Albert Ayler
Music is the Healing Force of the Universe

The power of music! 

In logic, we talk about a contradiction when identifying a proposition with its exact opposite. 

Exactly so!  

"Music is the healing force of the universe" (second to last album by Albert Ayler) is one of those records destined (and indeed it was) to make music history (not just jazz),  even though when it was conceived in 1969 (Impulse!), mainstream critics received it anything but kindly, (but which true pioneer is fully appreciated by their contemporaries??!!)

Even if today the figure of the Musician (with a capital "M") with a diverse musical background is not particularly surprising, at the time, it was quite rare; and perhaps or surely because of this, the personality of the Cleveland saxophonist remains unique.

When it comes to contradictions, then, the music and the life itself of "Our" artist are the exact paradigm, and the album in question, fully captures what was the most controversial period of his career; namely the exploration of a possible intersection between harsher sounds, born from pure improvisation, 40s/50s jazz, and R&B.

The opening title track and the second piece "Masonic Inborn", perfectly describe the atmosphere breathed throughout the album; intriguing, refined, cultured, and visceral, calm yet at the same time twisted, both in the double bass and drum lines (Bill Folwell, Stanford James, and Muhammad Alï, respectively) and in the piano parts (Bobby Few) so interwoven, together with Ayler’s sax, as to create a sound magma as delirious as it is compact and irreproachable.

The third track "A man is like a tree" together with "Island Harvest" especially highlight the importance given to the message, which alongside the sound pattern, provides us with the right key to thoroughly interpret the entire album.

Mary Parks's voice (at the time Albert Ayler’s partner) reaches us with determination and sweetness, bringing us, so to speak, back to the roots of black music; Mary Maria (as she's referred to within the album) delivers a true manifesto of love and poetry towards life and nature, which permeates the whole record and perhaps aimed to invite Albert (who died by suicide a year after the release of "The music is the healing force of the universe") to enjoy the purity of life itself.

 The album concludes with "Drudgery", a long instrumental track of clear blues origins, once again a testament to the deep eclecticism with which Ayler conceived the entire work; within which we can appreciate the notes of Henry Vestine's guitar (Canned Heat, John Lee Hooker, Frank Zappa).

For all 8 minutes of the piece, Ayler's sax echoes Vestine's guitar and vice versa, creating a foggy atmosphere that elevates the piece in question to the sacred annals of "the devil's music".