NYS Music 2023

Author: Sal Cataldi

  • Brother Lester Chambers Tells of His Time In and Out of the Spotlight in New Memoir

    When it comes to indelible anthems of the ‘60s that are called upon to impart the times and mood in film and television, few are as a popular as The Chambers Brothers’ iconic 1967 hit, “Time Has Come Today.” Now the band’s lead singer and formational catalyst, Lester Chambers, is sharing the mighty highs and lows of his remarkable life in a new, self-published biography written with veteran journalist T. Watts, Time Has Come: Revelations of a Mississippi Hippie.

    Lester Chambers
    Bob Minkin Photography

    Though his hit-making days are long past, Chambers is known to a younger generation due, in part, to a viral campaign spearheaded a few years back by Reddit co-founder Alexis O’Hanian and Rob Max, the late CEO of the musician’s aid charity, Sweet Relief.  A 2012 picture from Lester, then homeless and suffering from cancer, showed his Gold Record for his biggest hit with a handwritten message about his financial plight due to not being paid royalties for decades, a position he claims he is in with “99%” of his fellow musicians of the time.  The photo launched a Kickstarter campaign to help house and treat him and produce a new album. It was shared millions of times on Facebook, Reddit and other social platforms. The buzz generated not only support for him, but a greater awareness of the plight of the vast army of musicians who are not getting their rightly royalties. Lester and his brothers also received interest from a new generation with their 1969 performance of “Uptown” featured in Questlove’s Academy Award-winning 2021 documentary, Summer of Soul.

    Lester’s story begins in the Deep South, on a sharecropper farm in Echo Hills, Mississippi governed by a Grand Dragon of the KKK.  One of 13 children, Lester and the three brothers with whom he formed his famous group – Joe, Willie and George – honed their extraordinary gospel harmonies, modeled on their idols The Blind Boys of Mississippi and The Soul Stirrers, while working in the fields.  When Lester was 13, he and his brothers would flee the harsh farm life under cover of darkness and end up in South Central Los Angeles.  Here Lester would befriend blues great Jimmy Reed while mowing lawns and would have his first gig with his brothers at a party at the Hollywood Palladium for TV’s Superman, George Reeves.  The brothers would  polish their act “signing for sandwiches” in venues like the 5th Estate and Xanadu Coffeehouse, where Lester would meet a man who would become a longtime friend, the soon-to-be LSD king Augustus Owsley Stanley. 

    The Chambers Brothers true rise began when they secured a long-term residency at LA’s famed folk club, The Ash Grove.  The frenzy of dancing they created with their mix of high-energy gospel and blues forced the owner to replace his glass cups with plastic. Their performances of gospel music at a venue that served alcohol raised the ire of Mahalia Jackson, who called it “blasphemy” in a 1963 article in the Los Angeles Times included in the book.  While playing a regular “Gospel Hoot” at the Troubadour, they would catch the eye of Jack Goode, producer of the music TV show, “Shindig,” which they would perform on more than two dozen times in the following year.

    As backing vocalists for singer Barbara Dane, they came to make additional recordings and tour nationally.  Dane also introduced them to folk legend Pete Seeger.  Through Seeger, they were invited to do workshops at 1964 Newport Folk Festival and were there again in 1965, at the one where Dylan went electric. When bluesman Josh White fell too ill to perform, they took to the main stage.  They also provided vocal backing to Dane and Joan Baez at the festival.  And after hearing their sweet harmonies, Dylan invited the brothers to sing backgrounds on his album, Highway 61 Revisited, which sadly went unused.

    Lester and his band of brothers would then spend a good deal of time in New York City, playing a residency at Ondine, where they would meet their great drummer Brian Keenan, and also at Steve Paul’s legendary rocker hangout, The Scene. 

    During his career, Lester was often in the right place and time to strike up friendships and have encounters – some good, some bad – with a boatload of boldfaced names. 

    Lester befriended Jimi Hendrix during his time in Greenwich Village, was called the N-word by Diana Ross in a limo, would be on the road with Robert Kennedy right before his assassination, have a later-day band “stolen” by Wilson Pickett and even record with Miles Davis on his 1974 album, Get Up with It.  It’s Lester’s searing bluesy harmonica that is featured on “Red China Blues.”  In the album liner notes, he was credited as “Wally Chambers,” something the ornery Davis refused to fix on further pressings. Lester is also the man who would introduce Miles to his wife Betty. She was the street-smart and stylish soul/rock singer-songwriter who would go on to introduce Davis to the music of Sly and Jimi and pave the way for jazz rock fusion.

    Lester also expresses his great admiration for Ed Sullivan.  The TV host stood up for the band when the hotel they were to stay in during the filming of an appearance on his show in Las Vegas tried to deny them entry.  Chambers also became close with John Lennon and appeared alongside him and Yoko Ono during their week co-hosting The Mike Douglas Show in February 1972.  Chambers also has special gratitude for Yoko who provided financial aid for his housing and medical treatment after becoming aware of his Kickstarter campaign.

    One of his most meaningful friendships was with Owsley, the Grateful Dead soundman and acid king. Owsley would gift Lester a mason jar full of LSD, which he claims to have taken every day for three and one-half years.  Lester says it was a powerful ingredient in shaping his spirituality and humanity and in helping use visualization to fight his battle with colon cancer. 

    https://youtu.be/sKNz4hKQA00

    On the musical front,  The Chambers Brothers would be one of the last acts signed to Columbia Records by John Hammond, the A&R man who brought the world Billie Holiday, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Janis Joplin and many others.  With the help of producer David Rubinson, they would go against the label and craft an 11-minute opus modeled on what they did with the tune live.  Driven by Lester’s propulsive cowbell pounding and memorable ‘cuckoo” in the intro, the shortened single edit would make them stars. 

    But as great as the songs, it doesn’t demonstrate the true killer gift of The Chambers Brothers, their unparalleled four-part gospel harmony. This is something showcased on most other entries on this and other albums, like their powerful cover of Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” and the gospel classic “Wade in the Water.” This can also be heard on earlier live recordings captured at The Ash Grove and the Unicorn.  Also underrated in their double-album live and studio disc from 1969 and its 16-minute title tune, “Love, Peace & Happiness.”

    Co-writer Watts really adds texture to the story by including interviews with others who played a role in Lester’s life and career.  These include early drummer Jesse Cahn, roadie Tony Smith, road manager Julius Chambers, his sister Jewel and his bandmate brothers, Joe and Willie. Also included are interviews with his sons, Andre and Dylan, the latter who has been with him throughout his times of homelessness and illness.  That chapter of his life and the remarkable support provided by Reddit, Sweet Relief and notables like Yoko One are related in a transcript of CNN interview with Lester and Dylan.  Also notable is a transcript of a long feature on their early “gospel soul” years by Opal Nations in a 1999 issue of Real Blues.

    Like many bands, unequal royalties from songwriting have played a role in the breakup and frequent feuds among the brothers.  Willie and Joe were the writers of their big hit and keep those earnings among themselves, something that Lester feels was unjust to him and their late brother George.

    With these and further misfortunes including an onstage attack during a performance at a 2013 blues festival, Lester remains a positive spirit, one who shares his deep belief of the healing power of music and love of his fellow man throughout these pages.  He continues to perform in with the band Moonalice with his son, Dylan.  In the end, as the title says, he’s just a “Mississippi hippie” at heart.  Here’s to hoping you will support him by purchasing his life story to help keep him in justified comfort during the final set of his rich and remarkable life.

  • Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History, Returns to Print

    Long considered the definitive account of the meteoric rise and crash-and-burn of the progenitors of funk-rock, Sly & The Family Stone: An Oral History (Permuted Press), has just returned to print in a new, updated edition by Joel Selvin.  

    The long-time rock critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, Selvin is the author of more than 20 fine books on pop music. They include biographies of Ricky Nelson, Sammy Hagar, The Grateful Dead and Brill Building writer/producer Bert Berns, as well as ones chronicling the Altamont and Monterey Pop festivals, the Summer of Love and 2021’s Hollywood Eden: Electric Guitars, Fast Cars, and the Myth of the California Paradise, reviewed here.

    Sly and The Family Stone was a groundbreaking collective of black, white, male and female musicians.  They came to symbolize not only the Woodstock generation’s quest for equality but would dominate the charts for several years running with a string of hits like “Everyday People,” “Dance to the Music,” “I Want to Take You Higher,” “Stand” and “If You Want Me to Stay.”  Led by the precocious Sly Stone, their fusion of gospel and rocked-up funk would go on to influence the work of giants like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder and more current artists like Macy Gray, D’Angelo and Childish Gambino.  But within a few years, Sly’s promise and grasp on the charts would collapse.  Music would take a backseat with the entrance of incalculable drug abuse (coke and PCP mainly), guns, violent hangers-on, paranoia, isolation, inter-band jealousy and “a mean-spirited pit bull named Gun.”

    Selvin’s updated version tells the story via interviews with more than 40 of Sly’s associates. These include his parents and family, band members and musical contemporaries like Grace Slick, Mickey Hart, Bobby Womack, Clive Davis and The Beau Brummels’ Sal Valentino.  According to Selvin, the key to his unlocking the unvarnished story was locating Hamp (Bubba) Banks. Bubba was young Sly’s best friend and brother-in-law to be, an ex-Marine/pimp/hairdresser who served as Sly’s advisor and sometimes enforcer from his early career through the insane, drug-fueled days of the mid-1970s.

    Selvin begins his story with the young Sly cutting his musical teeth singing in churches with his siblings in The Stewart Four, a group with which he first recorded at age 9. Then it is onto his high school bands, The Cherrybusters and The Viscaynes. The latter was an integrated singing group with whom he cut his first composition, “Yellow Man.”  A meeting with San Francisco radio legends Tom Donahue and Bob Mitchell would lead to stints as both a popular nighttime DJ on KYA and KSOL and multi-instrumentalist/writer/producer responsible for hits like the Beau Brummels’ “Laugh, Laugh,” Bobby Freeman’s “C’mon and Swim” and the proto-version of “Somebody to Love,” recorded with Grace Slick and her pre-Jefferson Airplane band, The Great Society.  Never a wallflower, Sly would strut his success by driving around town in a hot pink Jaguar XKE with two Great Danes in the jump seat.

    In short order, he would put together Sly and The Family Stone, with his sometimes-playing partner, sax man Jerry Martini, and drummer Greg Errico, who joined from Sly’s guitarist brother Freddie’s band. Another key addition would be bassist Larry Graham, a wannabe lead guitarist who developed the now widespread “slap bass” style due to lack of drums in a band he played in with his mom. Together with trumpeter Cynthia Robinson from his earlier band, Sly and The Stoners, and his keyboardist/singer sister Rose, the band would make waves in after-hours sets at the Winchester Cathedral in Redwood City and The Pussycat A Go Go in Las Vegas, where Bobby Darin would become a fan.  Around the time of their first album, 1967’s A Whole New Thing, the band undertook a residency at The Electric Circus in New York, staying at the legendary rock crash palace, The Albert Hotel.

    By March 1968, the single, “Dance to the Music,” crashed the charts, the product of Sly working a new formula solely intent on creating “hits,” after the failure of their debut album. This one is led by his decision to move Cynthia’s memorable shout/call to action from the middle of the song to the beginning, and by putting an accent on Jerry’s jazzy clarinet riffs on the choruses.  While in New York, cocaine becomes “a very big deal” to Sly according to one interviewee, when he begins getting mass quantities of it from a friendly dentist.

    In the book, Martini talks about “the Sly effect” on audiences. It was a non-stop pulse of collective pure energy from the band, one that would cause a riot at the Newport Jazz Fest in 1969 and power their memorable performance at Woodstock.  Even with a 3:30 am start time, Rolling Stone Magazine declared that Sly and company’s 55-minute set “won the battle of the bands” at Woodstock.  

    https://youtu.be/FKelubljjXM

    Sly and The Family Stones’ true decent into darkness began shortly thereafter. In the book, drummer Errico relates that Sly wanted us “to be the biggest band in the world, but when he got it, he didn’t want it. I think he was scared of it.”

    With his and the band’s move to a communal home in Coldwater Canyon, Sly is surrounded by a pack of wild dogs, a collection of guns and some very dangerous goons. Per Bubba, he traveled with “a violin case full of coke,” one that sometimes leaked making him seem like “the girl on the Morton’s Salt package.” He also had a home safe stocked with “500 pill bottles of downs, ups, everything.”

    Things really escalate when Sly gets into PCP, or angel dust.  He will have days’ long recording sessions at the Record Plant, then later in the attic studio of Mamas and the Papas’ John Phillips old mansion in Bel-Air which he rents.  Here, there will be a “no clocks” rule.  So Sly would be up in the studio for five days straight working on what would become the album, There’s A Riot Goin’ On, with associates including Ike Turner, Bobby Womack, Billy Preston and Herbie Hancock. 

    Around this point, Sly and The Family Stones’ life as a touring band begins to be compromised as the bandleader misses show after show. Drummer Errico and band manager David Kapralik will quit, the latter because he was sure Sly would end up killing him due to their mutual drug binges or by a suicide by his own hand. Others credit their leaving to pressure from The Black Panthers to rid the band and its circle of white members. Through Sly’s friendship with  The Byrds’ producer Terry Melcher, he will meet the record man’s famous mom, Doris Day, inspiring him to cover her 1956 hit, “Que Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be).” This will become a centerpiece of their final top-ten album, 1973’s “Fresh.”  

    Selvin’s book provides a deep look at the contributions of others in the band, including the competition with Larry Graham and guitar playing brother Freddie – over music, women and drugs.  Per Bubba, “they were always trying to out high each other.” By the end, there were rumors that Larry had put a “hit” out on Sly and vice versa.  As he left for the last time, the bassist checked his car for bombs before getting into it.  Graham would go on to a successful career; others would not fare as well.

    There are some interesting facts about Sly’s next move to New York City and his runnings with neighbors Miles Davis and Geraldo Rivera.  And, of course, his marriage to Kathy Silva on stage during summer 1974 concert at Madison Square Garden is covered.  There’s plenty of other gossipy goodies including his appearance on the Mike Douglas Show (where Muhammed Ali hits on his wife) and an even crazier one on the Dick Cavett Show, where he barely makes it to the stage.  His pit bull Gun runs wild, killing then having sex with a monkey and even attacking his son with Silva.  And though there will be much more to Sly’s story, this book concludes with the band breaking up, after they attempt to produce their own string of shows at Radio City in January 1975. The first of which will be only 1/8th  full, leading to cancellation of the rest. And the band? They were left high and dry, unpaid with no return tickets home.

    There was and continues to be much more to Sly’s story – a seemingly infinite number of attempts to restart his career with the help of folks like Prince and George Clinton and the horrible images of the damage he has done to himself and his singular talent with years of drug abuse.

    But as I read this book, I took the opportunity to take a deep dive into the discography of Sly and The Family Stone. The music still has so much power and is so forward-thinking. It is something that reverberates through the DNA of much of today’s R&B, soul, rap and pop, whether the artists know it or not.     

    Selvin’s latest is the ultimate “Behind the Music” cautionary tale, one made even more tragic when consumed along with a mighty dose of listening to Sly and company’s still groundbreaking music and lyric messages.

  • New and Veteran World Music Stars Light Up globalFEST 2023 at Lincoln Center

    Over its 20-year history, globalFEST has become one of NYC’s most anticipated annual concert events, a multi-act spectacular that has introduced intrepid music-lovers and professional tastemakers alike to over 200 dynamic artists from 70 different countries. 

    On Sunday, January 15, its 2023 edition spanned three stages at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall showcasing 10 electrifying acts, from the Cambodian-American psychedelic rock of Dengue Fever to Mexico’s punk and marimba-inflected Son Rompe Pera to America’s new first family of gospel and 2022 NEA Heritage Fellows, The Legendary Ingramettes.

    L to R – Meera Dugal, 2023 guest curator; Ian Thake, gF administrator; Isabel Soffer, co-founder and director; Bill Bragin, co-founder and co-director; Shanta Thake, co-director and Lincoln Center Artistic Director.

    globalFEST takes place during JanArtsNYC, an annual collective of hot festivals showcasing all forms of performing arts during New York’s coldest month – from theater and dance to opera and jazz, the latter via the also much-anticipated WinterJazzFest. Importantly, these all coincide with APAP, The Association of Performing Arts Professionals.  This convention brings hundreds of bookers from performing arts centers and independent venues all across the country to sample new artists whom they can contract for performances. In large part via coinciding with APAP, globalFEST has helped jumpstart the domestic touring careers of notables like Antibalas, Angelique Kidjo, Amythyst Kiah, Martha Redbone, Rhiannon Giddens to name a few.  This year’s lineup was curated by festival co-directors Bill Bragin, Isabel Soffer and Shanta Thake, who helped bring the event to Lincoln Center via her role as its Chief Artistic Officer. Meera Dugal served as a guest curator.

    globalFEST is not only one of the most original and ear-opening music festivals, but one of the most well-run and compact.  Within the space of five hours, attendees can revel in truly original sounds from a multitude of artists covering many distinct genres from every corner of the globe. 

    photo credit: Farah Sosa/@farahstop

    The first act I caught at this year’s event was The Legendary Ingramettes. Inspired by the Black male gospel quartets of the 1940s and 50s, this multi-generational female singing trio, founded by the late Maggie Ingram and now led by her dynamic daughter Almetta, brought roof-raising harmonies and explosive lead vocals to light an early fire at globalFEST.  Aletta and crew imparted a Sunday church vibe with pulverizing takes on up-tempo numbers like “Take A Look In the Book” and “Time Is Winding Up.” They then soaked every ounce of pathos out of their gospelized ballad including “I’ve Endured,” the classic by Appalachian folkie Ola Belle Reid, and Bill Withers’ “Grandma’s Hands.”

    Another standout performance was that of Llergo (Maria Jose), a young flamenco singer from Andalucia, Spain with a deep knowledge of both the classic form and a penchant for experimentation and avant-garde touches. Her set began with a stirring ballad accompanied by the stellar guitar work of Marc Lopez, who served up fiery runs and foot stomping percussives to adorn her alternatively whispering and searing vocals.  In later songs in the set, they were accompanied by a keyboardist who introduced ethereal synth textures and trip hop beats from his laptop – modern flavors that bring to mind the groundbreaking work of another great Latina who fuses tradition with electronica, Juana Molina.

    photo credit: Farah Sosa/@farahstop

    The duo of Brit Justin Adams and Italian Mauro Durante was another highlight.  Adams, who has been the producer of Mali’s guitar greats Tinariwen’s albums and also guitarist for Robert Plant’s world music forays, laid down a distorted post-punk take on Arabic and African trance blues. This was complemented by Durante’s searing violin solos, tambourine and vocals.  Their collaboration contained shades of delta blues, Southern Italian “taranta” dance songs and even a bit of No Wave/free jazz that brought to mind guitarist James “Blood” Ulmer’s wonderful Odyssey trio of the mid-1980s.  The performance by Malian/French quartet Tamikrest also plied the Saharan desert blues sound. Unlike their better-known counterparts, Mdou Moctar, Tamikrest is more intent on building collective danceable grooves rather than serving as a rhythmic backdrop for Hendrix-inspired soloing.

    The award for best crowd work at globalFEST 2023 definitely goes to Khadija El Warzazia’s Bnat el Houariyat & Esraa Warda. A collective of six female artists from Morocco, Algeria and the U.S., they served up a high-energy set of celebratory trance music, one featuring call-and-response singing, roaring percussion and complex polyrhythms. The mesmerizing Algerian-American dancer Esraa Warda completed the sensory assault with non-stop gyrations and a “hair-swaying dance” that was copied by more than a few in the audience.   An almost as engaging performance was that of Moonlight Benjamin.  Born in Haiti and living in France, she is both vodou priestess and a powerful singer-songwriter in the rock mode.  Moonlight was supported by a killer band featuring dueling guitarists who employed a smart use of stomp boxes and an uncaged noise pop sensibility.

    photo credit: Farah Sosa/@farahstop

    One of the biggest draws of the event was Dengue Fever, the L.A.-based band that has been providing a singular psychedelic take on the Cambodian pop of the 1960s since 2002.  The band, which had played the 2007 edition of globalFEST, spun-out a crowd-pleasing set comprised of tunes from their six-album discography.  As always, the attention was focused on their lead singer Chhom Nimol, who gracefully populated the role of the cool, elegant chanteuse in a bedazzled mini-dress.  While the focus is firmly on the singer and the songs, Dengue Fever provided plenty of instrumental fire from the spaced out guitaring of Zac Holtzman, the gut-bucket tenor sax of David Ralicke and in an extended solo by bassist Senon Williams.  

    Dengue Fever was followed on the big stage by Meridian Brothers & El Grupo Renacimiento, one of the most wildly creative bands to come out of Colombia in many years.  Per their bio, the band works to “excavate the forgotten sounds of the fantastical (imaginary)1970s salsa dura band, El Grupo Renacimiento. The group identifies as “B-class” salsa whose music explores human struggles in the urban city landscape, with themes such as police brutality, social marginalization and addiction.” Like Dengue Fever, there’s an accent on psychedelic effects and exploration, with deluges of reverb and dub stylings in the mix.  Fans of Brazil’s Tropicalia pioneers, Os Mutantes, will definitely love Meridian Brothers. They had the crowd in their hands from the first number, a psychedelic spin on Dusty Springfield’s classic, “Son of A Preacher Man,” sung in Spanish of course.

    photo credit: Farah Sosa/@farahstop

    Other artists on the roster included the classically-inspired New York Arabic Orchestra and the garage-marimba-cumbia rock of Mexico City’s Son Rompe Pera, two sets I unfortunately missed. Credit should also go to event production manager Danny Kapilian who made sure the sets went off seamlessly with top-notch sound and lighting.

    Those who missed the event can catch NPR Music’s Tiny Desk meets globalFEST, a series that will return for its third year, January 24 –  26 on the NPR Music YouTube channel. The series will present exclusive video performances from nine artists filmed in their respective homelands and a different lineup from the festival at Lincoln Center. NPR’s Tiny Desk Meets globalFEST will once again be hosted by five-time Grammy Award winner Angelique Kidjo, who performed at the first globalFEST festival in 2004.

    To hear more, check out globalFEST 2023’s Spotify playlist

  • Free Jazz Giant Albert Ayler Gets Definitive Biography with Holy Ghost

    No one in the world of jazz begat more violent debate and unsubstantiated myths than Albert Ayler.  Now the works and life of this fearless musician are being re-told and reassessed in Holy Ghost: The Life & Death of Free Jazz Pioneer Albert Ayler (Jawbone Press), a compact yet comprehensive and impeccably researched biography from Richard Koloda.

    A lawyer by trade and jazz musicologist by passion, Koloda spent over two decades researching Holy Ghost. It follows Ayler from his native Cleveland to France, where he received his greatest acclaim, to his mysterious death by drowning in the East River in November 1970.

    albert ayler holy ghost

    Ayler synthesized children’s songs, the French national anthem “La Marseillaise,” American march music, funeral dirges and gospel tunes into uniquely powerful, sprawling and squalling free jazz improvisations.  His overblown tenor honking and high-register squealing made some critics consider him a charlatan or simply insane. Others considered him a genius. One such man was John Coltrane who tirelessly championed Ayler to other musicians, critics and record label heads. Indeed, ‘Trane thought enough of Ayler to request he play at his funeral, alongside that other titan of free jazz, Ornette Coleman.

    It was his aspiring songwriter dad who set Albert on the musical path, forcing him to practice hours a day and attend the Cleveland Academy of Music beginning at age 10.  By the early ‘50s, he was gaining experience playing with artists like blues harmonica wizard Little Walter. His time in the Army would bring him to France in the latter ‘50s, where he saw Coltrane and Miles at the Paris Olympia and developed an unexpected love for French military music, including the national anthem “La Marseilles” which he quoted in his classic “Spirits Rejoice,” while playing in the 76th U.S. Army Band in Orleans. 

    His breakthrough, and perhaps his best times overall, would come in Europe, firstly in Scandinavia.  Here he would meet and come to play with likeminded explorers like pianist Cecil Taylor and trumpeter Don Cherry and cut his first albums including My Name in Albert Ayler which contained his freewheeling interpretation of the classic “Summertime.”

    By 1963, he was in New York City serving up music that was “playing pyramids and geometric shapes” while attired in a green leather suit, Cossack hat and slippers.  His meeting with ESP-Disk head Bernard Stollman would lead to his best documented year of recording in 1964, one capped by “Spiritual Unity,” the classic trio disc with drummer Sunny Murray and bassist Gary Peacock, and the skronk-heavy film soundtrack, “New York Eye and Ear Control.” Even with growing press attention, New York City clubs were hesitant about booking this “New Thing” and Albert would head back to Scandinavia to record albums like The Hilversum Sessions and Ghosts.

    In 1965, he returned to New York to lead a fierce quintet now featuring his younger brother Donald on trumpet.  Albums like “Bells” and “Spirits Rejoice” continued to divide critics. Albert was labeled “further out than Coltrane” by Time Magazine and “a bizarre artifact, not art” by Downbeat.   With Coltrane’s championing, he moved from the tiny ESP-Disk to the larger ABC Impulse! label. He went on to wax even more fierce and outré discs like “Live in Greenwich Village,” one that captured performances at The Village Gate and Village Vanguard.  This album contains one of my favorite Ayler pieces, “Angels,” a duet featuring a kind of silent movie-styled accompaniment by pianist/harpsichordist Cal Cobbs to Albert’s balladeering tenor.

    The last chapter of Ayler’s recorded life was perplexing, when he was moved to create a sort of accessible rock/R&B with vocals featuring “hippy dippy” lyrics by his new girlfriend Mary Parks. Love Cry and New Grass were albums that made no one happy, least of all Ayler, who blamed the commercial move on his producer at Impulse!, Bob Thiele.  Albert would have one final victory when he took a turn back to his freer self in a July 1970 performance at the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France, something captured on a duo of fantastic 1971 albums.

    With his return to New York City in fall 1970, his depression deepened as did his tenuous grasp on reality. There was increased talk about UFOs and spiritual visions, something that had been in the mix since his childhood. He would disappear on November 5 and be found 20 days later floating in the East River.  Some said it was a hit for messing with a mobster’s woman or a drug deal gone wrong.  One stubborn myth said he was found chained to a juke box.  But Koloda works to put these long-held fallacies to rest. He concludes that the depressed 34-year-old jazz man most likely jumped from a ferry near the Statue of Liberty. This was in part due to the guilt of firing his brother from his band and the ceaseless financial pressures and criticism caused by a high-profile/low-profit life on the tip of the free jazz spear.

    In his 20 years of research, Koloda has become the world’s foremost authority on all things Albert Ayler.  He was a contributor to the critically-acclaimed documentary, My Name Is Albert Ayler, and a consultant on Revenant Records’ ten-CD retrospective of Ayler, Holy Ghost: Rare and Unissued Recordings (1962–70), which has been called “the Sistine Chapel of box sets.” His book includes quotes from his and others interviews with many of Albert’s closest collaborators, most notably from the writer’s long friendship with Albert’s brother Donald.  There’s also a carefully balanced array of quotes from critics that demonstrate the reaction to Ayler throughout all the chapters of his short but action-packed recording and performing career.  the book concludes with a pained portrait of the post-musical years of Donald Ayler, with his frequent hospitalizations for mental problems and fits and starts at reviving his career.

    I had a decent knowledge of Ayler before reading Koloda’s Holy Ghost.  But like any great touchstone musician biog, it set me off on a few weeks of very deep listening to the many well-trod and obscure corners of Ayler’s discography.  In this way, Koloda has done a great service to both Ayler and every music lover with the curiosity to open up a pathway into this uniquely deep and spiritual canon of jazz.