Albert Ayler’s short but influential time in this world was as an outsider, an outrider of ‘Free Jazz’ who struggled to find consistent critical and commercial success yet whose musical legacy transcended far beyond jazz, his singular and unflinching experiments in horn playing and avant-garde structuring exerting lasting influence on the Noise, Post-Punk and No Wave scenes and to anyone interested in the gaps in between the walls of genre. Mentored by John Coltrane (with whom he recorded and who demanded Ayler’s signing to Impulse), he shared a deeply spiritual vision of music, expression was all. Schooled in the sounds of the church, early R&B and military bands during his spell in the US Army, all of these influences would return in his later music, alienating the jazz cognescenti and critics alike. His was an abrasive, perhaps overplayed use of the saxophone, he tortured timbre, powering out squawks and squeals, dismantling melodies, a courageous fight against the swing when the swing in jazz was God. As The Stooges were to Rock’n’Roll, Ayler was to Jazz, a raucous ‘primal’ smashing of the idiom. Widely regarded now as one of the leaders of the 1960s free jazz movement this seems a perfect moment to reengage with one of his least lauded and most polarising records, 1969’s ‘New Grass’ which will be reissued on vinyl by the excellent Third Man Records out of Nashville.
In 1969, jazz was regarded by all but the perverse as an established American art form whereas Soul Music was primitive, the sound of parties, of girl-meets-boy, under-developed, uncultivated (this was before ‘What’s Going On’, soul was still predominantly a singles market) and certainly the two genres ‘shouldn’t’ mix. However, like much of what was happening culturally, politically and musically in ‘69, the gatekeepers’ powers were under threat as the established rules were pushed to their limits and so someone had to break down this particular wall. It was left to Albert Ayler. As great a label Impulse was (and is), they weren’t the most purist of jazz labels in spirit and had been pressuring him to create a more accessible record. In response his previous few releases contained significantly more compositional structure, with vocals and more of a funked up rhythm section but on ‘New Grass’ his muse wanted him to return to his R&B roots. He may have played with avant-gardists such as Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry and Coltrane but he had started out with players like Chicago’s legendary bluesman Little Walter and on this record we can hear that Juke Joint fire combined with the holy-roller spiritual passion and energy of the church. On tracks like ‘Heart Love’, singer Rose Marie McKoy and The Soul Singers proclaim ‘We Got It, We Got Heart Love’ over and over while Ayler blasts an explosive solo of pure expressive force, the backing band in the vein of a looser Booker T. & The M.G.’s - gutsy, raw and funky as hell. This may have pissed the fans and critics off in ‘69 but it sounds like life unbridled now, a sure step in the right direction. ‘New Generation’ is even harder and faster, a lost soul-boy classic if there ever was one, reminiscent of the great soul revues that toured the world at this point. There are still moments of Ayler’s avant-garde adventure, album opener ‘Message from Albert’ is a stripped down (but impassioned) sax and voice piece with Ayler himself proclaiming to the listener why he had made this record, describing the ‘Universal Man’ that he had become and how.
It’s a damn shame that ‘New Grass’ was panned so hard at the time, this was his penultimate LP before his early death in 1970 (he was only 34), who knows where he could have gone on his journey? His personal vision was uniquely and fearlessly his and this is why he is so revered outside of jazz with fans including the late Mark E. Smith, Thurston Moore and George Clinton as well as living jazz greats Pharoah Sanders and Marc Ribot. Do yourself a favour and play this loud and feel his vision without fear or pre-judgement as Albert would have wished for. Personally, I can’t wait for the clubs to open again as ‘New Generation’ is going to tear the floor up!