My Name is Albert Ayler
Directed by Kasper Collin
Reviewed by Catherine MacLennan
"My imagination is beyond the civilization in which we live" - Albert Ayler
My Name is Albert Ayler is Swedish filmmaker Kasper Collin’s documentary on the innovative American avant-garde/free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, who died in 1970 at age 34, (a probable suicide).
Albert Ayler's death certificate is shown in the opening credits; the rest of the film tracks backward to try to discover who he was, what his music was about, and perhaps what may have led to his early death. Collin patches together interviews with family members, musical colleagues, photos and home movies, as well as an audio interview with Albert.
His brother Don says of Albert: "He was a beautiful guy once you got to know him. Not many knew him. He didn’t say very much." There is a sadness to his brother’s and father’s recollections. His father, also a musician, is proud of his son and comments that the social situation in the U.S. makes it difficult for black musicians.
Albert went to Sweden where he made his first recording, felt at home, and was amazed by the midnight sun. Happier are the reminiscences of his jazz colleagues. Listening to recordings on headphones, former band mates (both Swedish and American) smile and are lost in the moment, the faraway moment of a long-ago performance. One band member who was also a girlfriend smiles at a home movie that has Albert in it, remarks on his love of leather suits, and adds that he was "stubborn."
He was dedicated to his sound, which was not always appreciated. One club manager wanted him taken off the sax. "But that’s his instrument," he was told. Albert remained confident in his approach: "This is the only way left for musicians to play. All the other ways have been explored...[it's the] real blues, new blues, the people must listen to this music...If people don’t like it now, they will." He did earn respect in the jazz world, and Coltrane requested that Albert play at his funeral. Albert: "How can I do it, how can I play when I’m crying?" He did, with Ornette Coleman (and film of it is included in the documentary).
When his brother Don tries the join Albert's band, on trumpet, he is at first a little brother looking up to his big brother. Then things get competitive. Don has a breakdown and to this day has not quite recovered. Towards the end of his life, Albert becomes more isolated due to his manager and companion Mary, and more eccentric. A later recording, called "Sunwatcher," is rumoured to be about Albert's practice of staring into the sun; but then, another explanation is given – he was writing about the Scandinavian midnight sun. It is not clear what his state of mind was in later years, but obviously the difficult life of an artist sticking to an unpopular and unprofitable path was wearing, as were the day- to-day concerns of living with little means of support.
Throughout the film there a little bits of Albert himself - the audio of a recorded interview, a voice that is friendly, conversational, enthusiastic and completely committed to his vision, and a recurring filmed imaged of Albert, of his head and shoulders, bare shoulders, not speaking - just looking in the camera and smiling, with his distinctive partially white goatee. The image floats in and out of the film as he floated in and out of lives and jazz history.
May 2006 - The Lamp