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Witches & Devils is a project of tenor saxophonist Mars Williams, a tribute to Albert Ayler that was recorded live in 1997. Though the ubiquitous Ken Vandermark is also on tenor here, it's Williams who evokes the buzzing, throbbing, evangelical sound of Ayler's. This is a recording, though, and Ayler's was a saxophone sound never completely captured on record. "The records are ruins," critic and poet Amiri Baraka once said of Ayler's LPs. Ayler's compositions "Truth Is Marching In," "Angels," and "Bells" are here, one flowing into the other, but there is also an improvised saxophone duet and a piano interlude (played by Jim Baker) which nicely contrast with the other pieces. No question that the feel of Ayler is here--maybe the Ayler of the later period when he was paired with saxophonist Charles Tyler. But Williams structures these improvisations more than Ayler would have done, with shifts in dynamics and attitude, and he perhaps thus makes them more interesting for a generation that is not as shocked by the sheer sonics of post-Ayler aesthetics. "Bells," for instance, opens loosely, swirling up slowly and indirectly, until that bagpipe-like anthem comes rising and rising. A lovely surprise, and a sweet ending to a record that wears its heart on its sleeve. --John F. Szwed
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