This live recording from a 1966 show at Slug’s Saloon on New York’s Lower East Side, recently reissued by ESP, is of a quintet performance of Albert Ayler playing his unique brand of tenor sax, with brother Donald on trumpet, Michael Samson on violin, Lewis Worrell on bass and Ron Jackson on drums — but functionally you’re hearing a trio, all metal, no wood. The drums and horns completely drown out all but ghostly traces of the stringed instruments as Ayler leads his band from a freely weeping pageantry into an unbridled cacophony of joy. Note: The track lasts over 18 minutes, so this is a large file.
— T.B.
