Prophecy

Released as Prophecy on ESP 3030 (US), Base Record ESP-3030 (Italy), SFX10711 (Japan), 15PJ-2020 (Japan).
CD and double album vinyl release coupled with Bells on ESP/ZYX (Germany)1010-2 and Get Back (Italy) GET1003.
CD release (no coupling) on ESP (US) ESPCD 3030 and coupled with Bells on ESP 4006.
March 2020 saw the release of a 4 CD boxset: Albert Ayler: The Early Albums Collection on the Enlightenment label, EN4CD9178, which included a copy of Prophecy.




	[CD cover of In Respect IR39501. Click image for large version.]




	[Box cover of The Early Albums Collection Enlightenment EN4CD9178. Click image for larger version and booklet]

ALBERT SMILES WITH SUNNY

Tracks

Tracks 1 to 5 as on ‘Prophecy’

6. Sweet: first variation (6:29)

7. Ghosts: third variation (10:20)

8. Truth Is Marching In (10:53)

9. No Head (6:44)

10. Sweet: second variation (9:22)

(All compositions by Albert Ayler)

Personnel and recording details the same as ‘Prophecy’

Release Details

Released as Albert Smiles With Sunny on In Respect (Germany) IR 39501.
(Sometimes listed as Live At Cellar Cafe.)
Tracks 6-10 (the 5 tracks on the second CD of Albert Smiles With Sunny, plus an extra snippet) are included in the 2004 release of Holy Ghost on Revenant Records (US) RVN 213, under the following titles:

1. Spirits [incomplete] (6:38)
2. Saints (10:32)
3. Ghosts [incomplete] (10:56)
4. The Wizard (6:51)
5. Children (9:05)
6. Spirits [theme] (0:28)

The 2020 Enlightenment boxset, Albert Ayler: The Early Albums Collection included the 5 tracks from the second CD from Albert Smiles With Sunny with the following titles:

1. Sweet Variation, No. 1 (6:29)
2. Ghosts (Another Variation) (8:36)
3. The Truth Is Marching In (10:23)
4. No Head (6:45)
5. Sweet Variation, No. 2 (8:00)




	BELLS & PROPHECY: EXPANDED EDITION Tracks Disc 1 1. Bells (19:45) 2. Spirits (7:53) 3. Wizard (8:24) 4. Ghosts: first variation (11.18) 5. Prophecy (7:13) 6. Ghosts: second variation (7:06) Disc 2 1. Spirits (6:38) 2. Saints (10:32) 3. Ghosts (10:56) 4. The Wizard (6:51) 5. Children (9:05) 6. Spirits [theme] (0:28) (All compositions by Albert Ayler) Personnel and recording details the same as ‘Prophecy’ with the addition of ‘Bells’. Release Details Released in December 2015 as ESP 4076, Bells & Prophecy: Expanded Edition is a double CD, the first disc coupling the original Prophecy with Bells (as on ESP 4006), the second disc adding the remaining tracks from the Cellar Cafe, originally released on Albert Smiles With Sunny and Holy Ghost.



	[CD cover of HatHut ezz-thetics 1014. Click image for large version.]

	ALBERT AYLER TRIO 1964 PROPHECY REVISITED Tracks Tracks 1 to 5 as on ‘Prophecy’ 6. Saints (10:15) 7. Ghosts (10:11) 8. Wizard (6:14) 9. Children (9:46) 10. Spirits (theme) (0:32) Personnel and recording details the same as ‘Prophecy’ Release Details In January 2020 Hat Hut Records (Switzerland) released a CD of the ‘complete’ Prophecy concert as Albert Ayler Trio 1964 Prophecy Revisited ezz-thetics 1014. The extra tracks have the same titles as those on Holy Ghost version, but omit the first, incomplete, version of ‘Spirits’. [Prophecy was released posthumously by ESP in 1975. The original tape was provided by Paul Haines. The origin of Albert Smiles With Sunny is explained in the following passage in the Sunny Murray interview in the Paris Transatlantic magazine where Mr. Murray discusses the activities of Bernard Stollman, the founder of ESP records: “He also released “Prophecy” after Albert died, without Albert's signature, but because I also had a copy of the same tape I released mine through a company in Germany [“Albert Smiles with Sunny”, In Respect 39 501], as a correct move for me and Al. Bernard's so-called son tried to put the stops on my album, and finally did. However my tape was better quality than his and also at the correct speed, so mine sounds better. That tape's thirty-four years old, made up on 91st Street at Cellar Cafe [June 14th, 1964], where Paul Bley and all those cats first started playing, the white avant-garde guys, Barre Phillips, Gary Peacock... Gary Peacock had just gotten in from California to play with Miles, and he wanted to play with us.”] From the sleevenotes “Ayler was destined to suffer public indifference, incomprehension, not to mention often overt hostility. Mocked, ridiculed, his music was initially received as violent provocation, or senseless aggression. Its intense expressive power disturbed and frightened those listeners who expected music to be a simple background cushion of agreeable sounds.” Bernard Lairet (from the sleevenotes of the Base Records LP release) “let them never forget; just as charlie parker, herbie nichols who were totally destroyed by this shit of a corrupt music system, so was albert. because if magilla the gorillla don’t get us in the end poverty will; that is if we let it go that way. just imagine if al and others (me as well) received just 25 percent of the money owed to us some of our life would make sense to us, and why? it is very clear, my friends, in the music and life of albert ayler lives the truth of a richness of spirituality, and magic like coltrane/bird/cecil/eric/rollins/murray/max/elvin/etc. and this truth in richness of quality of spirituality is what moves the people. eternally. just as albert smiles with us. al always.” Sunny Murray (from the sleevenotes of In Respect IR 39501) (Album Covers) * Next: Spiritual Unity

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