Albert Ayler - Live in Greenwich Village (1965)

Live in Greenwich Village was Albert Ayler's first recording for Impulse, and is arguably his finest moment, not only for the label, but ever. This double-CD reissue combines both of the Village concerts -- documented only partially on previously released LPs -- recorded in 1965 and 1966 with two very different groups. The Village gigs reveal the mature Ayler whose music embodied bold contradictions: There are the sweet, childlike, singalong melodies contrasted with violent screaming peals of emotion, contrasted with the gospel and R&B shouts of jubilation, all moving into and through one another. On the 1965 date, which featured Ayler, his brother Donald on trumpet, Joel Freedman on cello, bassist Lewis Worrell, and the great Sunny Murray on drums, the sound is one of great urgency. Opening with "Holy Ghost," the Aylers come out stomping and Murray double times them to bring the bass and cello to ground level in order to anchor musical proceedings to their respective generated sounds. "Truth Is Marching In" casts a bleating, gospelized swirl against a backdrop of three- and four-note "sung" phrases that are constantly repeated, à la a carny band before kicking down all the doors and letting it rip for almost 13 minutes. On the 1967 date of the second disc, the Aylers are augmented with drummer Beaver Harris, violinist Michel Sampson, Bill Folwell and Alan Silva on basses, and trombonist George Steele on the closer, "Universal Thoughts." "For John Coltrane" opens the set with a sweltering abstraction of tonalities in the strings and horns. On "Change Has Come," the abstraction remains but the field of language is deeper, denser, more urgent. Only with "Spiritual Rebirth," which opens with a four-note theme, does one get the feeling that the band has been pacing itself for this moment, and that the concert has become an actual treatise on the emotion of "singing" as an ensemble in uncharted territories. Throughout the rest of the set, Ayler's band buoys him perfectly, following him up through every new cloud of unknowing into a sublime musical and emotional beyond which, at least on recordings, would never be realized again. This recording is what all the fuss is about when it comes to Ayler.

By Thom Jurek in All Music Guide

Styles:
Free-Jazz
Avant-Garde

Tracks:
CD1
01 - Holy Ghost (07:41)
02 - Truth Is Marching In (12:42)
03 - Our Prayer (04:45)
04 - Spirits Rejoice (16:22)
05 - Divine Peacemaker (12:37)
06 - Angels (09:53)

CD2
01 - For John Coltrane (13:40)
02 - Change Has Come (06:24)
03 - Light In Darkness (10:59)
04 - Heavenly Home (08:51)
05 - Spiritual Rebirth (04:26)
06 - Infinite Spirit (06:37)
07 - Omega Is The Alpha (10:46)
08 - Univeral Thoughts (08:22)

Line-up:
Albert Ayler - tenor saxophone
Don Ayler - trumpet
Michel Sampson - violin
Bill Folwell - bass
Henry Grimes - bass
Beaver Harris - drums

Don Cherry - Symphony for Improvisers (1966)

For his second album, Symphony for Improvisers, Don Cherry expanded his Complete Communion quartet -- tenor saxophonist Gato Barbieri, bassist Henry Grimes, and drummer Ed Blackwell -- to a septet, adding vibraphonist Karl Berger, bassist Jean François Jenny-Clark, and tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders (who frequently plays piccolo here). The lineup has a real international flavor, since Barbieri was from Argentina, Berger from Germany, and Jenny-Clark from France; Cherry had gigged regularly with all three during his 1964-1965 sojourn in Europe, and brought them to New York to record. With all the added firepower, it's remarkable that Symphony for Improvisers has the same sense of shared space and controlled intelligence as its predecessor, even when things are at their most heated. Once again, Cherry sets up the album as two continuous medleys that fuse four compositions apiece, which allows the group's improvisational energy and momentum to carry straight through the entire program. The "Symphony for Improvisers" suite is the most raucous part of Cherry's Blue Note repertoire, and the "Manhattan Cry" suite pulls off the widest mood shifts Cherry had yet attempted in that format. Even though the album is full of passionate fireworks, there's also a great deal of subtlety -- the flavors added to the ensemble by Berger's vibes and Sanders' piccolo, for example, or the way other instrumental voices often support and complement a solo statement. Feverish but well-channeled, this larger-group session is probably Cherry's most gratifying for Blue Note.

by Steve Huey in All Music Guide

Styles:
Free-Jazz
Avant-Garde

Tracks:

01 - Symphony for Improvisers: Symphony for Improvisers/Nu Creative Love/What's Not Serious?/Infant Happiness (19:43)
02 - Manhattan Cry: Manhattan Cry/Lunatic/Sparkle Plenty/Om Nu (19:17)

Line-up:

Don Cherry - cornet
Gato Barbieri - tenor saxophone
Pharoah Sanders - tenor saxophone, piccolo
Karl Berger - vibes, piano
Henry Grimes - bass
Jean-François Jenny-Clark - bass
Ed Blackwell - drums

Albert Ayler - Goin' Home (1964)

Albert Ayler was confronted with a spiritual anxiety that both plagued and comforted him throughout his life. This is frighteningly clear listening to the highly intense musical yin and yang that was present February 24, 1964, when the tracks for Goin' Home and Witches and Devils were recorded. Ayler plays tenor and soprano saxophones on "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," "Deep River," "Goin Home," "Down by the Riverside," "When the Saints Go Marchin In," and "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen." These traditional compositions are treated with reverence and a lack of improvisation, played in a quietly passionate but respectful manner. They reveal a sensitivity that was obscured with the emotionally charged tenor screeching of the Ayler originals that were also recorded at this session: "Witches and Devils," "Spirits," "Holy, Holy," and "Saints." Black Lion reissued Goin' Home with double takes of "Down by the Riverside," "Ol' Man River," and "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot." The Goin' Home rhythm section is held together by the gospel-influenced piano style of Call Cobbs. This was the first time the saxophonist had played with Cobbs, who, like Ayler, was from Cleveland and had recently moved to New York. Free jazz stalwarts Henry Grimes' bass and Sunny Murray's drums rounded out the proceedings, following Ayler and Cobbs lead, sounding more accessible than they had on previous recordings. While Goin' Home and Witches and Devils haven't been released together on one compact disc, obtaining both and playing them back to back makes for an amazing comparison in moods and styles.

by Al Campbell in All Music Guide

Styles:
Avant-Garde
Free-Jazz

Tracks:
01 - Goin` home (4:26)
02 - Ol’ man river (5:25)
03 - Down by the riverside (take 6) (4:39)
04 - Swing low, sweet chariot (4:30)
05 - Deep river (4:15)
06 - When the saints go marchin’ in (4:12)
07 - Nobody knows the trouble i’ve seen (4:44)
08 - Ol’ man river (take 1) (4:58)
09 - Swing low, sweet chariot (take 1) (4:49)
10 - Down by the riverside (take 5) (4:28)

Line-up:
Albert Ayler - tenor saxophone
Call Cobbs - piano
Sunny Murray - drums
Henry Grimes - bass

Cecil Taylor - Unit Structures (1966)

After several years off records, pianist Cecil Taylor finally had an opportunity to document his music of the mid-'60s on two Blue Note albums (the other one was Conquistador). Taylor's high-energy atonalism fit in well with the free jazz of the period but he was actually leading the way rather than being part of a movement. In fact, this septet outing with trumpeter Eddie Gale, altoist Jimmy Lyons, Ken McIntyre (alternating between alto, oboe and bass clarinet), both Henry Grimes and Alan Silva on basses, and drummer Andrew Cyrille is quite stunning and very intense. In fact, it could be safely argued that no jazz music of the era approached the ferocity and intensity of Cecil Taylor's.

by Scott Yanow in All Music Guide

Styles:
Free-Jazz
Avant-Garde

Tracks:
01 - Steps (10:20)
02 - Enter, Evening (Soft Line Structure) (11:06)
03 - Enter, Evening (Alternate Take) (10:11)
04 - Unit Structure/As of a Now/Section (17:47)
05 - Tales (8 Whisps) (07:14)

Line-up:
Cecil Taylor – piano, bells
Eddie Gale Stevens, Jr. – trumpet
Jimmy Lyons – alto sax
Ken McIntyre – alto sax, oboe, bass clarinet
Henry Grimes – bass
Alan Silva – bass
Andrew Cyrille – drums