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Unreleased Recordings |
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The Unreleased Ayler
The release of the Revenant box set, Holy Ghost, in October 2004 has rather decimated this section of the site. I’ve added to the destruction by removing some of the ‘unconfirmed’ items on the list.
Ornette Coleman, jam session with Albert Ayler According to the Jeff Schwartz biography: “Two jam sessions including Ayler and Coleman exist on private tapes, probably in Coleman's possession. The first features Albert on his usual tenor sax, Fred Lyman on banjo, an unknown bassist, and Ornette playing trumpet and violin, his first known performance on these instruments.” Apartment of Fred Lyman, New York, early December 1963. *** Spiritual Unity Alternate Take Cellar Cafe, New York, July 10th, 1964. *** John Coltrane Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC, 19th February 1966. Further information about the concert has been supplied by David Wild. Dan Morgenstern did a 'fairly unfriendly review' for Downbeat (April 7 '66): "... Lambert announced Coltrane's group. Bassist Garrison, and drummers Ali and Moses caused no great surprise, although the group's new pianist did. But that was as nothing compared to what was still to come: Sanders, the Ayler brothers and, a bit later, altoist Ward ... Coltrane, appearing relaxed and happy, gave his minions time to group themselves on stage while Garrison played nimble, flamenco-like solo bass. Coltrane then introduced My Favorite Things on soprano. A few restrained choruses was to be the sole reference to this point of departure during the following 35 minutes ..." The review lists the sequence as Coltrane, Sanders, Albert Ayler, Don Ayler, and Carlos Ward, a duet between the Aylers, chanting from Coltrane, and a closing solo by Coltrane. Coda also reviewed the concert (April/May '66). John Norris did a more balanced review, and he mentions the set as lasting 40 minutes. "The music began with a long, Spanish tinged bass solo from Jimmy Garrison before the music exploded with Coltrane's "My Favorite Things". As for the recording, David wrote as follows: "I can't offer anything additional about the recording of the concert. I suspect there is one, but I don't know that for certain. By 1966 Coltrane was recording a lot of his own performances, separately from Impulse--the music from California (Live in Seattle, the Kulu Se Mama session) was recorded that way. The Olatunji concert from '67 which will be out in September (2001) was similarly recorded (by Bernard Drayton) at Coltrane's request. Ravi Coltrane has been going through tapes sporadically at the Coltrane home, and some stuff has surfaced. But I haven't heard about the Ayler set." *** Stockholm, 1966: Koncerthus, Stockholm, Sweden, November 10th, 1966 *** Copenhagen, 1966: Tivoli Koncertsal, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 11th, 1966 *** Paris, 1966 Salle Pleyel, Paris, France, November 13th, 1966 *** Fondation Maeght Albert Ayler played two concerts at St. Paul de Vence, France on the 25th and 27th of July 1970. Both concerts were recorded and selections from the second concert were released as the double album, Albert Ayler - Nuits de la Fondation Maeght on the Shandar label. Selections from the first concert on July 25th were given a limited release on the Italian Blu Jazz ‘label’ under the title Albert Ayler Quintet 1970 - Live (actually it’s a quartet since pianist Call Cobbs did not play at the first concert) and in February 2005 the recording was given its first legitimate release on the ESP label with the title Live on the Riviera. The concerts were also broadcast on French radio and there is a tape of one title from the July 27th concert not included on the Shandar release: Fondation Maeght, St. Paul de Vence, France, July 27th, 1970 There are also tapes of the two concerts in existence, but recorded from the audience, so of poor quality. The tape of the July 25th concert is 85 minutes long and the July 27th concert, 125 minutes. The extra material from the official Shandar recording has never surfaced and is presumed lost. According to the article about Shandar in the January 2003 issue of The Wire: “Shandar’s office was located at 40 Rue Mazarine, a small gallery space in Paris where Caux and Darcy worked together on a catalogue of immediate and future releases. ... One day in 1979 the cellar underneath the gallery in Rue Mazarine flooded, a catastrophe that destroyed most of the label’s vinyl stock and several master tapes. The gallery folded soon after and Shandar was no more.” * The Ayler Film The second concert at the Fondation Maeght was also filmed and a 48 minute documentary made, Albert Ayler: Le Dernier Concert. The film was produced by Jean-Michel Meurice, is in colour, and consists of excerpts from the performance intercut with an interview with Albert Ayler conducted by Daniel Caux. The film has been shown at various jazz and film festivals but has never been televised or made available in any commercial form. The film is kept in the archives of the Fondation Maeght in St. Paul-de-Vence and can be viewed on the premises. Ayler made several TV appearances during his career (mostly in Europe during the 1966 tour) but I have yet to confirm the existence of any surviving clips. Video footage of Ayler was broadcast in the Netherlands on 15th July 1970, by ‘AVRO-tv via Nederland 2’ in a discussion programme about the state of jazz entitled "Jazz is niet dood". The origins and eventual fate of this clip are unknown but I recently heard a rumour that the Swedish film about Ayler (which has been in production since before this site went online) does contain footage of Ayler from a source other than the Fondation Maeght film - so, we’ll wait and (hopefully, one day) see. There is an audio tape of what could be the Netherlands TV clip in circulation - a 13 minute version of ‘Bells’. A possible source is one of the German TV broadcasts, either the Berlin Jazz Festival or a studio recording Ayler made for TV in Munich early in November 1966. At the moment though the only confirmed film or video footage of Albert Ayler in existence is the Fondation Maeght documentary and his non-playing appearance in Michael Snow’s experimental film ‘New York Eye And Ear Control’. *** And a final piece of speculation which I really didn’t want to delete: Final Recordings Remco Takken forwarded me the following from Bernard Stollman (founder of ESP Records), referring to his final meeting with Albert Ayler: “Two weeks before he died, Albert visited me and played a cassette for me of gospel songs that he had taken way out to the point that they were only faintly recognizable, profoundly original and unlike anything I had ever heard him do. I do not know what happened to the tapes. Bernard” |
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