A concert of the year two thousand

George Stell sent me a copy of Michael Zwerin's review of the February 25th, 1967 concert by Albert Ayler and his group at the Village Theatre. The review is quite humorous and, in my opinion, more informative than other Ayler concert reviews of the period. It was quite possibly the source of the "Stell" misspelling as well (see previous post). Since I have been unable to find it posted elsewhere on the internet, I am providing it below.

Space Friends

---by Michael Zwerin---

the village VOICE, March 9^th 1967

"Public relations has come to the avant-garde. Last week, I received two press releases in the mail. The first, under the letterhead, “The Ornette Coleman Trio—Ornette Coleman, violin, alto and tenor saxophone, trumpet; David Izenzon, bass; Charles Moffett, drums,” announced a “major presentation of the current season. The Ornette Coleman trio will appear in a joint concert with the Philadelphia Woodwind Quintet…at the Village Theatre on March 17^th.” The other proclaiming “For Immediate Release—from the New Music Feature Service,” invited me to a concert, also at the Village Theatre, on February 25. It was signed, via Xeroxography, “Albert Ayler.”

I went. Public relations, however, ended with the release because the concert looked like a total economic disaster. The theatre was maybe 10 percent filled and a good deal of those seemed to be the Ayler family. The 25^th was a very cold night and the prices were an absolutely frigid $3, $4, and $5. There had been little advertising other than the posters in front of the theatre, which has a capacity of about 2500. Whoever booked it was an optimist with a poor memory because only two months ago, when Ayler played the Village Vanguard, even that little room was far from packed. Audiences seem to stay away from Albert Ayler—a shy, sad-looking little man who has something to say.

The Albert Ayler Octet—Albert Ayler, alto and tenor saxophone; Donald Ayler, trumpet; Michel Sampson, violin; Beaver Harris, drums; Bill Folwell and Alan Silva, basses; Joel Friedman, cello; and Call Cobbs, harpsichord. Beforehand, in the lobby, Cobbs said he wasn’t playing because he had just found out there was no harpsichord in the place. “The music wouldn’t sound right on a piano,” he explained. So strike him, and add George Steele on trombone.

Also add Mary Parks on MC—an avant-garde chick. “Good—evening—space friends,” she said, her golden gown sparkling reflections no doubt from Venus, “tonight—we—will—hear a—concent—of—music—of the—year two—thousand.” With free punctuation she got the concert started 45 minutes late, not apologizing for the delay either. I thought of John Cage’s line about “the importance of being on time for anyone involved with the art of music.” But there’s a logical unreality to Albert’s music—kind of like a Ray Bradbury story—which seems to penetrate people even before he starts playing and the waiting was perfectly okay with everybody.

The tunes, all written by Albert, have names like “Light in Darkness,” “Heavenly Home,” “Spirits Rebel,” and “Truth is Marching In.” They are fiercely tonal, resembling primitive marches or folk songs, and use only three chords, if that many. Improvisation is abstract, spaced by recapitulation of the theme, usually played Germanically by Don Ayler’s trumpet along with a Liszt – cadenza – gone-wild on Sampson’s fiddle. Albert solos most of the time—on some tunes the others do not play at all other than behind him or on the ensembles.

Scot LaFaro revolutionized the jazz bass before he was killed in an automobile accident in the late ‘50s. Instead of just walking , he played swift, complex, melodic obligatos and since then many bass players have delusions of violins. They began using the bow more often and, whether arco or pizzicato, forever lean way over the instrument, both hands near the bridge, eeking the most unlikely harmonies from their instrument. Truly astounding. The only trouble is that, with the increased importance of percussion in the new jazz, the audience usually can’t hear their cascades of notes. At the Village Theatre, though, the trouble was stupid balance, unfortunately common with the avant-garde, because Beaver Harris is one of the better free drummers, keeping a pulse, no matter how abstractly, and keeping it with sensible dynamics.

Anyway, Folwell and Silva made a hell of a visual impression, scooting all over their instruments. I’m pretty sure they were playing some impressive stuff. As a matter of fact, a couple of duets between them, with everybody else tacited, were very lovely and exciting. And one tune featured Albert plus only the cello and two basses. It was cloud-like and dewy music. Albert, who did not squeak on this one, was brilliant in his abstractions, instinct supplying all of the criteria needed. And the three strings were empathetic to perfection.

Now, about Albert’s squeaks…Squeaking is nothing new of course. Illinois Jacquet and Flip Phillips did that years ago. It’s a way of transmitting energy—but it’s too easy a way and I mistrust it. Besides, it hurts my ears. Albert’s squeaking is the low point of his playing. He starts doing it without continuity and stops abruptly without form—an insert, out of context. Few tenor players can get around up there as he can, but if he wants to hear those sounds, why not take up the piccolo or something.

Donald Ayler’s trumpet playing impresses me as being pure chance—no choice—a random combination of fast-flipping valves and embouchure adjustments. Every solo sounds alike. He rarely holds a sustained note. When he does, however, a pleasant sound comes out (I mean that as a compliment). More of that would be nice.

Albert’s music is strangely warm and loving. The freneticism I once minded so much seems less pronounced now than two years ago. Maybe I am better tuned to him—or possibly he has matured some. Either way, I was wrapped up in the music and stayed until the end of his concert, something I’ve never wanted to do before.

But without more artistic handling, Ayler will continue to be only the obscure underground hero he now is. That’s a shame too, because, given the chance to hear it, a lot of people could find his music important."

Science, jazz, and the “unknown” trombone player

“I was an avid listener to an FM radio program that disk jockey Ed Beach had every morning.  I tuned in one morning in the middle of a Gary Peacock chorus, which caught my attention, and then Albert came in on the recording and it blew my mind.  Found out where he was playing and went there with my trombone, introduced myself, and sat in.”  - George Stell

And the rest was history.  Well, not exactly.  Pick up a copy of Albert Ayler's "Live in Greenwich Village" album or read a review of the February 25th, 1967 concert at the Village Theater and you will probably find “George Schnell" or "George Steele" credited as the trombone player.  Both are incorrect.  The trombonist was George Stell, now an emeritus professor of physics at Stony Brook University.  The errors appear to have originated in the initial reviews of the concert and have been repeated through the years; in fact, to my knowledge the misspelling has not been corrected on any release of the material.  However, Revenant did get the spelling correct in their "Sightings" section of the wonderfully researched book that was included in the Holy Ghost Box Set; so rest assured that the truth is slowly marching in....  

A few examples collected from reviews and comments on the Village Theater performance highlight the uncertainty that seems to have existed at the time regarding the mysterious trombone player:

• “At the end was a piece involving all the afore-mentioned musicians plus an unannounced trombone player, whom I was not able to hear because of lack of amplification.” - Elisabeth van der Mei in Coda, May 1967, p. 28-30 (see entire review here)

• “Two-thirds of the concert was actually performed by a septet. The harpsichord player, Call Cobbs, listed on the program, failed to appear. For the last three numbers, trombonist Steele joined the group.” - George Hoefer, Down Beat Vol. 34 No. 10, 1967 (see entire review here)

• “The group, including a trombonist named either George Schnell or Steele (depending upon the source), Freedman sitting in for Sampson, and Alan Silva in for Grimes, also played the Village theater in February.” – Todd Jenkins, Free Jazz and Free Improvisation, 2004.

George Stell contacted me last week.  He thanked me for getting his name correct in my review of the Greenwich Village album.  Admittedly, I unknowingly got his name correct because I used the credits listed at the superb discography over at www.ayler.org.  Patrick Regan, the studious caretaker of that comprehensive web site, noted the incorrect spelling of George’s last name back in 2002 (follow this link and scroll down to August).  Below is a brief excerpt from an interview that George did with Ben Young at WKCR back in 2002, where Ben explains the mistake and then George and Steve Tintweiss go on to discuss another mislabeling problem common to Ayler's music - the taxonomy (to use an appropriately scientific term) of his songs.

(direct link to audio file, if player above does not work)

George and I corresponded a bit via email last week, and he was nice enough to answer a few of my questions about his life story, his experiences with Albert, and his life before and since those interesting times in 1966-67.  I am fascinated by his story, as his life is an interesting mix of passions – including both jazz and science.  He has had a highly successful career as a theoretical physicist, educating students and performing pioneering research on the molecular structure and mechanics of fluids; in fact, the photograph at the top of the post is from an issue of the Journal of Statistical Physics that was dedicated to him back in 2000 (Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 100, Nos. 1/2, 2000).  

With his permission, I summarize and reproduce some of his responses to my questions below:

_______________________

How did you meet Albert?  Care to share some memories of your time with him?

“I was an avid listener to an FM radio program that disk jockey Ed Beach had every morning.  I tuned in one morning in the middle of a Gary Peacock chorus, which caught my attention, and then Albert came in on the recording and it blew my mind.  Found out where he was playing and went there with my trombone, introduced myself, and sat in. Perhaps it was at the Judson Memorial Church?  Probably.  I played with him there a couple of times – can’t quite recall.  Albert said he had a show coming up at the Village Theater that he would like me to play.  We ‘rehearsed’ in a nightclub in Brooklyn the day before the 2/25/67 show after meeting at Mark Parks’ apartment – Albert, Don, Alan Silva, Beaver Harris, and me.  We just blew freely for a couple of hours.”

“I have strong memories of Al’s conversations at that rehearsal.  He remarked that despite the very positive reception he had gotten in Europe, he felt he had to return to NYC to be at the center of things.”

“I played the 2/25/67 Village Theater show, at which Al played magnificently, as you can hear on the recording.  For me it was a mixed bag.  I got to meet and talk with Joel Freedman, and chat more with Don, but there was no microphone set-up that I could use, and I felt ill at ease, standing between Sampson with his microphone and an adjacent microphone that someone else was using—I can’t recall whom.  You can tell by listening to the few tunes on which I was recorded that I am part of a rather muddy-sounding background rather than one of the well-recorded instruments.”

“By the way, Don was reserved but very friendly.  I learned years later that he was said to have deep emotional problems, and that Al worried about him, etc., but that wasn’t at all apparent during the times in 1967 that I saw him”

How many shows did you play with him?

“Probably a total of only 4 or 5 times.  I was teaching and doing research full time as a faculty member of the Physics Department at Brooklyn Polytech, and I had started making preparations for a year’s leave-of-absence as a visiting professor at the University of Paris during the 1967-68 academic year.  Busy, busy, busy.”

What did you do before and after your work with Albert?

“I left Ohio after graduating from Antioch College in 1955 to spend an academic year in Chicago teaching at the Chicago division of the University of Illinois.  I did that because I wanted to play jazz with Marty Grosz and Frank Chace there. In the summer of 1965 I came to NYC to begin my Ph.D. work in mathematics at NYU, where I graduated in 1961.  I hung around NYU as a staff mathematician for a couple of years, and then, in 1965, joined the faculty in Physics at Brooklyn Polytech.  In 1969, I became a faculty member at the state University at Stony Brook, where I taught engineering and chemistry.  I still have that affiliation, although I retired from classroom teaching a few years ago.”

Are you still making music?

“Yes, both free jazz and mainstream, but have no steady gig.  I sit in with friends in NYC groups to keep my chops up, drop in at “ABC No Rio”, played with Gene Janas for while, etc…”

_______________________

While doing the research for this post, I stumbled on a portion of the 2002 WKCR interview that I excerpted above.  Much more information related to George's time with Ayler is discussed in this fantastic interview; hopefully WKCR will eventually post their archives online so that this becomes widely available.  However, until then, below are a couple of excerpts of George talking about how he played his trombone in the context of Albert's music.    

   

(direct link to audio files if above players do not work: file 1, file 2)

Of course, George's comments in the above interview prompted me to listen to "Universal Thoughts," from "Live at Greenwich Village"  several times this week - the one track on the album where George Stell was recorded.  Although the trombone is clearly part of the "muddy-sounding background," it is audible and George's contribution is undeniable.  A close listen (headphones recommended) even reveals the "chattering" sound that George discusses in the first clip from the WKRC interview above.  I certainly hope that I have the opportunity to hear more of George's playing in the future - perhaps the annual Vision Festival in New York should extend an invitation to him?  

The note from George also prompted me to spend some time this week digging a bit more into the history of Ayler's music, and the additional knowledge of the human elements and interactions that led to such powerfully emotive art lends an additional richness to the way I experience the music.  Interestingly, it also has led me to some introspective thinking about music and science, and general thoughts regarding the balancing and intermingling of multiple passions in one's life.  Finally, it caused me to revisit some of Ayler's music with fresh ears and come away with something new.   I sure am glad that I accidently spelled George Stell's name correctly....

"Music has always fascinated me.  On the one hand it is devoid of information in a certain sense.....of objective information.  Yet it carries this powerful, powerful message that is quite mysterious and wonderful." - George Stell

Lorrach, Paris 1966

“Red-dee…settt….go,” shouts my daughter as she leaps off the headboard above our bed and face-plants on the bed.  Good parenting, eh?  Watching her do this repeatedly, I am in awe of her fearlessness.  She could easily keep doing this for an hour, or at least until she makes a less-than-soft landing and needs kisses.  Each time she climbs back up on the headboard I tell her to be careful, and she repeats “ca-fulll” several times.  I can only assume she is mocking me, because she is anything but careful. 

It has been a very busy and stressful month, and the next few months don’t look like they will be much better.  It is only March (in a few hours) and my summer schedule is already rapidly filling up with commitments as well, which is rather depressing.  

Even though it has been busy,  I have managed to listen to some music over the past few weeks and this next album has been a real highlight.  “Lorrach, Paris” beautifully captures “the dynamite sound” of 1966, a time when Albert and his companions were literally exploding with creativity and passion.

Albert Ayler, Lorrach,Paris 1966

Hat Hut, 1966 

Albert Ayler:  tenor saxophone

Donald Ayler :  trumpet

Michel Sampson:  violin

Bill Folwell:  bass

Beaver Harris:  drums

"Lorrach, Paris 1966" represents selections from two concerts in November 1966 (Lorrach, Germany and Paris, France).  The music is similar to "Slug's" and "Greenwich Village."  It is oscillating, screaming, melodious, and fearless.  I really like the percussion of Beaver Harris; in my opinion he successfully drives this music forward in a very different way than Sunny Murray.  There are even some nice drum solos on this album, something I don't recall on the other 1966-67 releases.  I can't really say much more about this; the music speaks for itself.  This is a must-have disc for Ayler fans, and as good a place as any for an introduction.  

As I listen to this, I can't help but wonder what it would have been like to witness these shows in person, and particularly how I would have reacted if I had no experience with this sort of music (and I imagine that at least some in the audience were completely unaware of what they were getting into).  I like to to think I would have been like my daughter, jumping off the headboard and hoping for a soft landing.  More likely I would have been like her father, shocked by the craziness.  "Ca-full."     

I guess this might be out of print, which if true is a real travesty.  Looks like a few very pricey used CDs are available through amazon.

Slugs' Saloon

Most of my “deep” music listening occurs in the evening or during the few days a week that I work from home.  Although I often play music in my office at work, I am rarely brave enough to expose my colleagues to the energy-rich goodness of free jazz sensu Ayler.   Typically I don’t push things much past Eric Dolphy, mid-period Coltrane, early Cecil Taylor, etc.  For my more energy-intensive material I have a room in the finished basement of our very tiny house where these activities can take place.  However, given the thin walls and my wife’s sensitive ears, listening to any music loud is typically not good for overall family morale, so if I want to really listen to something at high volume I typically use headphones.  This next album benefits greatly from headphones, primarily because the sound quality is rather sub par, likely because it was essentially a bootleg recording.

I listened to “Slug’s Saloon” several times after I first downloaded it from emusic, but a couple weeks later I stumbled into a copy of Lörrach, Paris 1966, and it soon replaced this one in the player primarily because of the better sound quality.  So although this album has regularly rotated through my listening queue I honestly didn’t listen to it very deeply until this past week.  However, I have listened to this album at least a dozen times this week; in fact, it is essentially the only music I have listened to, except for a Pete Seeger album that my wife and 19 month old daughter have been playing upstairs.   I am traveling today, and the frantic preparation for this trip and lack of sleep during the past few nights have left me feeling rather exhausted and a bit down.  I just listened to this album again on the airplane, and as I sit here awash with the lingering jubilance it has created, staring out on the awe-inspiring mountains of Colorado, I am feeling incredibly uplifted.  

Albert Ayler, Slugs' Saloon

1966, ESP

Albert Ayler:  tenor saxophone

Don Ayler:  trumpet

Michel Sampson:  violin

Lewis Worrell: bass

Ronald Shannon Jackson: drums

Recorded live at Slugs' Saloon on May 1st, 1966 the album is similar in feel and delivery to "Greenwich Village" as well as "Lörrach" which I will discuss more in my next entry.  In my opinion, it is a little more frenetic in feel than these other two releases, and the most striking difference is that imparted by Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums.  Stylistically his drumming is quite a contrast to Sunny Murray’s and somewhat different from Beaver Harris’s as well.  Often Jackson seems to drum “with” the melody, and his drumming is in some ways more “march-like” which obviously suits these pieces well.  He doesn’t really keep a strong beat per se but the drums are certainly more aggressive.  I think I prefer the sorts of things that Sunny Murray brought to the mix, as well as the template that Beaver Harris would provide later in 1966, but this is still a very enjoyable album.  Albert and company were really at the height of their powers during this time period.  If you can get past the sound quality, which really isn't hard, this is wonderful stuff.   

Below is a relevant audio clip, again taken from the radio show that ESP put together.  Bernard Stollman talks about the album and how he acquired the tape of the show.

Buy it directly from ESP

Buy it from amazon

Spirits Rejoice

My wife and I each had "change jars" before we met, a jar to collect random change and a place to go when you need a couple of quarters for the laundry.  I imagine that most folks have something similar.  After we started shacking up together, we of course merged our jars.  At that point both of our jars represented years and years of collected pennies, nickels, and dimes.  Quarters were notably absent; in fact, the only quarters to be found were Canadian quarters, which often do work for routine American transactions, but of course won't work at the laundromat where the machines are more observant than the average American.  

Anyway, for my birthday in fall 2005 we decided to take the jar to the bank, have them run it through their sorting machine, and spend the money on something fun for my birthday.  Of course "something fun" was "music" to my ears!   To my surprise, all that change actually tallied up to more than $100.  I'd been salivating over the newly released Albert Ayler box set, "Holy Ghost," forcing the folks at Borders to take it from behind their locked glass cabinet on multiple occasions (like most things in Madison, the Borders was much better than they are in other areas, and actually carried a pretty diverse selection of music).  With my 100 dollars from my "piggy bank" I marched in there and asked them to open up that glass cabinet for the last time.  I went home with 10-discs, a book, and the rest of that beautifully packaged box set.

The "Holy Ghost" box set gave me enough Ayler to digest for many months, carrying me through the fall of 2005 and into the late spring of 2006. My five-disc CD player was full of these discs during this time period.  However, I'm not going to review the box set right now.  Since it spans Albert's entire career, and a lot of it is inferior in sound quality to the other releases, it makes the most sense to review it after I have gone through everything else in my collection.

After a cross-country move for a new job, which included the purchase of a house, the "money was not strong enough" (to quote Albert) to continue my Ayler exploration in the same manner as I had in Madison. Although I am not a fan of purchasing MP3 files, because I like the packaging and extra information you get with a CD or vinyl record and I certainly would prefer to have my music in the best fidelity possible, at about this time I saw that emusic carried several Ayler albums, including three that I had not yet heard. At that time emusic was offering 50 free downloads just to join (I think they have now reduced it to 25), and amazingly they allowed you to quit after your free downloads without ever paying anything. Although this seemed really strange and I still feel a little guilty for doing it, it was a way for me listen to these albums that I certainly could not afford at this point in my life.  As the money becomes "stronger" I hope to replace these digital files with the CD release (or track down the vinyl, but most Ayler on vinyl is incredibly pricey).  The first download I listened to was "Spirits Rejoice."

Albert Ayler, Spirits Rejoice

ESP, 1965 (Remastered CD 2006)

Albert Ayler:  tenor saxophone

Don Ayler: trumpet 

Charles Tyler: alto saxophone

Henry Grimes:  bass

Gary Peacock:  bass

Sunny Murray:  drums

Call Cobbs:  harpsichord

"Spirits rejoice" was recorded on September 23, 1965 at Judson Hall in New York. However, it was not a concert recording; instead Judson Hall was rented for this session because of the apparently good or at least interesting acoustics (as discussed by Bernard Stollman in the audio file embedded at the end of this post).  I have to admit, I am not that impressed with the sound quality on the album, although as noted by Bernard it was apparently recorded at twice the usual speed to obtain very high fidelty.  I don't know whether my slight disappointment  with the sound quality is due to the MP3 format, the quality of the particular release that I have, or my own ears.  The album was apparently remastered for the 2006 ESP release, and I have read that the sound quality is quite good on this.  Although the album is relatively similar to "Bells" in feel, not surprising given it was recorded 4 months later and with a very similar group, including Charles Tyler on alto saxophone. However, here Henry Grimes is playing wonderfully free bass and Call Cobbs is featured on harpsicord on the majestic "Angels."  The contributions of these musicians clearly provide a developmental linkage between "Bells" to Albert's 1966 and 1967 work.

The album starts off with the aptly titled title track, which includes some really high-energy and ecstatic free improvisation.  The second track is Holy Family, a short piece with a fast and catchy melody, and this is a pretty straight performance.  In fact, you could play this track for your less Aylery friends and they probably would only raise one eyebrow.  D.C. is a rather chaotic number that jumps pretty quickly into some earth-shattering improvisation; however, late in the piece there is also an imaginative interchange between Murray and Grimes that lasts for about a minute and a half, which serves to dissipate some of the energy before the theme is restated and the piece comes to an end.  This latter segment, with Murray and Grimes engaged in some unconventional talking to each other, has become a real highlight for me on repeated listens.  "Angels" is beautiful, as it is on "Live in Greenwich Village" although the harpsichord is pretty far back in the mix on this album so I find myself cranking the volume way up to really appreciate the track (I'd be interested to hear more about the new ESP remastering of this and whether the harpsichord is brought forward).  The album concludes with a vibrant and screeching rendition of "Prophet."  All in all, this is stuff that will really piss off the neighbors - but for those of us with the acquired ears this is as joyous as music gets.

Below, listen to Bernard Stollman talk about the session.  This clip is from a longer segment focused on Albert Ayler and his music that can be listened to at ESP's web site.