Tenor Saxophone – Albert Ayler (tracks: 1-1 to 1-3, 2-11, 6-5), Ayler* (tracks: 2-5 to 2-3, 2-5 to 2-10, 3-2 to 3-5, 3-7 to 4-6, 5-2 to 5-5, 5-7 to 6-2, 6-4, 6-6 to 6-9, 7-3 to 7-6), Frank Wright (tracks: 4-1 to 4-6)
Transferred By [Audio Transfers], Restoration, Remastered By – Ben Young (3)
Trumpet – Don Ayler* (tracks: 3-2 to 3-5, 3-7 to 4-6, 5-2 to 5-5, 5-7 to 6-4, 7-1, 7-2)
Violin – Michel Samson (tracks: 3-2 to 3-5, 3-7 to 4-6, 5-2 to 5-5, 5-7 to 6-3)
Vocals, Tambourine – Mary Parks (tracks: 6-6 to 6-9, 7-3 to 7-6)
Notes
Rare and unreleased recordings from 1962-1970 in a 9CD 'Spirit Box', plus a bonus disc of Albert Ayler with a U.S. Army Band.
The boxset includes: - a 208 page full-color hardbound book which includes new essays by Amiri Baraka, Val Wilmer & other Ayler scholars - a picture of Ayler with saxophone from his youth - a photostat of a handwritten note from a Copenhagen hotel - a reprinted copy of a Slugs flyer which includes a listing for a week of Ayler's quintet - a reprinted 1965 pamphlet by the late poet Paul Haines entitled Ayler-Peacock-Murray-You and the Night and the Music - a reprinted newsletter from 1969 by Jihad Productions with excerpts about Ayler - a dried flower
1-1 to 1-3: Recorded June 30, 1962 in Helsinki, Finland 1-4 to 1-5: Recorded poss. November 16, 1962 in Copenhagen, Denmark 1-6 to 2-3: Recorded June 14, 1964 at the Cellar Café, New York City 2-4 to 2-10: Recorded September 3, 1964 at Café Montmartre: Copenhagen, Denmark 2-11: Recorded February 1966 at Slug's: New York City 3-1 to 3-8: Recorded April 16, 1966 at La Cave: Cleveland 3-9 to 4-6: Recorded April 17, 1966 at La Cave: Cleveland 5-1 to 5-5: Recorded November 3, 1966 at Berlin Philharmonic: Berlin, Germany 5-6 to 5-10: Recorded November 8, 1966 at De Doelen: Rotterdam, The Netherlands 6-1 to 6-3: Recorded June 30/July 1, 1967 at Freebody Park: Newport, Rhode Island 6-4: Recorded at the funeral of John Coltrane, July 21, 1967 at St. Peter's Lutheran Church: New York City 6-5: Recorded January 21, 1968 at the Renaissance Ballroom: New York City 6-6 to 6-9: Recorded ca. late August 1968 in New York City area 7-1 to 7-2: Recorded January 11, 1969 at Town Hall: New York City 7-3 to 7-6: Recorded prob. July 28, 1970 at La Colle sur Loup: Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France 8-1 to 8-4: Ayler interview for "Afterbeat" program. Recorded early December 1964 in Copenhagen, Denmark 8-5 to 8-8: Ayler interview for "Afterbeat" program. Recorded on or around November 11, 1966 in Copenhagen, Denmark 8-9 to 8-23: Ayler interview for "France Culture". Recorded July 27, 1970 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France 9-1 to 9-37: Ayler interview for "Swing Journal". Recorded July 25, 1970 in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France 9-38: Don and Mocqui Cherry interview. Recorded in Paris, 1971 10-1 to 10-2: U.S. Army 76th AG Band Rehearsal. Recorded Sept. 14, 1960
Recordings made available under license from the Albert Ayler estate and various rights holders. Disc 1/Tracks 1-3 made available under license through special arrangement with Finnish Broadcasting Company-Yleisradio, through the good works of Matti Konttinen.
NOTE: The boxed set was released with mastering/pressing flaw on disc 6. Because of this for a limited time Revenant provided a replacement disc to those who purchased the boxed set and requested the replacement disc by mail or email. This replacement disc was mailed in a cardboard mailer with a blank card stock cover. The mastering issue appears to be a volume and minor clarity issue on some tracks, the remastering adds one second to both tracks 6-6 and 6-9.
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Barcode: 630814021320
Other (Cat# CD 10): RVN213GCD10
Matrix / Runout (CD 1): [20040514 106199 SO-35727 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -1 11263] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 2): [20040520 106211 SO-35979 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -2 12345] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 3): [20040514 106200 SO-35728 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -3 11262] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 4): [20040514 106201 SO-35729 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -4 11245] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 5): [20040514 106202 SO-35730 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -5 11261] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 6): [20040518 106206 SO-35759 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -6 11602] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 7): [20040518 106207 SO-35760 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -7 11304] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 8): [20040520 106212 SO-35800 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -8 12146] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 9): [20040518 106208 SO-35761 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -9 11301] x 2
Matrix / Runout (CD 10): [Y20040514 106203 SO-35731 SOLO MEDIA AUSTIN-TX REVENANT/ AYLER -10 11287] x 2
Christ this things like a reliquary... You open it up expecting to find a finger bone from Ayler in here... My parent's ashes didn't come in a box this nice. Of course neither one of my parents could play saxophone worth a sh*t...
I bought the box in 2004 (soon after it was released) - I've just listened to disc 6 (a couple of times), the original one that came with the box (on both a dedicated CD player plus a desktop computer with a Mac external disc drive). No discernable "clicking" heard at all. Not sure what the "pressing flaw" that Revenant referred to was - the disc sounds fine - the Sanders track does sound a bit more muffled than than the rest of the material on the disc - that's all I can detect.
Disc 6 is full of data errors. First I thought it's my copy... in particular the Sanders tune suffers from permanent clicking which is caused by an inaccurate copying process of a source CDR. I got to hear a second copy and it has the same problems. This is a typical phenomenon from the days when fans exchanged unofficial live music on CDRs by snail mail. I'll go through the whole box soon by head-phones; I'll update this comment in case I find more really problematic tracks.
Too bad - this includes amazing documents, but those technical deffects massively spoil the fun in certain spots. Let's keep in mind that certain tracks were glitch-free at an ealier point in their line-age. Grrrr.
edit: I just read in the note above about those "mastering/pressing flaws" on disc 6. If this indeed refers to "a volume and minor clarity issue" then it's not the glitches I'm talking about.
It would be interesting to have somebody with the mentioned replacement disc report if the Sanders tune has digi-clicks or not.