Albert Ayler esp download only release

[romualdo]

ESP-Disk have just released (late this month) a 68 track download only set "The Albert Ayler Story" (equivalent to 4CDs)

It appears to be all previously released material music wise (wonder if it contains the alternate version of "Spirits" (Vibrations) from the first ESP LP) plus loads of interview material (including Ayler)

It's currently on special for $15.99 (Pre-Release Sale) from the ESP site - worth getting just for the interview material - has any of this been previously released on prior ESP issues (new series from mid 2000's)?

Wonder if this will get a CD release?

http://espdisk.com/official/catalog/4072.html

Edited June 30, 2014 by romualdo

[AllenLowe]

looks interesting though I cannot answer your question; I only note the following, on that page, as a typically dumb critical comment from one of those who doesn't really get Ayler and so substitutes his own inadequate perceptions:

"Tonally, Albert's horn was the closest a saxophone ever came to resembling the soaring feedback of psychedelic guitarists Jimi Hendrix or John Cippolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service and brings to mind pure electronic sound waves as produced by the Theremin."

now there's a critic who doesn't even realize that he is comparing apples to apples. And who only needs to listen to half the tenor saxophonists of the 1930s to realize that virtually every one of them was doing the same thing.

Edited June 30, 2014 by AllenLowe

[colinmce]

"Tonally, Albert's horn was the closest a saxophone ever came to resembling the soaring feedback of psychedelic guitarists Jimi Hendrix or John Cippolina of Quicksilver Messenger Service and brings to mind pure electronic sound waves as produced by the Theremin."

[clifford_thornton]

I could have written my press quote better; then again, I wrote it a long time ago.

[colinmce]

Yours is what it should be: cogent, relevant, and historically accurate. I don't know Kruth, so maybe he goes deeper than that dumb pull lets on, but it sounds to me like he's shoehorning ideas about something he knows nothing about into something that he does. Then again, there are few things that peeve me more than the psych/noise/etc set spouting off about free jazz in their proprietary language. Like Allen said, the stuff didn't come out of nowhere.

[clifford_thornton]

I also don't put Cippolina into the same category as Hendrix. Much more of a slow-burning type of player. QMS were a great band.

Recognize Kruth's name from my STN days but can't remember any of his writing.

[AllenLowe]

I probably shouldn't put him down; he meant well; I just get bugged sometimes at certain kinds of critical phrasemaking.

Edited June 30, 2014 by AllenLowe

[king ubu]

(I'm still pissed at Mr. Stollman ... a friend ordered the Bud 3CD set recently, after I had been urging him to do so for a while ... turns out - for no good reason whatsoever - the package was declared as being of double the value or even more ... my friend had to pay effin' custom fees, nearly as much as the actual cost of the box ... but no one from ESP was fit to even reply to his mail ... would have been the least to offer him a freebie or two, but no answer whatsoever ... guess that's an answer too, namely telling customers to go eff themselves ... guess I'm done with ordering straight from ESP for the time being.)

[clifford_thornton]

Stollman didn't likely ship the package. He has other staff who may or may not know what they are doing...

[xybert]

"Y is like X on LSD" is my lazy critic pet peeve.

[clifford_thornton]

Used it once but it was pretty accurate.

[AllenLowe]

well, it was really the only thing that critics who didn't really understand or like Ayler could say and not sound entirely negative (not referring to Cliff but to the source of the quote as ESP used it).

Edited June 30, 2014 by AllenLowe

[king ubu]

Stollman didn't likely ship the package. He has other staff who may or may not know what they are doing...

Guess so ... but they (the staff) should also answer emails. Once, when I had some oddity (my copy of a rather recent disc is printed upside down or rather glued together wrongly) in my hands, they did answer (but that didn't cost them any).

Anyway, sorry to derail the thread.

[CraigP]

Then again, there are few things that peeve me more than the psych/noise/etc set spouting off about free jazz in their proprietary language. Like Allen said, the stuff didn't come out of nowhere.

Amen!

[JSngry]

In fairness to people who don't know any better...the "noise" link between Hendrix & Ayler was an immediate bridge for me as a teenager, something that made it sound not at all "unfamiliar" or "strange". Thing is, once I started crossing that bridge, I kept going, and really never had a desire to cross back over. But it's not that the "analogy" has no basis in truth, it's more that it's true as far as it goes, but as far as it goes is not nearly as far as it really is.

Also, the same is true about Hendrix as it is Ayler - that"noise" element didn't just show up one day on an acid trip (good, bad, ugly, or indifferent), it was (another) post-atomic moment(s) where everything that had been going on for a good long time came together real quick, compressed itself as far as it could, and then blew up all out of itself into its new self.

[clifford_thornton]

I came to Ayler and free music/jazz from punk and noise-rock, so of course the sound of "Bells" just blew me away on first hearing. It took years to even attempt to put together what this music really is, and I'm still slowly chipping away at it. Certainly a lot of musicians were finding artistic necessity in the same catalytic well, and psychedelic rock, free jazz and new music drew from it equally.

[B. Clugston]

It appears to be all previously released material music wise (wonder if it contains the alternate version of "Spirits" (Vibrations) from the first ESP LP) plus loads of interview material (including Ayler)

According to the Albert Ayler site, the alternate Spirits is not part of it. http://www.ayler.co.uk/html/what_s_new.html: "Speaking of which, ESP do have one 'unreleased' track, courtesy of Martin Davidson. It's the alternate 'Spirits' which did appear on some early editions of Spiritual Unity. There's more information about it on the Spiritual Unity page, but apparently ESP didn't have a copy of the fifth track until recently, when Martin Davidson (of the Emanem label) sent them one, and ESP told him that their next issue of Spiritual Unity will contain all five tracks from the session...."

[romualdo]

It appears to be all previously released material music wise (wonder if it contains the alternate version of "Spirits" (Vibrations) from the first ESP LP) plus loads of interview material (including Ayler)

According to the Albert Ayler site, the alternate Spirits is not part of it. http://www.ayler.co.uk/html/what_s_new.html: "Speaking of which, ESP do have one 'unreleased' track, courtesy of Martin Davidson. It's the alternate 'Spirits' which did appear on some early editions of Spiritual Unity. There's more information about it on the Spiritual Unity page, but apparently ESP didn't have a copy of the fifth track until recently, when Martin Davidson (of the Emanem label) sent them one, and ESP told him that their next issue of Spiritual Unity will contain all five tracks from the session...."

Also read this new info yesterday on the Ayler site

It appears that some of the interview material is from the Holy Ghost box set (now owned by esp-disk)

Edited July 2, 2014 by romualdo

[mjzee]

It appears to be all previously released material music wise (wonder if it contains the alternate version of "Spirits" (Vibrations) from the first ESP LP) plus loads of interview material (including Ayler)

According to the Albert Ayler site, the alternate Spirits is not part of it. http://www.ayler.co.uk/html/what_s_new.html: "Speaking of which, ESP do have one 'unreleased' track, courtesy of Martin Davidson. It's the alternate 'Spirits' which did appear on some early editions of Spiritual Unity. There's more information about it on the Spiritual Unity page, but apparently ESP didn't have a copy of the fifth track until recently, when Martin Davidson (of the Emanem label) sent them one, and ESP told him that their next issue of Spiritual Unity will contain all five tracks from the session...."

Now available as preorder from Amazon; release date August 26:

Spiritual Unity, recorded on July 10, 1964, is the album that made Albert Ayler and ESP-Disk famous. Ayler's sound was unprecedented, much rawer than any other jazz of the time. The 50th Anniversary Expanded Edition includes as a bonus the track ""Vibrations,"" which was briefly and accidentally substituted for ""Spirits"" on an early vinyl edition. It is the first time both ""Spirits"" and ""Vibrations"" have been on an edition of Spiritual Unity.

[romualdo]

It appears to be all previously released material music wise (wonder if it contains the alternate version of "Spirits" (Vibrations) from the first ESP LP) plus loads of interview material (including Ayler)

According to the Albert Ayler site, the alternate Spirits is not part of it. http://www.ayler.co.uk/html/what_s_new.html: "Speaking of which, ESP do have one 'unreleased' track, courtesy of Martin Davidson. It's the alternate 'Spirits' which did appear on some early editions of Spiritual Unity. There's more information about it on the Spiritual Unity page, but apparently ESP didn't have a copy of the fifth track until recently, when Martin Davidson (of the Emanem label) sent them one, and ESP told him that their next issue of Spiritual Unity will contain all five tracks from the session...."

Now available as preorder from Amazon; release date August 26:

Spiritual Unity, recorded on July 10, 1964, is the album that made Albert Ayler and ESP-Disk famous. Ayler's sound was unprecedented, much rawer than any other jazz of the time. The 50th Anniversary Expanded Edition includes as a bonus the track ""Vibrations,"" which was briefly and accidentally substituted for ""Spirits"" on an early vinyl edition. It is the first time both ""Spirits"" and ""Vibrations"" have been on an edition of Spiritual Unity.

finally!!!

Dusty Groove also have it listed but not Import CDs or even the ESP site

[clifford_thornton]

I'd like to hear "Vibrations." The first pressing of Spiritual Unity looks super cool though it's always far from my price range.