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News from 2001 Update January 1 2001 Happy New Year! News Richard Koloda has emailed me about his radio show on January 10th on WCSB-FM in which he’s planning an interview with Mutawef Shaheed (who played bass with Albert Ayler in Cleveland during the 1960s). The show is broadcast from 11 pm to 2 am (Eastern Standard Time) and is available online at www.wcsb.org. New Additions to the Site I’ve archived last year’s news on a separate page, so click the link below to see what’s been happening since the site went online in June 2000. *** Update February 1 2001 New Additions to the Site I’ve added a couple of items to the Unreleased Recordings page (Ayler sitting in with the Burton Greene Quartet and arguing with an official at Brussels airport - very odd!). I’ve also added a link to Improjazz, a French magazine which has an Ayler CD discography and some additional information about other unreleased recordings. What’s Available page updated for February (complete with profuse apologies concerning Sonny’s Time Now). Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following for their ideas and information: David Mittleman and Bill Schmidt. *** Update March 1 2001 New Additions to the Site I’ve transferred Jerry Webb’s comments about Albert Ayler from the guestbook to the Ayler Remembered page. What’s Available page updated for March. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following for their support and information: Margaret Davis, Trudy Morse, Jerry Webb and Bill Schmidt *** Update April 3 2001 New Additions to the Site The new ESP reissues from the Dutch Calibre label are now in the shops. The CDs are in jewel cases with natty slip covers (a big improvement on the Get back versions with the carboard sleeves). I’ve added pictures of the slip covers to the following pages: Spiritual Unity, New York Eye And Ear Control and Bells. Spirits Rejoice is also available but I haven’t found a picture of the slip cover yet. I’ve also added pictures to The First Recordings page, courtesy of Ebay, the auction site. A copy of the original Bird Notes edition of Something Different !!!!!! (aka The First Recordings) went for $1500 and the Japanese picture disc version fetched $36. I have no idea what that means and beyond tossing in the Rhett Butler quote I don’t see any need to comment further. I just lifted the pictures. I’m grateful to Horst H. Moeller (check out his contributions to the website about that great alto player, Marion Brown) for sending me the catalog numbers for additional releases of the following: Witches and Devils, New York Eye & Ear Control, Bells/Prophecy and Spirits Rejoice. Horst also sent me the cover scans of the Blu Jazz CD, Albert Ayler Quintet 1970 - Live, the strange Italian release which contains music from the first concert at the Fondation Maeght. The pictures can be found on the Nuits de la Fondation Maeght page. Talking of strange CDs, I finally got hold of Albert Smiles With Sunny, the double CD on the InRespect label. The first CD is Prophecy, the second, a further 43 minutes of music from the same 1964 sessions at the Cellar Cafe. I must apologise here for getting the title of the CD wrong before, but I’ve now corrected that. The track titles on this CD are also so widlly wrong that I thought it best to add the corrections (courtesy of the discography on the Improjazz site.) A final note on Albert Smiles With Sunny, (for those who don’t frequent the Ebay auction site, whose money is never ‘strong enough’, who, despite acknowledging it as a bargain, the coupling of Bells with Prophecy on a single CD does not have quite the same magic as the one-sided vinyl copy of Bells alone), I bought it from HMV.com in Canada, which seems to be the only place still selling it. If you join up with Garageband.com and review some music they’ll send you a $25 voucher for HMV.com. A tedious exercise but a good way to save some money. Finally, I’ve been in touch with Steve Tintweiss, the bass player on Ayler’s final French concerts. He’s given me some fresh leads to follow as regards the Fondation Maeght film. He also added a few details about that unreleased recording of Ayler playing with the Burton Greene Quartet, which I’ve added to the Unreleased Recordings page. Steve has a website at http://inkwhite.net which I’ve added to the Links page. What’s Available page updated for April. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following for their help and information: Remco Takken, Horst H. Moeller, Steve Tintweiss, Richard Koloda, and Paul Costuros. *** Update May 1 2001 New Additions to the Site Cover scans of “The Best of MCA/Impulse:Fire Into Music #3” and “Black Lion Connoisseur/Lions Abroad, Vol. 1: Tenor Titans” added to the Compilations page. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following for their help and information (particularly Ken Waxman for pointing out that my name does not appear anywhere on the site - sorry about that, I’ve added it to the email address below): Paul Costuros, Horst H. Moeller, Remco Takken, Ken Waxman, Karl Webb. *** Update June 2 2001 News There’s an article about Albert Ayler in Hybrid Magazine. Albert Ayler also received a mention in Richard Williams’ article about the Ken Burns Jazz documentary series which is due to be shown here in England this month. Albert was included in the list of ten musicians who should have been mentioned in the series. The article appeared in The Guardian (25/5/01) and is available online. New Additions to the Site George Scala sent me a copy of the 1983 Ayler discography by Mike Hames, which includes a lot of material relating to Ayler’s unreleased recordings, so I’ve updated the Unreleased Page and corrected a few mistakes in the discography. Thanks to George (and also Mike Hames if he’s still with us). Jan Strom from Ayler Records in Sweden wrote concerning my listing of an unreleased third volume of The First Recordings. According to Jan, and the late Bengt Nordström (the ‘producer’ of the session) there is no third volume. Everything that Bengt recorded was issued on Volumes 1 and 2. So, I’ve updated that page accordingly. I also received the following from Bernard Stollman (via Remco Takken). I’ve added this to the Unreleased Page, but I thought I’d mention it here also. Mr. Stollman, for those who don’t know the name, was the founder of ESP Records, so without him there’d be no Spiritual Unity, Bells, Spirits Rejoice and the rest. For those of us who only heard Ayler’s early recording of spirituals and gospel songs fairly recently with the release of Goin’ Home this reminiscence of Mr. Stollman’s final meeting with Albert Ayler is particularly intriguing. “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” What’s Available page updated for June. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following for their help and information: George Scala, Mike Hames, Jan Strom, Remco Takken, Bernard Stollman, Margaret Davis and Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg. *** Update July 1 2001 News I received an email from Cornelis Hazevoet Ph.D, (Curator of Ornithology at the Museum of Natural History in Lisbon, Portugal) about a Dutch TV recording of the Ayler Quintet’s performance at the Doelen Festival in Rotterdam during their European tour in November 1966. Some footage from this recording was later shown at a jazz event at Hilversum around 1970. I have checked with the Nederlands Audiovisueel Archief, the Dutch Film Museum and the Dutch Jazz Archive, but unfortunately none of them have the video in their vaults. However, since some of it did survive for a few years at least, there is a chance that it may still be out there somewhere. If anyone can provide any further information, or suggest where else I can look, please let me know. New Additions to the Site I’m very grateful to Flo Wetzel for sending me an extract from the forthcoming biography of that great clarinetist, Perry Robinson, for the Ayler Remembered page. As well as being a nice personal memoir, it also adds a few details to the Ayler biography which I’ve not come across before. Check it out. What’s Available page updated for July. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following for their help and information: Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg, Remco Takken, Bernard Stollman, Florence Wetzel, Perry Robinson, Cornelis Hazevoet, Diana Tromp, Robert Sterk, Francesco Izzo, Ditmer Weertman. *** Update August 1 2001 New Additions to the Site I’d like to thank Burton Greene for his contribution to the Ayler Remembered page. He also gave me some more information about that fragment of tape of the Slug’s jam session which I’ve added to the Unreleased page. I’ve also included some more information about the 1966 Coltrane concert at Lincoln Center on theUnreleased page, courtesy of David Wild. Cornelis Hazevoet reminded me that Albert Ayler does appear in the film, ‘New York Eye And Ear Control’, although you don’t get to see him play. I’ve never seen it, and always presumed that like a lot of the experimental films of the ‘60s, it was no longer around. However, after doing a quick search of the internet, I found quite a bit of information on the film and its director, Michael Snow, and although it’s not commercially available, it does seem to crop up fairly regularly at film festivals around the world. Cornelis saw it last year in Lisbon. The information about Michael Snow has been added to the New York Eye And Ear Control page of the discography. What’s Available page updated for August. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following for their help and information: Burton Greene, David Wild, Cornelis Hazevoet, Arjen Gorter, Ditmer Weertman, Alan Roth, Florence Wetzel and Hans Dulfer. *** Update August 8 2001 News Remco Takken has just informed me that a programme of recent music inspired by Albert Ayler was broadcast yesterday (7/8/01) on Dutch radio. The programme is being repeated on Friday, 10th. August at 17.00 (CET) and is being streamed from www.concertzender.nl. Sorry for the late notice, but I thought it was worth mentioning. Remco also sent me the complete presentation text and playlist of the programme which can be downloaded as a zipped text file. It’s in Dutch, but it’s easy enough to work out what’s going on and even if you miss the programme on Friday it’s a good source of information for Ayler- influenced music. Thanks, Remco. *** Update September 1 2001 New Additions to the Site What’s Available page updated for September. *** Update October 1 2001 News On the Upcoming Jazz Releases page of the Jazzmatazz site, Ayler’s Lorrach/Paris 1966 is down for a Fall (that’s Autumn) 2001 release. I checked the HatHut site but there’s still no mention of it there. The following is probably only of interest to British Ayler fans, but since it involves the BBC (who famously refused to broadcast Ayler back in 1966), I think it deserves a mention here. On Monday September 10th, BBC2’s ‘Newsnight’ programme was running a piece on the T.U.C. conference in Brighton and punctuating the presenter’s comments were extracts from Ayler’s ‘Ghosts’ !!! As far as I know this is the only time Ayler’s music has been used as background music on a mainstream TV programme. Very odd. Without going into the political history of the labour movement in Britain, I should explain that the gist of the item was the changing relationship between the Trades Union Congress and the current version of the Labour Party - and Ayler’s tune carried a subliminal message that the ghosts of the old days were still around. Very subliminal considering the number of people in Britain who would have recognised the tune. Anyway, I emailed Newsnight to find out more and received the following reply: “Dear Patrick Regan Your email regarding our piece from the TUC in Brighton on Monday has been passed to me - I produced the piece and was responsible for incorporating Ayler's music. As you say the track was Ghosts - recorded in Copenhagen on 14 September 1964, on the Vibrations album - a Freedom recording (FCD 41000). We actually used track 1 on the CD, the shorter version. As to why we used the track - my father recently gave me the CD, saying that as over the last few years I had become more interested in jazz music (Miles Davis particularly) perhaps I would be interested in something a little more extreme? experimental? edgy? Anyway, I enjoy listening to Ayler and felt that the mixture of melody and dissonance articulated something of the mood of the conference in Brighton - and would be distinctive and - hopefully - fairly subtle. I hope that explanation is of interest and I'm glad you felt prompted to write. Yours sincerely Tristan Quinn New Additions to the Site What’s Available page updated for October. I’ve decided to remove Jungle.com from the list of online CD shops I’m monitoring since their database is too inconsistent. I am tempted to replace them with www.cdzone.co.uk because their listing for Ayler is totally weird. The US site seems o.k., but the items and the prices on the English site are.... well, just take a look. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following: Tristan Quinn and Tim Witham. *** Update November 1 2001 News There was some recent correspondence in The Wire magazine about Don Ayler. Thanks to Karl Webb I managed to track down the current issue and read the letter from Richard Koloda. Richard is writing a book about the Ayler brothers (in collaboration with Don) which hopefully will set the facts straight on a number of issues and at least will tell Don’s side of the story. No publication date as yet. Paul Costuros let me know about an item on the Ebay auction site - an 8 track of The Dedication Series/Vol. VII: The Village Concerts (the Impulse double album containing the material not issued on the original In Greenwich Village but included on the double CD release Live In Greenwich Village: The Complete Impulse Recordings). I’ve not gone into the various formats of the Ayler discography, restricting myself to vinyl and CD, but I would be interested in hearing about any other strange items out there. New Additions to the Site What’s Available page updated for November. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following: Karl Webb, Paul Costuros and Tim Witham. *** Update December 2 2001 News There’s a major interview with Sunny Murray in the Paris Transatlantic magazine, conducted by Dan Warburton. As well as providing a fascinating glimpse into the life and opinions of one of the great founders of the Free Jazz movement, it also includes material about Mr. Murray’s first meeting with Albert Ayler and his own theory regarding the mystery surrounding Albert’s death. New Additions to the Site On a discographical note, Mr. Murray also explains the genesis of the Albert Smiles With Sunny release, which has always intrigued me, and I’ve updated the Prophecy page accordingly. What’s Available page updated for December. Acknowledgements I’d like to thank the following: George Scala, Ronald Wilson, Cornelis Hazevoet and Tim Witham. *** News from 2004 (January - June) 2004 (July - December) 2005 (January - May) 2005 (June - December) 2010 (January - June) 2010 (July - December) 2011 (January - May) 2011 (June - September) 2011 (October - December) 2012 (January - May) 2012 (June - December) 2013 (January - June) 2013 (July - September) 2013 (October - December) 2014 (January - June) 2014 (July - December) 2015 (January - May) 2015 (June - August) 2015 (September - December) 2016 (January - March) 2016 (April - June) 2016 (July - August) 2016 (September - December) 2017 (January - May) 2017 (June - September) 2017 (October - December) 2018 (January - May) 2018 (June - September) 2018 (October - December) 2019 (January - May) 2019 (June - September) 2019 (October - December) 2020 (January - April) 2020 (May - August) 2020 (September - December) 2021 (January - March) 2021 (April - July) 2021 (August - December) 2022 (January - April) 2022 (May - August) 2022 (September - December) 2023 (January - March) 2023 (April - June) 2023 (July - September) 2023 (October - December) 2024 (January - March) 2024 (April - June) 2024 (July - September)
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