| New York Eye and Ear Control | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1965 | |||
| Recorded | July 17, 1964 | |||
| Genre | Free jazz | |||
| Length | 43:19 | |||
| Label | ESP-Disk | |||
| Albert Ayler chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [1] |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |  [2] |
| The Rolling Stone Jazz Record Guide | [3] |
New York Eye and Ear Control is an album of group improvisations recorded in July 1964 by an augmented version of Albert Ayler's group to provide the soundtrack for Michael Snow's film of the same name. [4]
New York Eye and Ear Control came about when artist, musician, and filmmaker Michael Snow received a commission from a Toronto-based organization called Ten Centuries Concerts for a film employing jazz. [5] Snow had recently attended and enjoyed a concert by saxophonist Albert Ayler [5] (he recalled "I was completely knocked out" [6] ), and had been making his studio on Chambers Street in lower Manhattan available to musicians such as Roswell Rudd, Archie Shepp, Paul Bley, and Milford Graves for rehearsals. [7] He decided to hire Ayler and his quartet (which at the time included trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Gary Peacock, and drummer Sunny Murray, and which had recently recorded the albums Prophecy and (without Cherry) Spiritual Unity), along with trombonist Rudd and saxophonist John Tchicai, to make a recording, stating that he "wanted to buy a half an hour of music." [5]
Snow recalled that he had certain stipulations going into the session: "I didn't want any previously played compositions, and I wanted it to be as much ensemble improvisations as could be with no solos." [5] He also stated: "As I was being involved with so-called free jazz, I was always surprised at how everybody was still bookending, as in all of previous jazz where you play a tune, play your variations, then play the tune again. I kept feeling that I didn't want that, and particularly what I had in mind for the film, I definitely didn't want it. I wanted it as pure free improvisation as I could get." [8] According to Snow, "They accepted and they performed this way... in my opinion, this is one reason for which the music is so great." [6] He later called the ensemble "one of the greatest jazz groups ever." [9] (In his 1966 essay "Around about New York Eye and Ear Control," Snow summarized his thoughts regarding the music: "Song form finally unusable, strict rhythm finally unusable in 'Jazz.' It goes 'ahead' where it has to... Surprise! Demand for Song and Dance so natural there can be 'new' Songs, 'new' Rhythm, 'new' Dances. A very pleasant surprise." [10] )
The recording session took place on July 17, 1964 at the loft of poet Paul Haines, who was Snow's neighbor and who also set up and operated the recording equipment. [11] [12] Roswell Rudd recalled that Snow "didn't say anything. He said just go ahead and play and when he got the time he needed, he took that and made a movie with it. In other words made the movie from an improvised jam session rather than make the movie and fit the soundtrack to it. He made a soundtrack and then went out and shot a movie. I don't know how many people have ever done that." [12] (The album liner notes confirm this, stating "The music was recorded prior to the production of the film." [13] )
Snow's film uses the motif of what he called the "Walking Woman," a silhouette based on the image of Carla Bley. [14] Snow stated: "In my films I've tried to give the sound a more pure and equal position in relation to the picture." [6] "I was hoping for an uninterrupted stream of energy against which I was going to place the almost completely static shots of the two-dimensional Walking Woman figure, either negative or positive. The picture was edited with no reference to what sound episode might accompany it. It is an attempt to make a simultaneity of 'eye' with 'ear.' And the music was created to be a movie sound track, not to just be 'music.'" [15]
Regarding his choice of a title, Snow also said:
It's like the music is a particular kind of experience, and the film is something quite different that you see simultaneously. That's why the title, New York Eye and Ear Control: it was actually being able to hear the music and being able to see the picture without the music saying, This image is sad, or this image is happy — which is a way that movie music is always used. I really wanted it to be possible that you could hear them. So, they're very, very different. It's as if the image part of it is very classical and static. In fact, most of the motion is in the music actually. So, they're kind of counterpointing and being in their own worlds, but happening simultaneously. [16]
The film was premiered later that year in Toronto. [15] Snow recalled: "I was surprised to see people getting up and leaving very early in the projection of the film." [15] At a later showing in New York, "The audience catcalled, booed, whistled, and threw paper at the screen. The film ended, and surprisingly, there was also some strong applause. Two people in the audience jumped up and ran to the booth where I was standing with the projectionist. They were very excited and said, 'That was wonderful. Who did that?' I said that I was the maker of the film, and we had a short conversation, and they introduced themselves: Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga." [15] According to Snow, Bernard Stollman, founder of ESP-Disk, heard about the film and approached him about releasing the music on an album. Snow stated: "the idea came up after the film had been made and been shown and puzzled everyone... [Stollman] asked me whether I'd be interested, and actually I had very mixed feelings about it, because it was precisely made to be used in conjunction with the images that I made. I was making a film with this music, and to separate the two, I really had to argue myself into it. Which seems a bit strange, I suppose, but the intention was to use it in a certain way with certain kinds of images." [17]
Critics have compared the album with key free jazz recordings such as Ornette Coleman's earlier Free Jazz and John Coltrane's subsequent Ascension . John Litweiler regards it favourably in comparison because of its "free motion of tempo (often slow, usually fast); of ensemble density (players enter and depart at will); of linear movement". [18] Ekkehard Jost places it in the same company and comments on "extraordinarily intensive give-and-take by the musicians" and "a breadth of variation and differentiation on all musical levels," calling it "one of Ayler's very best recordings." [19] Richard Brody wrote that the album is "superior to those performances in its freer, truly group-oriented format, with no specified soloists and accompanists," stating that "the riotous revelry joins the joy of New Orleans traditions to the urbane furies of the day." [20] All About Jazz reviewer Clifford Allen described New York Eye and Ear Control as "a valuable window into the music's early history as well as what might have happened outside record dates, more than one is usually privy to." [21] Playwright and director Richard Foreman described his reaction to the conjunction of the film and the music as follows: "Mike Snow postulates an eye that stares at surfaces with such intensity... the image itself seems to quiver, finally gives way under the pressure. A deceptive beginning-silent: a flat white form sharply cut to the silhouette of a walking woman, for no apparent reason propped against trees, rocks seashore. But slowly-under attack by time, light and an incredible growing music so aggressive it begins to bypass the ear and attack the eyes habits of seeing. Each time a cut wipes away this absurd idiogram-woman, she reappears – supported against the threat of the destructive eye by the S-O-U-N-D! – that insists on building a space in which objects can sustain themselves." [22]
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.
James Marcellus Arthur "Sunny" Murray was one of the pioneers of the free jazz style of drumming.
John Martin Tchicai was a Danish free jazz saxophonist and composer.
Roswell Hopkins Rudd Jr. was an American jazz trombonist and composer.
Alan Silva is an American free jazz double bassist and keyboard player.
ESP-Disk (sometimes stylized as E S P – D I S K' is a New York-based record company and label founded in 1963 by lawyer Bernard Stollman.
The New York Art Quartet was a free jazz ensemble, originally made up of saxophonist John Tchicai, trombonist Roswell Rudd, drummer Milford Graves and bassist Lewis Worrell, that came into existence in 1964 in New York City. Worrell was later replaced by various other bassists, including Reggie Workman, Finn Von Eyben, Harold Dodson, Eddie Gómez, Steve Swallow, and Buell Neidlinger. All About Jazz reviewer Clifford Allen wrote that the group "cut some of the most powerful music in the free jazz underground".
Lowell Davidson was a jazz pianist and biochemist from Boston, Massachusetts. He was known for his "sensible and free flowing approach to unconventional linear improvisation", but appeared on only a handful of commercially-available recordings. Davidson also played bass, percussion, organ, electronic keyboards, and reed instruments.
Spiritual Unity is a studio album by American free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler. It was recorded on July 10, 1964 in New York City, and features bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray. It was the first album recorded for Bernard Stollman's ESP-Disk label, and it brought Ayler to international attention as it was so "shockingly different". At the same time, it transformed ESP-DISK into "a major source for avant-garde jazz". A 5-star review in AllMusic called it a "landmark recording that's essential to any basic understanding of free jazz", "the album that pushed Albert Ayler to the forefront of jazz's avant-garde... really the first available document of Ayler's music that matched him with a group of truly sympathetic musicians", and stated that "the results are a magnificently pure distillation of his aesthetic."
Frank Wright was an American free jazz musician known for his frantic style of tenor saxophone. Critics often compare his music to that of Albert Ayler, although Wright "offers his honks and squawks with a phraseology derived from the slower, earthier funk of R&B and gospel music." According to AllMusic biographer Chris Kelsey, Wright "never recorded even a single record under his own name for a major label; he was 'underground' his entire career." In addition to tenor saxophone, Wright also played the soprano saxophone and bass clarinet.
Norris Jones, better known as Sirone was an American jazz bassist and composer.
Other Planes of There is an album by the American Jazz musician Sun Ra and his Solar Arkestra. Recorded in 1964, the album had been released by 1966 on Sun Ra's own Saturn label. The record was reissued on compact disc by Evidence in 1992.
'Granted, the selection is certainly not as abrasive and demanding as later efforts, although there is strident involvement from everyone within the dense arrangement. The brass and reed sections provide emphasis behind an off-kilter and loping waltz backdrop. All the more impressive is how well the material has held up over the decades. Even to seasoned ears, the music is pungent and uninhibited, making Other Planes of There a highly recommended collection.' Lindsay Planer
Bernard Stollman was an American lawyer and the founder of the ESP-Disk record label.
Spirits Rejoice is a live album by American free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler recorded in New York City in 1965 and first released on the ESP-Disk label. The recording session took place without an audience at Judson Hall, which had been rented solely for recording purposes.
Sonny's Time Now is an album by American free jazz drummer Sunny Murray, his first as a leader. It was recorded in New York City on November 17, 1965 and first released on LeRoi Jones' Jihad label. It was later reissued on the DIW and Skokiaan labels.
Lewis Worrell is a jazz double bassist best known for his work during the 1960s with Albert Ayler, the New York Art Quartet, Roswell Rudd, and Archie Shepp.
The Giuseppi Logan Quartet is an album by American jazz saxophonist Giuseppi Logan, recorded in 1964 and released in 1965 on the ESP-Disk label. His first recording as leader, it features Logan on alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, Pakistani oboe, bass clarinet, and flute along with pianist Don Pullen, bassist Eddie Gómez, and drummer Milford Graves. Logan had moved to New York City in September 1964, and the recording took place shortly after the October Revolution in Jazz, at which Logan performed, and during which he met ESP-Disk founder Bernard Stollman. According to Logan, the musicians had not played together prior to the recording session.
New York Art Quartet is the debut album by the group of the same name. It was recorded on November 26, 1964 at Bell Sound Studios in New York City, and was released in 1965 by ESP-Disk as the fourth item in their catalog, following Albert Ayler's Spiritual Unity and Pharoah Sanders's Pharoah's First. It features John Tchicai on alto saxophone, Roswell Rudd on trombone, Lewis Worrell on bass, and Milford Graves on percussion. In addition, LeRoi Jones recites his controversial poem "Black Dada Nihilismus" on one track.
Old Stuff is the fourth album by the New York Art Quartet. It was recorded live at the Montmartre Jazzhus and Concert Hall of the Radio House, Danish Broadcasting on October 14 and 24, 1965, and was released in 2010 by Cuneiform Records. It features John Tchicai on alto saxophone, Roswell Rudd on trombone, Finn Von Eyben on bass, and Louis Moholo on drums.
Percussion Ensemble is an album by American percussionist Milford Graves, recorded in July 1965 and released in 1966 by the ESP-Disk label. On the album, Graves is joined by fellow percussionist Sonny Morgan. The two had previously recorded together on the Montego Joe albums Arriba! and Wild & Warm. Morgan would go on to play and record regularly with Leon Thomas and others, but died in 1976.
