#michel samson

[rjt4]

Albert Ayler Quintet outside of the famous club Slugs, Avenue A in NYC, May, 1966. Left to right Donald Ayler, Albert Ayler, Ron Shannon Jackson, Lewis Worrell and Michel Samson.

[dustedmagazine]

Albert Ayler Quintet – 1966: Berlin, Lörrach, Paris & Stockholm. Revisited (Ezz-thetics)

Accurate, though arguably unwieldly in a titular sense, 1966: Berlin, Lörrach, Paris & Stockholm. Revisited is at once a mouthful and a partial accounting of the itinerary taken by the Albert Ayler Quintet across Europe in November of the named year. Ayler had made previous continental circuits with varying degrees of receptiveness and remuneration, but these dates represented a leap in the solidification and ascendancy to a group sound. The Aylers had a relationship similar to Cannonball and Nat Adderley with Albert calling the musical shots and brother Don rising to the role of reliable fraternal foil on and off stage. The rest of the band was relatively new, but ready to put an indelible aggregate stamp on the leader’s singular songbook.

This Ezz-thetics collection marks the fourth iteration of this material on the label and its Hat Hut-affiliated predecessors. It also presents another welcome opportunity for ace engineer Peter Pfister to take a crack at remastering the source recordings and it is here that the set proves most revelatory. The music was originally collated from ancient radio recordings of concert and festival performances that clouded violinist Michel Samson, bassist William Folwell and drummer Beaver Harris in varying degrees of aural murk. Canted toward Ayler’s incandescent tenor, the rich group dynamics of the ensemble were less reliably evident amidst the accompanying detritus.

Through sequential efforts Pfister’s successfully sanded away much of the sonic grime to the extent that the classically-trained Samson, in particular, sounds remarkably refurbished, especially in this latest restoration. Harris’ arco work, especially on strings-forward pieces like the Berlin hybrid version of “Ghosts-Bells” exudes a warmly glowing throb. Harris’s cans are still somewhat compromised, his cymbals and bass drum blunted by antecedent acoustics, but his powerful snare shots now carry greater clarity and heft. Even at its most tempestuous, there’s an earnestness to the band’s outpourings that engages on emotional level.

Sixteen tracks add up to two-plus hours of music and offer a prismatic Greatest Hits package of sorts. “Truth is Marching In,” “Our Prayer,” and “Omega (Is the Alpha)” are all represented in multiple renderings. The ecstatic energy of each one is immediately expansive and affecting. Albert’s name topped the marquees, but the Aylers routinely engaged their bandmates from a perspective of collectivist inclusion. Don’s protean trumpet blasts became the elemental yin to the yang contained in Albert’s capacious saxophone prowess. A similar juxtaposition plays out in the music as it exudes ingrained ties to the jazz lineage while also somehow remaining illustriously and radically apart.

Derek Taylor

[behardfreebop]

Don Ayler, Bill Folwell, Albert Ayler, Beaver Harris and Michel Samson on November 17, 1966 rehearsing for BBC TV at The London School of Economics.

Credit: Val Wilmer.