A new documentary film about Albert Ayler has just started to be screened in various cities around the US. The director, Kasper Collin writes:
The prophetic free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, who today is seen as one of the most important innovators in jazz, was obsessed with his radical music and by the thought that people one day would understand it. In 1962 he recorded his first album in Sweden. Eight years later he was found dead in New York's East River, aged 34. This new documentary follows the trail of Ayler from his native town of Cleveland by way of Sweden to New York, meeting family, friends and close colleagues. Ayler himself guides us with his voice and music. Seven years in the making, the film includes newly discovered footage of Ayler and band.
You can find more information at the film's official site as well as the theater site. It has also drawn many reviews including by Matt Zoller Seitz at The New York Times, Anthony Quinn at The Independent, Matt McNally at the BBC Movies, Bruce Bennett at The New York Sun, Eric Monder at Film Journal International, Phil Gallo at Variety, Jamie Garwood at Talking Pictures, Kerstan Mackness at Time Out London, and Hank Shleamer at Time Out New York.
