Albert Ayler

The Profile

American tenor saxophonist from Cleveland, a central figure of free jazz. Key recordings include Spiritual Unity with Gary Peacock and Sunny Murray, the Greenwich Village concerts for Impulse!, and later boundary-pushing sessions. Supported by John Coltrane and often associated with Cecil Taylor and Don Cherry, Ayler’s approach fused hymnals, marches, and folk strains into radical improvisation. He died in New York in November 1970.

Born July 13, 1936 (Cleveland, Ohio, USA). Found dead in the East River, New York City, November 1970. Primary instrument: tenor saxophone; also used bagpipes. Associated with ESP-Disk and Impulse!; collaborators include Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, Gary Peacock, Don Cherry, and John Coltrane.

The reviews paint Albert Ayler as a radical free-jazz titan: loud, iconoclastic, and spiritually charged yet gleefully disruptive. Highlights include the incendiary Live in Greenwich Village set, the watershed trio statement Spiritual Unity, the early breakthrough Spirits, and the boundary-splitting Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe. Collaborations with Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, Gary Peacock, and Don Cherry recur. Ayler’s sound is portrayed as uncompromising, transformative, and historically pivotal.