Cecil Taylor trio featuring Albert Ayler - Four by waternogetenemy
https://soundcloud.com/waternogetenemy/four on #SoundCloud
I’ve been on an information hunt about Ayler’s life today because there’s so much contradictory information online. I found an interview with Ayler on youtube and this information is straight from his mouth.
Ayler was 22 when he joined the army. From Ayler’s description he had a great deal of freedom while in the army. He was stationed in France and practiced tenor sax several hours a day. The way he describes working on his scales reminds me a lot of what I know about Coltrane’s approach. While he was in the Army he actually developed a fan base in Sweden. After he was discharged he lived for a short while in Los Angeles then briefly returned to his hometown of Cleveland before deciding to return to Sweden and try to build on what he had established there. From there he was hired by a radio station in Denmark to record an album. That album is
My Name Is Albert Ayler. While he was there he met and performed with Gary Peacock and Cecil Taylor. Ayler describes Peacock as the best bass player he ever met and Peacock told Ayler that one reason he went on long fasts was to attain the kind of purity that Ayler already had. Ayler states that one thing he didn’t like about Taylor was that he was “too hard”. I’ve written before on here about the brutality of Cecil Taylor as a musician and I think that’s what he was referring to. Anyway, Ayler also calls Taylor great and describes following him back to NYC. Ayler gigged with Taylor and Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane used to come see them live. One night after Ayler was heckled Dolphy defended him by calling him the best in the world. Ayler describes Coltrane as a person who never got angry at anyone. Before Coltrane died he requested that Ayler play at his funeral and of course Ayler oblidged.