Usually when reviewing records and being critical, one feels qualms about the artist earning his living, feeding his children and so on, and usually, in my case at least, one has to weigh the balance between justice to the reader and justice to the artist under review. Consequently it comes as a refreshing surprise to be able to say unequivocally that this ridiculous (in its physical proportions) record contains absolute rubbish from first to last. Maybe Mr. Ayler and his mates aren’t trying to put us all on. If they are not, then I am determined that whatever it is they have uncovered should be immediately buried again for another couple of hundred years, by which time the human race may have reached a pitch of decadence when these noises will be acceptable to it.
I can’t tell whether or not Mr. Ayler plays good tenor or not. At a fast tempo his horn sounds like a beserk diesel engine; in slower vein it sounds like a cross between Mezzrow’s tenor and somebody doing something to a saw with an inner tube.
There is a march section in the middle of this assemblage which sounds like a very bad New Orleans band rehearsing. The trumpeter has that kind of bad pitch.
The record, which for some crazy reason (maybe not so crazy) is one-sided only, is also completely transparent and has no label. If this is where it’s at, then I’m not at it any more.
Discography
Bells (20 min)
Albert Ayler (ten); Donald Ayler (tpt); Charles Tyler (alt); Lewis Worrell (bs); Sunny Murray (d). New York Town Hall, 1/5/65.
(ESP Disc, single-sided 12inLP 45s. 3d.)
