biography
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1936–70)
|
| biography:
| Tenor saxophonist, born in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Part of the New York avant-garde free jazz scene in the 1960s, he played fiercely exuberant music, often ‘honking’ or ‘screaming’, that took elements from folk and rhythm and blues as well as post-bebop jazz and, later, the black marching-band tradition. Like Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and others, he moved from the harmonic intricacies of bebop back to melody with a spiritual dimension. He was found dead in the East River after having gone missing for several weeks, perhaps the victim of mental illness, to which his brother, trumpeter Donald Ayler (1942– ), was also prey. |
|
|
