, saxophone; Call Cobbs, piano; Henry Grimes, bass; Sunny Murray, drums), recording, 1964


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lagniappe

reading table

To live is to lose ground.

—E. M. Cioran (1911-1995; translated from French by Richard Howard)

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2011

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Happy (75th) Birthday, Albert!

Albert Ayler, tenor saxophonist, July 13, 1936-November 25, 1970

*****

Albert Ayler Trio (Albert Ayler, ts; Gary Peacock, bass; Sunny Murray, drums), Spiritual Unity (ESP), 1964

“Ghosts: First Variation”

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“The Wizard”

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“Spirits”

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“Ghosts: Second Variation”

More? Here. And here. 

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lagniappe

random thoughts

OK, let’s talk physics. One problem with the term “free jazz” is that it suggests a sound world in which there’s no center of gravity—a world where everything pushes outward, where centrifugal force rules. But the reality, with many of the greatest artists, is different. Centripetal, not centrifugal, force is king. The musicians push inward, not outward, toward a center none ever inhabits individually but, collectively, they are always moving toward.

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The contributions of Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray are hard to overstate. Sidemen? There are none.

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Like Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler is at heart a blues musician—one who, like Ornette, expanded the blues vocabulary.

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radio

Today, from noon to 9 p.m. (EST), WKCR-FM (broadcasting from Columbia University) is all Albert Ayler.

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2010

Monday, 4/12/10

listening to history

The sound quality may be pretty raggedy, but that hardly matters—this is history.

Albert Ayler, tenor saxophone (“Love Cry,” “Truth Is Marching In,” “Our Prayer”), live, John Coltrane’s funeral, St. Peter’s Lutheran Church, New York, July 21, 1967

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lagniappe

Click for a clearer image.

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Pinelawn Memorial Park, Farmingdale, New York

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Trane was the father. Pharoah was the son. I was the holy ghost.—Albert Ayler

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2009

Monday, 9/21/09

Here, on this last day of summer, saxophonist Albert Ayler takes the Gershwin classic to the far shores of the blues—where (as you’ll hear) the livin’ most certainly ain’t easy.

Albert Ayler, “Summertime”

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lagniappe

reading table

Yesterday, I happened upon this radio interview with New Yorker literary critic (and Harvard professor) James Wood, which I found quite interesting (but then, as an old English Lit major [and one-time high school English teacher], I’m a sucker for this sort of stuff). (Bonus: It’s followed by an interview with director Jane Campion, talking about her new John Keats/Fanny Brawne movie, Bright Star. Oh, and speaking of poetry: If you’d like to receive, via email, a daily dose of one of the finest Japanese haiku poets, you can subscribe to “Issa Haiku-a-Day” here [you’ll be glad you did].)

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