This is not the first work of Albert Ayler I’ve heard, nor will it be the last, and it has had plenty of my attention. This is a harsh, feverish, tense and bitter record; whether it has any importance remains to be seen. When I compare it with Coleman’s Change Of The Century the difference is that Change was essentially vocal jazz in instrumental form, or at least a revision of jazz in human terms; it also drove like mad, as it still does.
Ayler does not swing, and has little or no recognisable human appeal. To say that his music provides sound-effects for a psychological crisis may appear a cheap comment, but it is not at all unreasonable; it may even be construed as a compliment. In current phraseology, Albert Ayler strikes one as an anti-tenor player, deriding the instrument’s essentials and caricaturing its normal handling. But of course Sonny Rollins does the same sometimes – the important difference being that he has first proved his wholly orthodox ability before taking off for a strange destination. In this case, I need only quote the sleeve-note: ‘The timbre of his horn is so broad and gritty it sometimes sounds like an electronic foghorn.’
Spirits starts with a Kerry Dancers type phrase, reminiscent of Ornette’s Ramblin’ but has nowhere like the swing and freedom of that. Witches made me think of a curious tuneless burlesque of Didn’t He Ramble with graveyard effects; extremely odd drumming, at times like a reiterated dry cough. Holy is like Flight Of The Bumblebee played rather slowly by an oriental group, dominated by a very menacing whinny. Saints appears almost sentimental, sounds repulsive, and is something like a virtuoso piece for a mad gypsy violinist. I cannot recommend this record to anyone, but if for any reason this school of music is going to achieve any impact we have some sort of obligation to give it a hearing.
Discography
Spirits; Witches And Devils (18½ min) – Holy Holy; Saints (17 min)
Norman Howard (tpt); Albert Ayler (ten); Henry Grimes (bs); Sonny Murray (d). (Earle Henderson (bs) added for Witches and Holy).
(Transatlantic TRA 130 29s. 9d.)
