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photo uncredited but likely Chuck Stewart/published by ABC Impulse! Records/via Wikimedia Commons
Albert Ayler, c. 1967/68
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Releases (Moving Poems, from the Future)
“[Don’t] focus on the notes and stuff like that. Instead, try to move your imagination toward the sound.”
-Albert Ayler
“Follow the sound: the pitches, the colors, you have to watch them move.”
-Donald Ayler
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I. State Lines
from Nat Hentoff’s notes to Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village (1967)
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The fierce resistance…to Revelation! Disordered
listeners. The forest clearing in the thicket… The
Universe expanding on the Theme… The
Future finally right
now?
*
The body plays, far ahead… Heartbeat: suddenly, two
bassists… Takes some undoing: prisoners, marching…
Pure math, One simply adding dimensions. The
cello in the cell, playing in the
Future…
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Sacred energy, what is the matter now? Fainting, feel-
ing God’s pulse… Irresistible? Uncle Sam, keeping
his Spirits down… ‘Way out’: follow the move-
ment, butterflies from the Cave… Past/
present/future? State
lines…
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II. Light Waves
from Robert Parker’s notes to Albert Ayler: The Village Concerts (1978)
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Taking ‘Aim’ out of the equation. Sometimes,
touching scorpion visions… Revelation-
aries.
*
The Law’s breakers… Throw away the remote,
controlled God! Prayer – Mississippi, 1927,
‘Apocalypse now!’ The black magnifying
glass.
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Ecstatic? Not precisely! Trumpets: wild-
flowers, Jericho rubble… Nightmare,
tongues on the steps of the
Capitol.
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Firewood: cello, violin… Freed puppets, string-
ing the harp. The Sun’s insiders. Turn tables;
Christ’s slim but enduring
body…
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Too late? Tongues & hands, heal-
ing Force… Modern eye, pygmy
angels. Still beautiful? The
floating bodies of the
gods…
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Sean Howard is the author of six collections of poetry, most recently Trinity: Tribute Sequences, for Robert Graves (Gaspereau Press, Nova Scotia, 2022). His poetry has been widely published in Canada and elsewhere, and featured in The Best of the Best Canadian Poetry in English (Tightrope Books, 2017). Sean is adjunct professor of political science at Cape Breton University, and contributes a monthly ‘War & Peace’ column to the Cape Breton Spectator.
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Listen to Albert Ayler play “Change Has Come,” from the 1967 recording Albert Ayler in Greenwich Village, with Ayler (alto saxophone); Alan Silva (bass); Bill Folwell (bass); Joel Friedman (cello); Beaver Harris (drums) [Universal Music Group]
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Listen to Albert Ayler play “Spiritual Rebirth” from the 1978 album Albert Ayler: The Village Concerts, with Ayler (alto saxophone); Donald Ayler (trumpet); Bill Folwell (bass); Joel Friedman (cell0); Henry Grimes (bass); Beaver Harris (drums); Michael Sampson (violin); and Alan Silva (bass). [Universal Music Group]
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