Albert Ayler, Free Jazz Pioneer

Albert Ayler was a jazz visionary who remains to this day, largely unknown. Born on July 13, 1936, in Cleveland, Ohio, Albert began taking alto sax lessons at the age of seven from his father, Edward, who played both saxophone and violin. At the age of ten, he studied sax with Benny Miller, a former sideman with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, at Cleveland’s Academy of Music. He also played the oboe while attending JohnAdamsHigh School in Cleveland. Albert developed his skills quickly, and performing regularly in Cleveland area nightclubs when he was a teenager. He played with such proficiency that he garnered the nickname “Little Bird” (after Charlie Parker) around town. Other early influences on his playing are believed to be Lester Young and Sidney Bechet.

At an age when most youngsters begin driving, Ayler began playing a honking, R&B-style tenor sax with blues singer and harmonica player Little Walter. He spent two summers with that band and, upon graduation from high school, joined the U.S. Army.

He met and jammed with other enlisted musicians during that time, including tenor sax player Stanley Turrentine. He also performed in an Army band while stationed in France, exposing him to the music that would prove to be a strong influence in his later work.

After discharge from the Army in 1961, he returned to LA and Cleveland, but due to his unorthodox style, he found it difficult to find steady gigs. He eventually settled in New York where he formed a quartet with trumpet player Don Cherry, bassist Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray on drums. It was with this group that Ayler began to stretch his limits and create a body of work that is widely regarded today in modern jazz circles. The compositions that arose from this collaboration employed elements of black spirituals, field hollers, New Orleans jazz improvisation, all mixed in with an avant-garde take-no-prisoners style of music. Even in a cutting-edge, jazz metropolis as New York City, the critics didn’t know if he was either extremely gifted or a complete fraud.

His future was poised for take-off into parts beyond what the world had ever heard before. His next group (which included his brother, Donald on trumpet) recorded an album entitled “Bells,” a live concert at New YorkTown Hall. Other performers on that album were Charles Tyler on alto sax, Lewis Worrell on bass and drummer Sunny Murray.

At this point in his career, Ayler began to draw on his experience of playing in the military bands. He employed themes that alternated between marching band or mariachi music, alternated with wild, improvisational solos, an almost primordial New Orleans jazz sound. This was reflected on the album, “Spirits Rejoice” recorded at Judson Hall in New York City by the same group. In a 1970 interview, Ayler described his later styles as “energy music,” contrasting with the “space bebop” played by Coltrane and initially Ayler himself. He continued his musical approach in his next album, “The Village Concerts.”

The mid-60s were characterized by several powerhouse jazz record labels. Each had their own character and style. Columbia was considered the gold standard with artists such as Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Dave Brubeck under contract. Atlantic had modern players like Rahsaan Roland Kirk and the Modern Jazz Quartet. Verve specialized in vocals and Prestige and Blue Note had relied on the overlap of hard bop to the experimental artists like Gene Ammons, Jimmy Smith and Lee Morgan.

Albert Ayler and Pharoah Sanders were signed to the tiny label by the name of ESP records. From the early sixties forward, these two men were building a framework of avant garde artists to follow what had been started in the 1950s by Ornette Coleman, Cecil Taylor, Charles Mingus and John Coltrane.

Impulse! Records stood out from this crowd in its groundbreaking formats, strong financial aspect, creative staff, production, not to mention the artists it had signed (Ray Charles, Johnny Hartman, John Coltrane, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Ahmad Jamal to name a few).

At Coltrane’s urging, Ayler signed to Impulse! Records in 1966. However, even on this fairly modern and avant-garde jazz label, Ayler’s style never enjoyed as large an audience as Coltrane’s. Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp were some of the artists whose music was influenced by Ayler’s style and in particular, his ethereal sense of rhythm.

Ayler, like many black musicians of that period, was cognizant of the impact of his music. He saw his music as a sounding board of the time: “I’m playing their suffering whether they know it or not. I lived their suffering.” However, many of the strongest fans were pushed away and even frightened by the extreme, frenetic sounds coming from some of these groups. In their quest to push the extreme ranges of their instruments, they were losing some of their audience.

In 1967, John Coltrane died and Ayler was one of several musicians to play at his funeral. He once described the avant-garde trinity of the day: Coltrane as “The Father,” Pharoah Sanders as “The Son,” and himself as “The Holy Ghost.”

After Coltrane’s death, Ayler’s path at Impulse! took a decidedly different turn. He fired most of his quintet and rebuilt it, incorporating rock and R&B into his music along with electrified instruments. The album “New Grass” was the end result, which was roundly dismissed by the critics.

Later that same year, Ayler’s brother Donald suffered what had been termed a nervous breakdown. In a letter to a Newark, New Jersey music magazine, The Cricket, Albert had reported that he had seen a strange object in the sky and came to believe that he and his brother had “the right seal of God almighty on our forehead.”

Ayler’s personal demons appeared to be catching up to him at this time. Shortly after his return from a European tour, he disappeared on November 5, 1970 and was reported missing for 20 days. His body was found a few weeks later floating in New York’s East River. The death was ruled a suicide, but there remain several versions of “what really happened” to him. Various rumors circulated about his death: that he was shot by police; 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; he had been killed by the Mafia; or that his death was drug-related—drugs had driven him insane or he was killed by a dealer.

In 1983, Mary Parks shared her memories of Albert’s death. She stated that his mother had always blamed him for involving his brother, Donald, in the musician’s lifestyle. His mother and Donald were always pressuring Albert to look after his brother. Although Albert helped out as much as he could, he did not want to have Donald living or playing with him. After two years of these demands and threats from their mother, Albert’s mental health had apparently taken a turn and he could no longer cope. Although his brother was finally receiving treatment, Albert did not believe that things would get any better for him.

He told Mary that his blood had to be shed to save his mother and brother. He told Mary how he wanted the rights to his music distributed after his death. On the evening of November 5^th, after an argument with Mary, he smashed one of his saxophones and walked out of their house. He ended up taking a ferry to the Statue of Liberty and Mary believed he jumped off as it approached the island.

Albert Ayler was buried at Highland ParkCemetery in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 5, 1970.

 Discography

• 1962: Something Different!!!!!

• 1962: The First Recordings, Vol. 2

• 1963: My name is Albert Ayler

• 1964: Spirits (aka Witches & Devils)

• 1964: Swing low sweet spiritual* (CD release: Goin' Home)

• 1964: Prophecy*

• 1964: Albert Smiles With Sunny

• 1964: Spiritual Unity

• 1964: New York Eye and Ear Control

• 1964: Albert Ayler [live]* (CD release: Live In Europe 1964-1966  (1964 tracks included on The Copenhagen Tapes, 1966 tracks included on Holy Ghost)

• 1964: The Copenhagen tapes [live]*

• 1964: Ghosts (aka Vibrations)

• 1964: The Hilversum Session* 

• 1965: Bells Live at New YorkTown Hall

• 1965: Spirits rejoice

• 1965: Sonny's Time Now (Jihad) (US)

• 1966: At Slug's saloon, vol. 1 & 2 [live]*

• 1966: Lörrach / Paris 1966*

• 1966: In Greenwich Village[live]*

• 1966: The Village Concerts [live]*

• 1967: Love Cry

• 1968: New Grass

• 1969: Music is the Healing Force of the Universe

• 1969: The Last Album*

• 1970: Nuits de la Fondation Maeght Vols 1 & 2 [live]*

• 1970: Albert Ayler Quintet 1970 [live]* (re-released as Live On The Riviera (ESP)

• 2004: Holy Ghost (9 disc box set featuring Ayler’s first and last recordings, plus other previously unreleased material.)

• 2006: The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings

*posthumous releases