š·
My dad is one of the biggest jazz heads in the world. He used to pick me up from the mall in eighth grade blasting Pharaoh Sanders or Maynard Ferguson, and when I got in, instead of turning it down, he would turn it up and say, āLISTEN TO THIS, MOUSE!!! JEEZ!!ā Anyways: I first fell in love with Albert Ayler when I saw the 2013 Whitney exhibition Blues for Smoke, and on the ground floor--this is when the museum was still in the Breuer--they were playing this beautiful film of Ayler performing āSpirits Rejoiceā--I think on French television. Itās very bizarre, very classic Ayler--it starts and stops multiple times, it mocks its source material, it discharges it into ecstasy. Heās like...the Herodotus of jazz. You can hear Louis Armstrong as much as you can hear Pharaoh Sanders. Ayler had one of the most fascinating lives. It was far too short: he died at 34, and there were rumors for decades that the mafia murdered him by tying him to a jukebox and throwing it into the East River.Ā Where to start? Well, his version of āOn Green Dolphin Streetā is one of the craziest things youāll ever hear. Same goes with āSummertime.ā And his live recordings are W-I-L-D: try āLive At Greenwich Village.ā You can practically hear the paint peeling off the walls during āTruth Is Marching In.āI think thereās this idea that free jazz was somehow inevitable, the same way that Abstract Expressionism was--that it was simply the logical endpoint of the art form. I donāt think thatās quite right. Thereās an album called The Albert Ayler Story, which is like an audio documentary and which I also recommend a lot, in which there are lots of interviews with Ayler and friends, plus formative recordings. And his drummer Milford Graves talks how there was a movement in the 1960s to stop jazz music--specifically Pharaoh and Sun-Ra and Ayler--because the musicians were too involved in political activism. Critics said it had nothing to do with the music. But to Graves, this free or avant-garde jazz was always about political progress, because it allows you to have āabstract thoughtsā that you later ācondenseā into something āmore logical.ā He says of the work he was making and would have continued to make with Ayler, who died in 1970: āI think the music was going to direct people into another area of consciousness.ā Thatās what was lost when Ayler died. Whereas in something like pop music, āyouāre constantly moving around in a circle, where thereās no kind of opening out. Youāre caught.ā Isnāt that fascinating?
Mar 30, 2021
Related Recs
š·
You have to check out Albert Ayler. His music is like wandering through a funhouse mirror maze. It's all about grace but grace through pure exhaustion and giddy chaos. You should also check out "Truth Is Marching In" on Live from the Village Vanguard -- one of the songs that really captures the weirdness of America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf9Wgi_nnmA
Mar 2, 2024
For music I meanā¦ music's so hard. I love music so much. I was looking at this picture called A Great Day in Harlem and it's a collection of jazz artists taking a picture on a stoop in Harlem. It's a very iconic photograph. Sonny Rollins is in the picture and he's still aliveā I think he just turned 90. He's been around a long time. Sonny Rollins is my favorite player of all time and that's a hard thing to say because there's a lot of sax players I love.
He's got a record called East Broadway Rundown that is just one of the most astonishing recordings I've ever heard in my life. There's a song on there called East Broadway Rundown and it's quite long, almost 20 minutes long I think. That's one of my favorite songs to listen to. The places it goes to, you just don't hear very often.
There's a big component of the jazz or genre of jazz, I guess called free jazz that can get pretty out there, and a lot of people hear it are like, āoh, that just sounds like cats in pain or somethingā and they're not really into it,Ā andĀ I can understand that sometimes. It's not for everybody. Sonny, on this song, gets to a place that's even beyond free jazz. It's some world that exists only in this song. I've never heard it in any other song.
Sonny Rollins in general, his devotion to playing, the fact that he was already successful in his field and yet took time off to to practice on the bridge because he wasn't satisfied with where he was at and he wanted to push himself even further. I just always admired the heck out of him.Ā
Feb 12, 2025
THIS ISNāT JAZZā¦THIS IS PURE METROPOLITAN SOUND MATTER.
SONNY ROLLINS ON IMPULSE WITH FREDDIE HUBBARD, ELVIN JONES AND JIMMY GARRISON BEHIND AND BESIDE HIM.
IS THIS THE FURTHEST āOUTā SONNY ROLLINS EVER WENT?
MAYBE.
BUT THOSE QUESTIONS ARE FOR GUYS WITH SOUL PATCHES AND KNIT āWORLD MUSICā STYLE CAPS.
NOT ME.
ELVIN JONES PLAYS HIS DRUMS LIKE GOD PLAYS WATERā¦
STRAIGHT LIQUIDā¦TOTAL FLOW.
LATE 2010s. I LIVED ON MOTT STREET. I WALKED TO EAST BROADWAY. I NOTICED THE YOUTH. THEY TURNED 18 AND EITHER CHOSE āKIDSā (1995) OR āTRAINSPOTTINGā (1996) AS THEIR IDENTITY.
SONNY ROLLINS WOULD EXIT THE SCENE AFTER THIS RECORD FOR 6 YEARS.
I WONDER IF HE WILL BE PRACTICING ON THE WILLIAMSBURG BRIDGE TOMORROW MORNING WHILE SOME DRUNKEN CANAL TYPE KID PASSES HIM, PHONE IN HAND, EN ROUTE TO DROP $12.99 FOR A COFFEE WITH RARE NUT MILK. WILL THEY LEAVE THE CUSTOMARY 25% TIP FOR THE MISERABLE BARISTA? WILL THAT PORCHES CHAP BE THERE? HE IS EVERYWHERE.
IāM NEVER TIPPING AGAIN.
Jan 30, 2024
Top Recs from @rachel-seville
āµ
Itās like rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, and surfing combined--except you can talk to your friends!
Mar 30, 2021
š
These are SO COOL!!! My grandmother used to collect them--she had a swan and several ducks which now festoon my parentsā guest room--and my parents bought a mouse for me, because they call me āMouse.ā But someone stole it when I had a party! Terrible behavior. Good thing it was years ago and I now have all-new friends. At any rate: I love the little boxes for letters and jewelry, I LOVE the pigs, and I think the miniature snakes ROCK. If my boyfriend and I ever move out of our cozy shoebox apartment Iāll start a collection in earnest.
Mar 30, 2021
šŗ
A very early album Vangelis did as a soundtrack to a now-rare French documentary about animals. It makes me feel like Iām getting a massage and a third-eye-opening all at once!
Mar 30, 2021