The Last Album was the last studio album Albert Ayler

Albert Ayler

Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...

 released before his death in 1970. The album was released in 1969 on Impulse! Records

Impulse! Records

Impulse! Records was an American jazz record label, originally established in 1960 by producer Creed Taylor as a subsidiary of ABC-Paramount Records, based in New York City...

. The album Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe

Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe

Music Is the Healing Force of the Universe is a 1969 studio album by Albert Ayler, written by Ayler's partner, Mary Maria Parks. This was Ayler's last album recorded before his presumed suicide in November 1970...

was also recorded during the sessions for this album. The album was recorded August 26-29, 1969 at Plaza Sound Studios in New York City.

Overview

The first track is an untitled duet between Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

-inspired guitarist and Canned Heat

Canned Heat

Canned Heat is a blues-rock/boogie rock band that formed in Los Angeles, California in 1965. The group has been noted for its own interpretations of blues material as well as for efforts to promote the interest in this type of music and its original artists...

 member Henry Vestine

Henry Vestine

Henry Charles Vestine a.k.a. "The Sunflower", was an American guitar player known mainly as a member of the band Canned Heat. He was with the group from its start in 1966 to July 1969...

 and Ayler on bagpipe.

The second track contains poetry spoken eloquently by a woman, posing questions which Ayler's sax answers.

"Toiling" is a guitar-driven blues track.

On "Desert Blood", Ayler sings jazz-vocals reminiscent of Sun Ra

Sun Ra

Sun Ra was a prolific jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances. He was born in Birmingham, Alabama...

's lady singer, June Tyson

June Tyson

June Tyson was a jazz singer.She performed with keyboardist and bandleader Sun Ra regularly, from at least the early 1970s to her death. Tyson was diagnosed with cancer and grew increasingly ill...

.

The remainder of the album is the soulful style of Free jazz

Free jazz

Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...

 more familiar to Ayler's audience.

Track listing

1. "Untitled Duet"
2. "Again Come The Raising of the Sun"
3. "All Love"
4. "Toiling"
5. "Desert Blood"
6. "Birth of Mirth"
7. "Water Music"

Personnel

• Saxophones, Bagpipes - Albert Ayler
• Bass - Stafford James
  Stafford James
  -Biography:As a young man, Stafford James enlisted in the Air Force; after his discharge he studied at the University of Chicago with Rudolf Fahsbender. In 1969 he moved to New York City and studied under Julius Levine at the Mannes College for Music. Here he met Pharaoh Sanders, with whom he...
  
  
• Bass (Fender) - Bill Folwell
• Drums - Muhammad Ali
  Muhammad Ali (drummer)
  Muhammad Ali is a free jazz drummer.Ali was born and grew up in Philadelphia. He, along with his father and brothers, converted to Islam. He recorded with Albert Ayler in 1969 on the sessions released as Music is the Healing Force of the Universe and The Last Album. He moved to Europe in 1969...
  
  
• Electric Guitar - Henry Vestine
  Henry Vestine
  Henry Charles Vestine a.k.a. "The Sunflower", was an American guitar player known mainly as a member of the band Canned Heat. He was with the group from its start in 1966 to July 1969...
  
  
• Piano - Bobby Few
  Bobby Few
  Bobby Few is an American jazz pianist.Few was raised in Shaker Heights, a neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio, and studied classical piano. He knew Albert Ayler as a youth, and the pair studied jazz and played together in high school...
  
  
• Producer - Ed Michel
• Vocals - Mary Maria

External links

• Discogs entry
• [ Allmusic review]