Customer Reviews
Albert Ayler's astonishingly powerful and stirring music. - By: Jazzrook, 23 May 2006 
These 'Livein Greenwich Village' performances covering the period 1965-67 are some of the most passionate & emotionalin all of jazz & is arguably Albert Ayler's finest hour(or two!)
Someone once described this music as sounding like "a Salvation Army band on LSD" & it's certainly a potent mixture of childlike themes, New Orleans marching tunes, collective free-for-alls & Ayler's blistering saxophone.
A highlight for me is the Village Vanguard 1966 recording of 'Angels' which is Ayler's impassioned, intensely moving & melodious duet with a pianist who's probably Call Cobbs Jr.
Anyone wanting just one example of Albert Aylerin their collection need look no further than this magnificent double CD which contains astonishingly powerful & stirring music.
There are no halfway houses with...or for... Ayler !!!!!! - By: Mr. Rgs Draycott, 28 Nov 2005 If heavily armed aliens came to Earth & said, "Give us a reason why we should not wipe humans off the face of the planet," I would play them "Angels" from the first disc of this two disc set, & they would leavein shame. It took me a long time to come to a point where I could appreciate Ayler, but this CD, which is among the finest work he ever did, helped a lot. Ayler seemed to believe that every sound that could be made should be a part of music, & this is why he includes "noise"in his playing, along with lightspeed solos, blasts of enormous tonalities, & pure sheets of abstract sound. His melodic statements are simple but played with such force & conviction & such rawness that it demands some sort of reaction from the listener. You will either think you are hearing God's own music or the worst sort of devilish noise; there are no halfway places with Ayler.
This CD set really shows Albert Ayler at his best, combining musical ideas to create the essentially spiritual sound that he heardin his head, a sound that was meant to inspire his listeners to transcendence. This is not easy music to listen to because it violates nearly every rule of not only jazz but music as it is normally played & heard, but it is terribly, terribly important to listen to this music. Why? Because Albert Ayler's music is one of the most pure expressions of the human spirit ever recorded. If you listen to this, I mean really listen, & not try to use it as background music - if you give it your full attention, put aside your preconceptions about what music should or should not be, & open your mind to the sounds on these two CDs, you will be changed. And for the better.
There really was no one like Albert Aylerin jazz during the 1960s. (Or before....or since, tho David S Ware got closein the 90s).Sure, John Coltrane could play monumentally complex sax, only to jettison the learned architecture for a complete reversal of virtuosityin his last works. And Pharoah Sanders could haunt & beguile with mournful cries & yawps. But Ayler was altogether different: he took the scarcest of melodies--folk & church tunes, really--and elevated them to spiritual zeniths. These live cuts were once super hard to find, on a scattering of LPs releasedin the 1970s. Collected as a whole on two CDs, they are a thing of pristine, if boundary-testing, beauty. Ayler takes barely any time at all before wailing into his stratospheric cries on tenor sax, & his brother Donald follows suit on trumpet with nearly the same quick leaps. The extended band includes, at its largest, the Ayler brothers with a full string quartet (Michael Sampson, violin; Joel Freedman, cello; Bill Folwell & Alan Silva, basses) & drummer Beaver Harris. They play numerous, almost easily-recognizable melodies from their oeuvre, including "Truth Is Marching In," "Spirits Rejoice," & "Omega Is the Alpha." They also offer "For John Coltrane," recordedin early 1967 after Trane's untimely demise. Spectacular would be a simple way to describe Ayler's ensemble & his compositions. But it wouldn't be out of proportion to the music. There's a reason, after all, that new jazz scion Anthony Braxton refers to avant-garde jazz of the late-1960s & after as the "post-Ayler continuum." Ayler pushed & pushed. And succeeded.
Virtually everything on here is nothing short of astonishing - By: Gerald Seeley, 28 Nov 2005 "Livein Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse! Recordings" brings together two Albert Ayler LPs, "Albert Aylerin Greenwich Village" & the posthumous "The Village Concerts", together with a track released on a compilation & one unreleased piece, all recordedin Greenwich Villagein Manhattan between 1965 & 1967. Ayler by this point had totally codefied his music, & was still outside of any commercial influence, & the performances are nothing short of astounding.
These recordings find Ayler surrounded by sympathetic musicians, including his brother Don on trumpet, who totally believein what he's doing-- the music is largely familiar sounding march themes playedin harmony & unison by the two horns, supported more often than not by strings, with drumming abandoning timekeeping & instead coloring the music further. Improvisation is fierce, with both Ayler's reachign far beyond themselves-- their playing is clearly inspired. Honestly, just about everything on here is nothing short of astonishingin its beauty & power. Of particular note is "Truth is Marching In" from the first disc-- swelling as Don states the theme & Ayler plays counter & harmony to him while Michel Samson lays full counterpoint on violin & the rhythm section explodes. Also quite interesting is the piano & tenor duet "Angels" & "For John coltrane", again the only piece featuring Ayler on alto accompanied only by four strings.
The sound on these recordings is fantastic-- crisp, clear, & could have been recorded last year. The liner notes include essays by Nat Hentoff & Robert Palmer written for the original LPs most of this material was released on.
If you're new to Ayler, this may be a good place to start, certainly the performance is brilliant throughout. If you're not new to Ayler, you should probably have a copy of this, the material contained here is essential.
