Albert Ayler, never getting the wider recognition he truly deserved, unleashed a free-form musical exploration that went beyond the boundaries of jazz or any other music that included everything he experienced musically – from church spirituals, New Orleans and Army brass music, to world folk forms, to free improvisation – any and all of these themes, often all at the same time.
In the late 'sixties '60s French jazz label, BYG set out to record and capture a growing market of 'freestyle' jazz artists, like Archie Shepp, and now most of their catalog is being re-released by Charly Records.
Spiritual jazz, a genre born in the '60s and closely tied to that times' political, social, and cultural climate is experiencing a resurgence of sorts, is it again reflecting the moment we live in? We exam the genre's roots and its ever expanding horizons.