{"product_id":"albert-ayler-new-grass","title":"Albert Ayler - New Grass","description":"\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlbert Ayler’s 1969 album New Grass has been misunderstood from the day of its release. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe album finds Ayler experimenting with soul music and digging back into his R\u0026amp;B roots (he \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003estarted his career playing saxophone with Chicago bluesman Little Walter), fusing it with the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eavant-garde free jazz (the one element of the record which garnered consistent praise) and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eadding the vocals of Rose Marie McCoy, The Soul Singers and Ayler himself. As if predicting the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003edivisiveness of the record to follow, Ayler speaks directly to the listener and explains that New \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGrass is nothing like his albums before — that it is of “a different dimension of his life” — in the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ealbum opener “Message from Albert.”\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNew Grass deserves reconsideration, if not for the heavy grooves and surprising arrangements, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003ethen for its bravery in challenging norms of the time; by the ‘60s, jazz was well-accepted as a \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003euniquely American art form, while soul as a genre was very much still seen as primitive. Ayler \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003emelds them together and creates something novel, adventurous, and completely his own. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAt the time of its release, despite its divisive reception, New Grass helped break down the \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eunnecessary walls dividing genres and revealed music’s potential freedoms. The album has gone \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eon to influence generations of Jazz, R\u0026amp;B, Funk, Hip Hop, Post Punk, No Wave and unshrinking \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003eartists like Pharaoh Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Funkadelic, Jungle Brothers, Red Krayola, Sonic\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYouth and Mark E. Smith.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThird Man Records can’t recommend this record highly enough. We are confident that it won’t \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan\u003etake but one listen for you to understand New Grass is an undeniable healing force\u003c\/span\u003e","brand":"South Records Ltd","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":64322452029817,"sku":null,"price":20.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0973\/1463\/6153\/files\/albert-ayler-new-grass-south-records-ltd_85b27f17-02d9-4e11-bd1e-a5cc68cf6de5.jpg?v=1787901670","url":"https:\/\/vinyl-relic.com\/products\/albert-ayler-new-grass","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}