Albert Ayler: In Greenwich Village [SUPERIOR VIADUCT]

Why you'll love it

Superior Viaduct's reissue puts Ayler's Impulse! debut back in its gatefold jacket. DownBeat's Pete Welding gave it five stars in 1968, and it's widely held as his finest record for the label.

This edition

• Gatefold jacket
• Stereo

About the album

Plenty of jazz records have a famous fan. This one had a famous fan in the room. John Coltrane urged Impulse! to sign Albert Ayler and to catch him live, and when Ayler's band played the Village Vanguard on December 18, 1966, Coltrane was there to hear the two pieces that fill side two. Side one comes from the Village Theatre on February 26, 1967, with Bob Thiele producing.

Ayler swaps his usual tenor for alto on the opener, "For John Coltrane," a long, searching tribute. Both of his bands here use two bassists, which gives the music a deep, solid floor for his huge, singing tone. His brother Donald Ayler plays trumpet and wrote the closing "Our Prayer," while "Change Has Come" and "Truth Is Marching In" have the joyous, marching-band lift that runs through his best work.

More music from the same nights later turned up on The Village Concerts and a complete double CD. Welding wrote that all it asks of the listener is 'a pair of open ears,' and we checked, and the whole staff qualifies, more or less.

Also at Kops: more Albert Ayler on vinyl · browse Modern Jazz

Tracklist

Listen

On Superior Viaduct / Impulse! (cat# SV136), a reissue of the 1967 live album.