Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

CDN$ 72.98 + CDN$ 3.49 shipping
In Stock. Sold by Vanderbilt CA

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here

Live Greenwich Village Sessions [2 CD] [Best of, Live]

Albert Ayler Audio CD
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
Price: CDN$ 72.98
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Only 1 left in stock.
Ships from and sold by Vanderbilt CA.

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought


Product Details


Disc: 1
1. Holy Ghost
2. Truth Is Marching In
3. Our Prayer
4. Spirits Rejoice
5. Divine Peacemaker
6. Angels
Disc: 2
1. For John Coltrane
2. Change Has Come
3. Light In Darkness
4. Heavenly Home
5. Spiritual Rebirth
6. Infinite Spirit
7. Omega Is The Alpha
8. Universal Thoughts

Product Description

Amazon.ca

There really was no one like Albert Ayler in jazz during the 1960s. Sure, John Coltrane could play monumentally complex sax, only to jettison the learned architecture for a complete reversal of virtuosity in his last works. And Pharoah Sanders could haunt and beguile with mournful cries and yawps. But Ayler was altogether different: he took the scarcest of melodies--folk and church tunes, really--and elevated them to spiritual zeniths. These live cuts were once super hard to find, on a scattering of LPs released in 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, and 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 and Alan Silva, basses) and drummer Beaver Harris. They play numerous, almost easily-recognizable melodies from their oeuvre, including "Truth Is Marching In," "Spirits Rejoice," and "Omega Is the Alpha." They also offer "For John Coltrane," recorded in early 1967 after Trane's untimely demise. Spectacular would be a simple way to describe Ayler's ensemble and 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 and after as the "post-Ayler continuum." Ayler pushed and pushed. And succeeded. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5 stars
Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars no 'smooth' jazz here. Jun 27 2004
Format:Audio CD
i recall one of the earlier reviews that said listening to ayler is akin to listening to someone yelling f --k in st peters basilica.
that pretty much sums it up.
'smooth jazz' is as much an oxy moron as 'soft rock' is and i would imagine any fan of aylers would wholeheartedly agree.
this short lived disciple of coltranes has an important place in jazz history, EVEN IF ken burns isnt aware of it.
this is a very good place to start. 'spritual unity ' is imperative ayler as well
Was this review helpful to you?
5.0 out of 5 stars fire Aug 6 2002
Format:Audio CD
Impulse! has done an excellent job remastering and reissuing these previously obscure recordings. Ayler had no real equal, and this album in particular makes that abundantly clear. The presence of cello and violin on some tracks gives the ensemble a rich, unique sound, and contributes to the general explosion of energy. The bugle-like fanfares and triumphant marches provide excellent jumping off points for Ayler's fiery improvisations, which always have melody at their heart. His brother Donald, on trumpet, is impressive as well, taking a similar approach as Albert but certainly not imitating him. The trumpet's vastly different timbre provides stimulating counterpoint. Obviously, if you're looking for more relaxed, smoky-club type music, this isn't the thing to get, but for adventurous listeners, Live in Greenwich Village will give your ears a feast.
Was this review helpful to you?
5.0 out of 5 stars A Miracle Mar 19 2002
Format:Audio CD
The "New Thing" movement in jazz, for which Ayler was among the foremost exponents, can perhaps best be seen as the attempt to "jazzify" the ideas of Arnold Schoenberg, without whose example it would never in a million years have come into being. Unfortunately, there was nothing about the music of Schoenberg and his followers that was in the least bit improvisatory. Whether in its early "free atonality" phase or in its later "serial" one, the music of Schoenberg's school seems too intellectual, too complex, and too highly structured for jazz to have ever borrowed its ideas in anything more than a superficial way. In other words, improvised jazz, though perhaps more structured than the popular mind would care to acknowledge, has at the end of the day an unpremeditated immediacy that seems completely foreign to Schoenberg's ideas, and therefore attempts in jazz to rival its impact almost seem destined to failure.

All that said, if I had to pick just one recording from the New Thing-period of jazz history, Albert Ayler's "Live in Greenwhich Village" would probably be it. Unlike fellow New-Thingers -- such as Cecil Taylor, for instance, who tends to be overcerebral and borrows so much from post-Bartok classical music; and John Coltrane, whose atonal forays seem more like a regression, rather than a progression, after his earlier modal work; and Ornette Coleman who, in certain ways, was really just a sub-par bebop musician -- Ayler just seems to have paradoxically had the right sort of "primitivistic" grounding (in early New Orleans jazz and the Blues) which, along with a completely unaffected sincerity, helps to pull this sort of music off. Why the least cerebral amongst all the musicians named should tend to be the most successful at this specific style of music is a major mystery. Perhaps because his understanding of atonality was the most superficial?

Whichever way you slice it, Ayler's spin on the New Thing is great, essential, and unpretentious listening. Almost alone amongst the New Thingers, he miraculously found a way to make Schoenberg work in jazz, and work completely.

Was this review helpful to you?
Want to see more reviews on this item?
Most recent customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars A Miracle
The "New Thing" movement in jazz, for which Ayler was among the foremost exponents, can perhaps best be seen as the attempt to "jazzify" the ideas of Arnold... Read more
Published on Mar 19 2002 by Mr. Hasta Pasta
3.0 out of 5 stars Fanfare, or free jazz ?
That's always the question when a song starts.
And the answer comes soon, as always with Albert Ayler.
In short : good, but not as well inspired as in Witches & Devils.
Published on Feb 5 2002 by lolo
4.0 out of 5 stars I Remember Albert
I had the rare privilege and honor to have been stationed with Albert Ayler with the 76th U.S. Army Band in Orleans, France, from June, 1959, to June, 1961. Read more
Published on Dec 30 2000 by "prsgrillo"
4.0 out of 5 stars Albert's conception
This might be a place for fearers of free-jazz to get started- each track starts out nicely structured, with beautiful, haunting melodies and marches repeated throughout the track. Read more
Published on Dec 15 2000 by Rick Rucker
4.0 out of 5 stars Real live beauty
Albert Ayler has one of the most distinct sounds in jazz-history. Influenced as much by his R&B-roots as the new freedom of expression in jazz, he made music filled with... Read more
Published on May 5 2000 by Morten Christopher Monsen
5.0 out of 5 stars An ultimately important human achievement
If heavily armed aliens came to Earth and said, "Give us a reason why we should not wipe humans off the face of the planet," I would play them "Angels" from the... Read more
Published on Feb 24 2000 by happydogpotatohead
5.0 out of 5 stars A must (at least for free jazz freaks)!
PART ONE - FOR THE UNINITIATED: It's hard to judge a recording as extreme as this one merely on musical grounds. Read more
Published on Jan 15 2000 by Gerhard Auer
5.0 out of 5 stars The cover is awful
The music on this is wonderful , but the people at impulse! have ruined the cover . I think that in the action of re-releasing this they forgot the wonderful original cover . Read more
Published on Oct 11 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars Songs for a revolution
Truth Is Marching In is literally that -- a marching song for a revolution. This performance took place in 1968, by a black artist who exudes dazzling dexterity, awe-inspiring... Read more
Published on Aug 23 1999
5.0 out of 5 stars Technique?
Ayler was a pioneer of sound and emotion on his instrument, making him an inventive virtuoso, and if you ever get to hear any of his ill-conceived late sixties fusion albums you'll... Read more
Published on Aug 12 1999
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category


Feedback


Vanderbilt CA Privacy Statement Vanderbilt CA Shipping Information Vanderbilt CA Returns & Exchanges