| Unfortunately I never photographed Albert Ayler, but I did meet him on Easter Sunday, 1968 and here is the story. In 1968 on Good Friday, I was discharged from the U.S. Army at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Immediately I caught a Greyhound to NYC with the intention of listening to some live jazz. After arriving I rented a room at the Sloane House YMCA on 34th Street. A couple days later, while walking the streets of the city, I see a poster advertising a concert at Carnegie Hall called “Alice Coltrane’s Cosmic Concert” with Pharoah Sanders, Joe Henderson, Jack DeJohnette and, I believe, Jimmy Garrison. The morning of Easter Sunday I purchase a ticket and that evening, while walking through the lobby on my way to my seat, I see someone who looks like Albert Ayler. I go to him and ask if he is Albert Ayler. He responds that he is and I excitedly ask him if he is playing tonight. He says he is not and then hands me a flier advertising a concert that he and his brother are having in a couple of weeks. He then introduces me to his brother Donald, after which I begin to express to Albert how much I like his music. (I should add that my first exposure to Ayler’s music was while in the army (c.1966) when I purchased his ESP album Spiritual Unity. It floored me and is still for me one of the most powerful albums ever.) I go on and on about his music to which he was very attentive and appreciative. We spoke to each other for about five minutes and I was struck by the fact that this hero of mine is giving me so much of his time, that he is genuinely interested in what I have to say. All this time Donald is sitting on a nearby radiator quietly listening to our conversation. When we conclude talking we shake hands and I go to my seat which is front row center. Seated about 3 or 4 seats to my right is another of my heroes, Ornette Coleman. For me this will always be the best Easter ever. Now the flier that Ayler gave me has another interesting story to it. Sometime around 1998, I emailed a copy of it to Jeff Schwartz who I had learned of because of a manuscript he had written and posted on the internet, Albert Ayler: His Life and Music. In about 2002 I was contacted by Revenant Records who had been trying to locate a copy of this flier and had learned from Mr. Schwartz that I had one. They asked me about getting a color copy of the flier, which was red on white, to use in a book that would accompany a CD box set of previously unreleased Ayler material, and I was more than happy to give it to them. The best part of this for me is this makes me, as small as it is, a part of one of the best CD box sets ever produced and, more importantly, a contributor to the history of one of my heroes, Albert Ayler. Below is the flier as it appears on page 206 of the book that is included with the Revenant Records 9 CD box set: Albert Ayler: Holy Ghost! I highly recommended this fantastic CD box set. |
