Albert Ayler - Spiritual Unity (1964)

If you think you've seen it all with avant-garde jazz having heard the best releases of 'Trane and Miles, you've got it wrong. Here's Spiritual Unity, by the amazing Albert Ayler. Clocking in just under 30 minutes, only using sax, drums and bass, this album still makes my head spin. The naked agression in the playing of Ayler and his colleagues is unheard of, and I sometimes wonder what Coltrane must've thought when he heard Ayler scream and screech through his horn. For instance, in Ghosts, it's the playful, whimsical melody that holds the pack together. The rest of the recording is pure freedom in jazz done by the best players.

Albert Ayler, not quite being part of the hipster scene that included Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, and others, felt isolated and depressed and finally committed suicide in New York, november 1970. What is left is Spiritual Unity, being his masterpiece. It still leaves me in awe.

the wizard
320kbps