the of mirror eye

* Albert Ayler: Our Prayer (6.0 mb) | Spirits Rejoice (23.0 mb)
From Live In Greenwich Village : Impulse! Records : IMPD-2-273

Looking back through the archives of this blog, I realized that I hadn’t yet posted anything by this man, Albert Ayler, which is a travesty that I intend to resolve right now. Of the free jazz musicians coming up in the’60’s, he was definitely the most primal and original. Combining the seemingly disparate elements of jazz, marching music, spirituals and traditional music, Ayler created a whole that blew apart the foundations of music. His music is definitely polarizing, with people either loving it or hating it. But in the words of Albert and his brother Don on how to listen to their music:

“One way not to,” said Don, “is to focus on the notes and stuff like that. Instead, try to move your imagination toward the sound. It’s a matter of following the sound.” Albert added: “You have to relate sound to sound inside it. You have to try to listen to everything together.” “Follow the sound,” Don broke in, “the pitches, the colors, you have to watch them move.”

(from the liner notes)

These recordings come after his more infulential trio records. He, along with his brother Don, assembled a much larger band with multiple bassists, drummers, a string section and multiple brass instruments. This is total energy music, with marches and traditional tunes alternating with blow outs of epic proportions.

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