2013OctDec

Right, this is getting silly. I had hoped by now we’d have some solid information about the ‘major discovery’ I first mentioned in August, but no such luck. So, I thought I’d just explain what we know so far and perhaps someone reading this may be able to help us out.

On 23rd July I received the following email:

“hi,
i have video:

albert ayler
bordeaux, fr. 11-14-66 6-minutes
tune: "infinite spirit" complete.

let me know if you want to trade.
best,
LP”

At first I was dubious since there is no mention of a concert in Bordeaux during Ayler’s 1966 European tour in what is the nearest thing to an Ayler bible - the book in Revenant’s Holy Ghost box set which lists all the known sessions of Albert Ayler. Also, if the information was correct this would have the Ayler group playing in Bordeaux the day after Paris and the day before they flew to London for the infamous gig at the
L.S.E. Perfectly feasible, of course, but you’d think after all this time there would have been some mention of the concert in Bordeaux. So I wrote back to LP, asking for more information and expressing my doubts, and he replied:

“i know that it's Sigma Festival, in Bordeaux, and that it's from the 11/66 tour.
broadcast on 11/28/66.

concert *on the night of* november 14th because of this article (use google translate):
http://www.citizenjazz.com/Le-Jazz-a-Sigma-Une-chronologie.html

this footage is different from the 1966 footage in the 'my name is
a.a.' documentary and is definitely not the same show as paris 11/13/66 audio.
the quality is very good!”

Now, if you click that link you’ll find the following paragraph:

“Le jazz à Sigma, ce ne fut pas tout de suite évident. Sans doute marqué par son travail dans le champ des musiques contemporaines, Roger Lafosse s’est d’abord tourné vers les compositeurs en vue dans ce domaine, n’accueillant lors de Sigma 1 qu’un seul concert du trio de Martial Solal, rien en 1967 (Sigma 3), mais quand même Albert Ayler le 14 novembre 1966 (Sigma 2), le lendemain du concert de Paris (publié chez hatOLOGY), et non la veille0 comme la chronologie l’indique par erreur. Ce n’est pas rien, et ceux qui ont assisté à ce concert (Jean-Pierre Moussaron par exemple) se souviennent bien de l’accueil hésitant du public et des remarques quelque peu désabusées du saxophoniste à la pause.”

Here’s a rough translation:

“Jazz at [the] Sigma [festival] was not immediately obvious. Undoubtedly influenced by his work in the field of contemporary music, Roger Lafosse [the festival’s founder and director] first turned toward the prominent composers of the field, only including a Martial Solal trio concert during Sigma 1, nothing in 1967 (Sigma 3), but still booking Albert Ayler on November 14th (Sigma 2), the day after his concert in Paris (released on hatOLOGY), and not the day before as the chronology [see below] indicates. It is a notable fact, and those who were in the audience (Jean-Pierre Moussaron, for example) remember well the hesitant reception and the saxophonist’s somewhat disillusioned remarks during the break.”

At the bottom of the page there’s a pdf file which lists all the jazz concerts at Sigma over the years - here’s how it starts:

I now found that if you googled ‘Sigma Festival Bordeaux’ and left Ayler’s name out of it a number of sites came up. The Sigma Festival had run from 1965 to 1995 in Bordeaux and featured many of the leading avant-garde artists across all branches of the arts. I won’t list the sites here since none mentioned Ayler, but there were academic essays, much talk of the Sigma archives and even clips from a 2008 documentary about the Sigma Festival (by the way, this site also has a copy of the Kasper Collin film, just search for Ayler).

At this point I started to wonder whether LP’s 6 minute video was not just a TV broadcast, but was possibly part of a longer film, perhaps the complete Bordeaux concert from November 1966. So, aware of the limitations of the google translator and my own schoolboy French, I recruited Pierre Crépon to see if he could make sense of it all. Which he did:

“According to an article from the Sud Ouest newspaper, the Sigma archives were donated a few years ago by Lafosse and have been split up between three institutions: the Archives municipales de Bordeaux (holding the paper/photographic documentation), the Bordeaux library and the INA in Paris (each holding part of the films and audio recordings).”

Pierre then contacted the two Bordeaux-based institutions but, so far, has only heard back from the Archives municipales:

“They say they don’t have anything in particular on Ayler’s concert. The concert is mentioned in programs and festival retrospectives but they apparently don’t have pictures, contracts or anything else on AA.”

So now we wait for the Bordeaux Library.

To sum up, what we’ve found is that the Ayler group played another concert in Bordeaux during the 1966 European tour. One that was not part of the George Wein promoted ‘Newport Jazz Festival in Europe 1966’ tour where Ayler shared the bill with Sonny Rollins and Max Roach. The day after Bordeaux the Ayler group flew to London for another solo date at the invitation of the BBC - and we all know what happened to that. So, at least we can add something to the Ayler sessionography.

The Bordeaux concert was filmed but we don’t know by whom or how much of the footage has survived. There is a faint possibility that the full concert survives in the Sigma Festival archives, but, so far, we don’t know. What we do know is that there is a 6 minute extract from the concert which is being traded among Ayler collectors. Although this is supposed to have been broadcast (presumably on French TV) on 28th November 1966, Pierre hasn’t found anything confirming or invalidating this.

Although it may seem perverse, I take heart from the fact that this 6 minute fragment is in the hands of collectors rather than in an ‘archive’. Although it will lose its collectable value as soon as someone sticks it on youtube (which I did ask LP to do, but, understandably, he declined) there is still a chance that somewhere down the line a collector will see sense and do just that. Perhaps that’s wishful thinking, but considering the Jarndyce v. Jarndyce situation of the Fondation Maeght film, and the fact that the only Ayler video we currently have access to is the couple of minutes from the 1966 Berlin concert included in My Name is Albert Ayler, which we only get to see because someone bootlegged the Swedish TV broadcast of the film, I reckon we can dare to hope.

As a footnote to all this, there is another item which I’m not sure about, but which I’ve decided to share. LP first contacted me a few years ago asking if I had any rare Ayler recordings and I replied that everything I had that wasn’t commercially available was on the site. Except there was one item which I think Maarten Derksen sent me a long time (at least 2 computers) ago. If it wasn’t Maarten, I apologise, but all I’ve got is a cassette with a selection of music including a 12 minute version of ‘Bells’ which purports to be the audio of the film of Ayler from the 1970 Dutch TV broadcast of “Jazz is niet dood”. This was supposed to have been recorded at the Rotterdam concert on 8th November, 1966. However, there is no evidence that the Rotterdam concert was filmed and it is not the version in the Holy Ghost box (Disc 5, track 9 - mistitled as ‘Spirits Rejoice’). In the end I just assumed it was one of the other versions of ‘Bells’ from the 1966 tour, and since I’m useless at comparing versions, I forgot about it. But I did send a copy to LP, and during our email conversation about the Bordeaux film, I mentioned the ‘Rotterdam tape’ and he said:

“it is unlikely that it's not from the netherlands.
It was very rare for a euro country to show concerts that were taped/performed in a different country.
I'm basing this on my experience of collecting 60’s-70’s jazz videos.
I tried to compare this bells to all the other known live versions.
It does not match, and I would say that it is indeed unique.
And the only other version that is as long as this one is from lorrach, and it is a different version.”

So, I thought I should put it on the site. Either it’s something new, or else, someone else might recognise it and clear the matter up. I also have to thank my mate, Clive Buttle, for transferring it from cassette to mp3 and cleaning it up a bit in the process.

The Rotterdam Tape

***

The run-up to the L.S.E.

So, the day after the Bordeaux concert, the Ayler quintet flew to London for a concert at the London School of Economics, to be televised by the BBC. We all know what happened next, but Pierre sent me some pages from the Melody Maker which reveal what happened before. As well as an interview with the main promoter of jazz concerts in London explaining why Ayler wouldn’t be booked for any more concerts while he was in Britain, there’s also an early Val Wilmer interview with Albert. Also, I never realised that Coltrane was also booked by the BBC for a concert, which never came to pass (no doubt they wouldn’t have shown it anyway). Apparently Coltrane cancelled his November 1966 European tour - Ayler was his replacement at Bordeaux. I’ve added this material to the L.S.E. Concert Review page.

***

European Newspaper Archives - anyone?

And a final mention of Ayler’s 1966 tour of Europe. In last month’s update I included an advert for Ayler’s De Doelen concert in Rotterdam which Yair Dagan had found in the Utrecht Archives. This sparked the interest of Richard Koloda in Cleveland, who’s putting the final touches to his book about the Ayler brothers. Richard wonders if anyone can point him in the direction of any other newspapers which may have carried similar adverts for Ayler’s other performances in Europe during November 1966. According to the Holy Ghost book Ayler played in the following cities:

3 November 1966: ‘Berlin Jazz Festival’, Berlin Philharmonie, Germany.

prob. 4, 5 or 6, Nov.: SWF Television Studio, Munich, Germany.

7 Nov.: Lörrach, Germany

8 Nov.: De Doelen, Rotterdam, Netherlands. (Got that one).

on or near 9 Nov.: Helsinki, Finland.

10 Nov.: Koncerthus, Stockholm, Sweden.

11 Nov.: Tivolis Koncertsal, Copenhagen, Denmark.

13 Nov.: ‘Paris Jazz Festival’, Salle Pleyel, Paris, France.

14 Nov.: Sigma Festival, Bordeaux, France. (not listed in the Holy Ghost book).

15 Nov.: London School of Economics, London, England. (Got that one).

Richard has also found another German concert, not listed in the book, which took place at Baden-Baden, but I don’t have the date. Also, he’s after adverts for the concert at L’Atelier du Jazz, Montreal, Canada concert in September, 1967 and what was probably his final concert (with Leroy Jenkins) in Springfield, Massachusetts, on 8th August, 1970.

If you know of any online newspaper archives which may be of help, please send me the links and I’ll pass them on to Richard. Or, maybe, you’ve got the original adverts in your attic and can scan them for Richard. Just let me know.

***

Now, onto Yair Dagan’s finds for this month. I should say that Yair sends me a load of stuff every month, some of which I don’t mention on this page but just add to other sections of the site (e.g. details of Versions or Tributes and many Images of Albert). This site would be a lot smaller without him and I’m very grateful.

Rare Records

The London Jazz Collector site (‘Adventures in collecting “modern jazz”: the classical music of America from the Fifties and Sixties, on original vinyl, on a budget, from England. And writing about it.’) has a very interesting article by Dottorjazz about some of Albert Ayler’s rarest records, including Something Different!!!!!! (aka The First Recordings), My Name Is Albert Ayler, Ghosts, Spirits (aka Witches & Devils), Spiritual Unity, Bells and Sonny’s Time Now. At some point I will be raiding it for photos to add to this site.

Ayler in New York

Ben Young, one of the driving forces behind Revenant’s Holy Ghost box set is running a four week course on Albert Ayler at New York’s Lincoln Center, beginning on 28th January, next year. Details are available here, and there’s also a short video introduction to the course by Mr. Young.

Joe Lovano, Albert Ayler and Harvey Pekar

A couple of months back Richard Koloda asked me if I had this comic strip by Harvey Pekar linking Albert Ayler and Joe Lovano. It turned out I’d just linked to it back in 2007 and now the link had died. Yair found it again on Joe Lovano’s facebook page, so I thought I’d better nick it this time and add it here.

Albert et sa Fanfare Poliorcétique

Now we’re getting into the really obscure stuff so bear with me. Albert et sa Fanfare Poliorcétique was a kind of rock/jazz/brass band, inspired by meeting Albert Ayler at the Fondation Maeght, and named after him. Denis Benoliel, a member of the band, kindly wrote a piece for the Ayler Remembered section of the site. Now Yair has dug up a - he calls it an article, but, it seems to be a book-length report - entitled:

MARSEILLE ET SES MOMENTS MUSICAUX :
VILLE ET SCENES MUSICALES.

J-S. BORDREUIL, R. SAGE, G. SUZANNE

Avec la participation de C. DUPORT

Rapport Final
Février 2003.

Chapter 1, Part 2, Section 3, of which, is entitled:

‘Albert et sa fanfare poliorcétique : entre revival rock’’ et « rock situ ».’

So, if your French is up to it, you can read all about them here. And then you can watch the band in action in this programme from 1972 courtesy of the INA.

A Trip to the Fondation Maeght

I figure I should just learn French and translate the whole site. Yair sent me this picture of Albert, which I was just going to add to the Images page, but I clicked the link to find out where he got it, and there’s this beautifully illustrated blog by Laurent Lolmède about a visit to the Fondation Maeght:

UN JOUR A LA FONDATION MAEGHT DE SAINT-PAUL DE VENCE

Tributes

Among the tributes to Ayler which Yair found this month is the track, ‘Fathers and Mothers’ from the album, Open Systems, by Assif Tsahar, Hugh Ragin, Peter Kowald and Hamid Drake. It’s available on youtube.

As is Ayler Children by Black Host, from the album Life in the Sugar Candle Mines.

And here’s the Radical Coffee Free Jazz Club playing Free for Albert Ayler.

Et finalement ...

I reckon this is a bit weird, but this is weirder, so this must be the weirdest:

What’s New July to September 2013 has now been archived.

***

November 1 2013

Ronald Shannon Jackson (12/1/1940 - 19/10/2013)

Ronald Shannon Jackson, drummer on Live at Slug’s Saloon and the Cleveland La Cave sessions in the Holy Ghost box set, passed away at his home in Fort Worth, Texas, on 19th October.

There are several obituaries online (New York Times, Jazz Times, Fort Worth Weekly, ESP) which give the details of his long career. As well as Ayler, he recorded with Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor, led his own band, The Decoding Society, and was a member of Last Exit. More information is available on his website, which also includes some videos. A few years ago I emailed Mr. Jackson and asked him if he’d care to add something to the Ayler Remembered page of this site. This was his reply:

“It is very difficult for a person who has experienced LSD to communicate that experience to those who have not experienced, smoke. Playing with Albert Ayler was a once in a life time experience and as such an almost impossible experience to convey on paper. It¹s a book in itself, that one day soon I hope to write. John Coltrane loved Albert’s playing. I have had the good fortune of riding in the back seat of Trane’s station wagon, listening to 2 creative forces discussing the ethereal, philosophical and physical, spiritual demands required and expected to be delivered by them. Listening to the Jim Browne and Michael Jordan of the saxophones discuss the evil forces in play against them is another book. Hope this gives you some insight into playing with Albert.”

Lou Reed (2/3/1942 - 27/10/2013)

As per the rules of this site I didn’t intend to mention the death of Lou Reed, however, checking google news for mentions of Ayler, his name appeared in several obituaries. The most interesting is perhaps this in Rolling Stone, written by Emily Haines, the daughter of Paul Haines, who was involved with some of Ayler’s early albums (writer of the Spiritual Unity booklet, recording Prophecy and letting Michael Snow use his home for the recording of New York Eye and Ear Control).

Live On The Riviera

Back to the land of the living. Steve Tintweiss sent me scans of the Live On The Riviera CD to add to the site. I have to confess I never bought the official ESP release of Ayler’s first concert at the Fondation Maeght, since a copy of its first incarnation as Albert Ayler Quintet - 1970 (Blu Jazz BJ023CD), which was a freebie on an Italian jazz magazine, was distributed with the ‘Ayler Tree’. If the money ever gets ‘strong enough’ I will sort out my Ayler collection. Anyway, Steve also sent me a transcription of his sleevenotes, which differs slightly from the published version, so I thought I’d add it here:

“Live on the Riviera

Liner notes:

July 25th, 1970.

It was a hot day. But, on this, our first night at the Maeght Foundation, a cool breeze of music wafted down the mountainside in the St. Paul de Vence air, and more immediately through the strategically placed speakers along the trail down to the roadway at the foot leading to town. Atop the mountain, in the geodesic dome just past the Alexander Calder mobiles adorning the grounds was the source of it all. Blowing his saxophone over the French Riviera, just inland from Nice, Albert Ayler was really playing.

Captured by microphones, radio station direct and house PA, the quartet - to be quintet two days later - was onstage. Whisked through airport Customs VIP cargo were we, with just enough time to drop off our bags at the villas, we quickly set up and had our one and only three minute pre-production meeting out back, under a tree.

“You just start with the bow, then I’ll come in and we’ll go from there”, instructed the leader to Allen Blairman and myself.

There were many tunes, instrumentals, Mary Parks vocals - “Oh Love of Life do you hear me calling?… sing it Albert, for a Universal Love”. A couple of tunes I’d heard before: “Music is the Healing Force of the Universe”, here done in an almost recitative, spoken pre-rap by Mary Maria, and a climatic “Ghosts”, complete with a spontaneously false ending. Just as the crowd was uni-clapping Euro style, with some breakaway shouts and cheers, I was starting to feel comfortable. Diggin’ a groove with Al and Al on the theme song of the free form music revolution, with the unmistakable innovator, then it was over. No! Aforementioned suspense deception.

The best part - this was just the warm-up for the July 27^th full house, including reunited Cal Cobbs, pianist left at JFK. Two more volumes, with much unreleased. Albert Ayler vocals, silent bagpipes, vocal duets, autograph hounds, network TV news, Andre Verdet dinners, a beautiful lover, Paris, and a full-length movie of us!

Not even if we were to go on Ed Sullivan or tour Japan would the flight back be VIP. “Angels”, “Heart Love”, “Got To Work”, “Spirits”, “Holy Ghost” - post concert sing “Summertime” via Iceland. Albert Ayler RIP.”

There’s a review of Live On The Riviera in the November issue of The New York City Jazz Record. Click the link to download the magazine - the review is on page 34.

Helen Shapiro

No, she’s not dead. What follows will probably only make sense to those of a certain age who were living in Britain in 1961 when the teenage Shapiro burst on the pop scene with ‘Don’t Treat Me Like A Child’, ‘You Don’t Know’ and, especially, ‘Walkin’ Back To Happiness’ (woopah oh yeah yeah). Bear with me. When I was first looking round for Ayler tributes, one of the oddest I found was Helen Shapiro reciting a poem by Victoria McCabe, called ‘For Albert Ayler’. It’s not odd at all really, since Helen Shapiro left pop behind and later in her career became a well-respected jazz singer. However, I could never reconcile the musical memories of my 10 year-old self, with those of my teenage, free-jazz-obsessed self. To me, it’s still odd. Anyway, when I first came across it, I just added it to the Tributes page and forgot about it. Then, since I spent last month going through the site, page by page, transferring it all to a new programme on a new computer (a tedious process which I hope to finish by the next update), I came across it again and thought I’d see if it was available anywhere. It’s on a CD called Jazz Poetry (ABM CD 139) and there was a secondhand copy on amazon marketplace for a couple of quid, so, here it is:

Helen Shapiro: ‘For Albert Ayler’ by Victoria McCabe

In Concert ???

So that’s what I’ve been buying instead of completing my Albert Ayler collection. And it turns out I don’t have to buy this either. This is just weird. Available seemingly everywhere as a download only album, on the Jazz All Stars label, © 2013, In Concert is, judging by the tracklist and timings, Disc 5 of the Holy Ghost box set. In other words, it’s the tracks from the Berlin concert of 3rd November 1966 (released in various versions and currently also available on Hat HUT’s Stockholm, Berlin 1966) and the Rotterdam concert of 8th November, 1966. What this means, I don’t understand. I know there was a legal problem with Revenant’s original release of the Holy Ghost box set and they had to hand over the distribution to ESP, and I’ve always wondered what would happen when the original stock ran out. ESP still has it listed for sale on its site for the quite reasonable price of $65 but it doesn’t seem to be available elsewhere. So, when ESP run out will they reprint the book, make more boxes and go out picking flowers, or will they just repackage the CDs. Or, maybe, will they license the individual discs to Jazz All Stars?

Old Foreign News

Richard Koloda’s request last month for reviews of Albert Ayler’s 1966 concerts in European newspapers brought an immediate response from Yair Dagan. Not confining himself to 1966, or Europe, Yair found the following review of Ayler’s concert at the ‘Second Buffalo Festival of the Arts Today’ from the Buffalo Courier-Express (10/3/68):

Yair also found a couple of items from 1964 in the online (free - British Library please take note) newspaper archives of the Koninklijke Bibliotheek (Royal Library) of the Netherlands. The first of these is an article about Ayler’s impending visit to the Netherlands, the other is a review of his concert at Rotterdam’s Jazzclub B-14 (where the band turned up two and a half hours late). I’ve placed these on the relevant pages of the site, but if you don’t know Dutch, it might make more sense to access the original online versions (Ayler’s visit --- B14 review) then click the text icon and run them through google translate which should be enough to give you the gist. There are also a couple of reviews of the Rotterdam concert in 1966, which again can be accessed online, one from Het Vrije Volk and the other from De Waarheid. Yair also found a review of the Berlin Jazz Festival concert from De Zeit. And, my particular favourite, an ad for the Rotterdam concert surrounded by film adverts (click the picture below to find out what was playing in November 1966).

And hopefully . .

Hopefully the next update will feature the revamped site. It shouldn’t change much, but it will take a while to replace all the pages, so there may be some disruption around 1st December. I know it would make more sense to wait for the New Year and start afresh in 2014, but that would mean I’d have to spend Christmas “doing Albert” and, frankly, that ain’t festive.

***

December 1 2013

Spot the Difference

As I said last month I’ve been having computer problems which has meant I’ve had to reconstruct the site. Hopefully it all works, although there are bound to be some glitches, and I didn’t have time to transfer all the old news pages, so I’ll be adding them over the next couple of weeks.

I decided not to go with little animated Alberts running round the page, so the major change is that menu on the left. When I started the site everybody had 14” monitors, so I designed the page accordingly. But technology moves on and I’ve been using a 17” monitor for several years now and the big space on the right-hand side was beginning to annoy me, so I thought I’d fill up the page a little and also make it easier to navigate the site and reveal the hidden wonders of the Archives. Now, of course, everybody is using phones and ipad thingies with tiny screens, but it’s impossible to keep up with those crazy kids. I’ve also started using a bigger font for the sake of my eyes.

Of the minor changes, I should mention that I finally succumbed to that old devil, consistency, and three pages in the Discography have changed their titles. So now, The First Recordings, Witches & Devils and Goin’ Home, are listed under their original names, Something Different!!!!!, Spirits and Swing Low Sweet Spiritual. Although the chaos which is Live In Europe 1964-66 has been retained.

So, that’s it. I should add that, while transferring the old news pages (which, I repeat, I haven’t finished yet), I realised how many people have contributed to this site over the years. So, once again, a big THANK YOU.

On with this month’s News:

Back in the shops

Hat Hut have finally got round to re-releasing Lorrach/Paris 1966, which is now hatOLOGY 703.


	And Kevin Loy emailed me with details of Japanese CD releases of Ayler albums which are only otherwise available as downloads, including My Name Is Albert Ayler (HQCD MZCB-1213) and Ghosts, and a new release of Goin’ Home (SHMCD MZCB1274).

The ‘Rotterdam Tape’

Kees Hazevoet has written to confirm that the ‘Rotterdam Tape’ which I put on this page in October, is the audio of the film of Albert Ayler which was shown during the three-hour Dutch TV programme, ‘Jazz is niet dood’, which was broadcast on 15th July, 1970. Kees remembers watching the programme and has his own copy which he taped off the telly. So, in 1970 there was a 12 minute video clip of a 1966 European Tour performance of the Albert Ayler Quintet. Where it came from, nobody knows, where it is now ...

Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe

There’s a video of the Music Is The Healing Force Of The Universe Community Orchestra at the United Nations Plaza on youtube, which led me to this, in the more prosaic surroundings of the Brewery Arts Centre, Cirencester.

And staying with youtube

Coule Albert, Coule

I’m not sure what this is, but any time you come across the names, Philip Marlowe and Albert Ayler, in the same sentence, you’re obliged to take notice. I think it’s Hervé Prudon’s story from Les Treize Morts d’Albert Ayler, but, maybe not.

How to pronounce Albert Ayler

No problems with this one. This is wrong. This is the correct way to pronounce Albert Ayler.

A few more things

If you skip down this page of the Tampa Bay Creative Loafing site you’ll find a mention of Ayler, with a link to a Chinese site which has the Kasper Collin film.

Steve Tintweiss just sent me a link to the Milford Graves/David Murray documentary, Speaking In Tongues on youtube. I’ve mentioned this before, and it’s listed in the Bibliography, but it tends to get forgotten (probably because it contains no video footage of Ayler - but that’s understandable). The youtube version is in three parts and, if you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth a look.

I also have to thank Alfie Cooke who sent me scans of the cover and some pages from the June 1966 issue of Jazz Monthly. This brought back memories. I still have that issue somewhere, but it’s no longer in mint condition since I cut out the pictures of Albert and Don and stuck them on my wall, back when I was a nipper. I’ve added the cover to the Magazine Covers page, but the photos were taken by Guy Kopelowicz at the recording session for Spirits Rejoice and all of those can be found here.

So, that’s about it. Except, as I went through the site I realised that I’d never put Don Ayler’s triple LP set, Live In Florence 1981 on here. Roy Morris sent me a copy on cassette a long time ago, back in the days when I was using some free webspace and all I could manage to upload was a brief extract from one track. When I switched to a paid site and space was no longer a problem, I switched this for the complete track, but that was all, since Don was still alive back then and there was always a chance that some enterprising record company would release the set again. Now, I can’t see the harm in putting the whole thing on the site. So, here it is, transferred from LP to cassette to CD to mp3, so, not the hiest of fi.

DON AYLER IN FLORENCE 1981

VOL. 1

1. The Bebop Tune (15:44)

2. The African Song (16:00)

VOL. 2

1. Coltrane’s Blues (16:13)

2. The Indian Song (17:40)

VOL. 3

1. The Eastern Song (17:16)

2. Peace (4:40) (followed by) Speech by Mr. Ayler (2:38)

3. The Japanese Song (18:02)

Have a good Christmas, and see you in the New Year!