Albert Ayler Complete Live At Slug's Saloon Recordings Soundtrack CD - Import

Full title - Complete Live at Slug's Saloon Recordings. 2007 digitally remastered reissue of Lonehill Jazz's first-ever release with one newly found bonus track: the 16+ minute 'Initiation'. . This outstanding nearly 80 minutes release includes Albert Ayler's complete May 1, 1966 Slug's Saloon performance. Featuring trumpeter Donald Ayler, violinist Michel Sampson, bassist Lewis Worrell and drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson this seminal concert helped to cement Albert Ayler's status as one of the most important and influential leaders of the Free Jazz movement. Five tracks. Lonehill Jazz.

Personnel: Albert Ayler (tenor saxophone); Donald Ayler (trumpet); Michel Sampson (violin); Lewis Worrell (bass); Ron Jackson (drums).
Recorded at Slug's Saloon, New York, New York on May 1, 1966.
The famed modern jazz saxophonist is heard in a classic live performance.
Personnel: Albert Ayler (tenor saxophone); Michel Sampson (violin); Donald Ayler (trumpet); Ronald Shannon Jackson (drums).
Liner Note Author: Albert Ayler.
Recording information: Slug's Saloon, NY (05/01/1966).
Author: Thom Jurek.
Fruit Tree comes up with the second complete reissue in two years of Albert Ayler's seminal Slug's Saloon performance from May 1, 1966 which was originally released by Italy's BASE label. Two separate volumes have been released many times over the years, but this set faithfully reassembles the Slug's Saloon concert that featured Ayler on tenor, brother Donald on trumpet, drummer Ronald Shannon Jackson, violinist Michel Sampson, and bassist Lewis Worrell. These recordings helped to establish Ayler's reputation as an original voice on the tenor in the vanguard of the music. There are five tracks here, and the long, freewheeling versions of favorites like "Truth Is Marching In," "Ghosts," and "Bells" are among the finest on tape, offering fine evidence of Ayler's union of folk music, gospel, R&B, and marches as they collided with his iconoclastic sense of harmony and melody. Sound quality is a bit dodgy at times, but it draws nothing from the performance. While Ayler fans no doubt possess this music in some form, the uninitiated would be indeed gratified as well as educated by investigating them. Energetically and dynamically, there is simply nothing like them. ~ Thom Jurek
The Slug's Saloon dates are among the recordings that established Albert Ayler's reputation as the iconoclastic legend he was. This May Day performance featured Albert on tenor saxophone, brother Donald on trumpet, Lewis Worrell on bass, Michael Sampson on violin, and a very young Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums. While the recording quality may not be up to some modern-day stereo fascist's standards, there's plenty of fidelity here for most listeners. This is Ayler at his most beguiling and powerful. The set opens with "Truth Is Marching In," which begins with the refrain line from "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and turns it inside out into a gospel chant before Ayler just turns his saxophone on the audience like he's some Old Testament prophet, screaming and screeching through the middle as Jackson sticks with him every step of the way, triple timing his bull-roaring wail. The theme is one note played in various cadences; each member begins his solo in turn and soon the entire process of music-making has been reversed -- speaking in tongues has been realized, although everyone on the bandstand and in the audience realizes what's happening. Next up is Donald Ayler's "Our Prayer," which begins with a beer polka theme crossed with a carnival song and turns into marching band music, before becoming unglued in an atonal fury of pure gospel shouting and blues hollering to the heavens. Vol. 1 (the stronger of the two) closes with the truly astonishing "Bells." It's true that Ayler only had a few compositions to his name, but it didn't matter since they were all so open they could be reinterpreted a thousand ways. "Bells" is Ayler's masterpiece, beginning with a m