When Ayler Blew My Mind

Photo by on

In the mood for some Gershwin to accompany me while I worked, I searched ‘Summertime’ on Google. ‘Summertime’ is one of the World’s most popular pieces of music for good reason. It combines sublime melody with pathos and a beauty that belies the setting of the opera ‘Porgy and Bess’ from which the song comes. ‘Summertime’ is a lullaby sung by a mother living in the notorious ‘Catfish Row’ where the community struggles against prejudice and poverty. It carries cultural context, which has been added to since the song’s inception, but also hope for the baby, that one day, ‘You’ll spread those wings and fly to the sky’. The lullaby conveys a raw, relentless spirit despite the setting. It was and is one of my favourite pieces.

I found a version of ‘Summertime’ on YouTube and hit play. What happened next is a blur. ‘Summertime’ was played in a way I had never heard. There have been many recordings, from Billie Holiday to Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and Janis Joplin. Each artist interpreted the song differently, but this was something else. This version was by saxophonist Albert Ayler.

This was not ’Summertime’ as I knew it. The song's essence was never lost, and the chordal progressions remained, but Ayler wove around these such disharmonics, screeches, wails, and searing rises that I was caught, mesmerised by what I was hearing. It felt real, like someone had understood the…