Frank Wright

Albert Ayler: La Cave Live-Cleveland 1966-Revisited

by Chris May
January 24, 2022

Cleveland club La Cave, a grungy cellar which could accommodate around two hundred people, opened as a folk venue in 1962, transitioned into rock mid-decade, and closed in 1969. Along the way, in amongst such counterculture flagbearers as the Velvet Underground and The Fugs, La Cave booked a few of the bad boys of so-called “new thing" jazz, among them tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler, a Cleveland hometown hero. The 2xCD La Cave Live-Cleveland 1966-Revisited comprises just over ...

Frank Wright: Blues For Albert Ayler

by John Sharpe
March 5, 2013

Reedman Frank Wright's eponymous first album surfaced on ESP-Disk in 1965, so it is fitting that this historic live recording also appears on the newly-revived imprint, making good its mission of releasing unheard sessions by label stalwarts, alongside newer works. Though dedicated to his erstwhile employer, saxophonist Albert Ayler, Wright's tenor saxophone also hints at the influence of John Coltrane, as much in the seven-note riff which acts as a regular refrain and launch pad during the unbroken 74-minute concert ...

Frank Wright: Unity

by Nic Jones
November 13, 2006

The late Frank Wright focused on one aspect of Albert Ayler's work and attempted to run with it, but energy alone, however, as Ayler understood, was not a foundation strong enough to build the kind of music that holds attention. Unity, a previously unissued release which documents a live performance by Wright's quartet at the Moers festival on June 1, 1974, is an apt case in point. This music seems to lose all sense of direction early on, resulting in ...

Frank Wright: The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings

by Germein Linares
January 26, 2006

This two-disc set features two of the notoriously underrated saxophonist's albums, 1965's Frank Wright Trio and 1967's Your Prayer, as well as providing some brief interviews with Wright and ESP-Disk record producer Bernard Stollman.

Born in Grenada, Mississippi in 1935, Wright grew up playing the electric bass in R&B bands in Memphis and later in Cleveland, where he met Albert Ayler. After listening to Ayler, Wright took up the tenor saxophone and found a new calling in the burgeoning free ...

Frank Wright: The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings

by Clifford Allen
July 13, 2005

Frank Wright The Complete ESP-Disk Recordings ESP-Disk 2005

Despite the fact that avant-garde jazz has often met with the criticism that its tonalities and rhythms put it far outside the jazz (and by extension black music) tradition, it is quite true that many of the forerunners of free jazz found their voice in blues and R&B outfits. Ornette Coleman, Albert Ayler, Dewey Redman, Noah Howard, Prince Lasha and Pharoah Sanders all came up in ...