Albert Ayler: The Last Album in Two Parts (1/2)

Albert Ayler is known for just a few things. One of them is playing in a weird amalgam of styles that draws together the best of Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane – prior to his loosing it. There’s always a bleating quality to Ayler’s work, but during its highlights, a direction is maintained, whereas Coltrane went all out towards chaos. There’s surely some way to explain all of that in plain language, but the noisome wanking, most of it at least, isn’t really worth the time.

Coming out of Cleveland, heading into the service and kicking around Europe granted Ayler his all inclusive view of how a saxophone should sound. But while his earlier efforts are hailed as the dawning of that new thing, some of his latter work is lampooned as nonsense.

Ayler, though, made us of some weird marching band ethos to propel his skronking solos. His final studio recording, appropriately titled The Last Album, was released in the year of his death. And while it’s not generally afforded the same respect that the rest of his studio work receives, there’re a few moments worth recounting, even if the marching band thing is pretty much absent here. The grandeur of “Omega” from Love Cry isn’t present on this date, but that song can’t really ever be replicated. What’s below, though,  is a play by play of what this saxophonist left us with.

1. Untitled Duet: Beginning with some electric guitar peculiarities contributed by Canned Heat member Henry Vestine, Ayler and company tangle up in some jazz based snake charming. The track might be the most immediately pleasurable to modern day audiences seeing as the Eastern thing is all the rage now, but in the player’s collaboration is a momentary glimpse into what Ayler was capable of channeling even as the track shouldn’t be considered his greatest work.

2. Again Come The Raising of the Sun: Ayler continues on in his attempt to collaborate with folks that listeners might not have expected. What’s here is a female vocalist getting all heavy about life and its happenings. There’s an ethereal ‘70s soul jazz thing happening here that Ayler doesn’t explore too much – it’s not too entertaining over all. The song doesn’t come off as a total loss, though, as it exemplifies Ayler’s attempt to incorporate an endless slew of ideas into his studio dates. The Last Album is frequently criticized as being too obtuse and unwieldy with Ayler not maintaining the same sort of spirit that he previously held. But with the first two tracks here being nothing short of exploratory, that seems like a spurious criticism.

3. All Love: This deal might be one of the more traditional tracks that Ayler went in on as a date leader. It’s all modal keys and occasional blustery soloing. It’s not that noteworthy of an effort, but amongst this particular set, the song works as a throw back to when Ayler was just trying to work his ideas out in-front of an almost traditional backing group…