Rondó

I can't remember exactly if I met him the first time I saw him with Miles or if I met him when he toured with his own quartet, but I remember meeting him one evening at the Montmartre Club. The big jazz guys would always come down to the club after their own concert because there was always somebody interesting playing there, like maybe Johnny Griffin or Don Byas or someone. I remember a whole bunch of us hanging out and jamming with Coltrane -- come to think of it, maybe it was when Coltrane's quartet was in Copenhagen because I seem to remember Cecil Taylor was at the Montmartre and both groups were in town at the same time in November of 1962. Anyway, Ayler sat-in that night and I remember later hearing that Coltrane commented, after hearing Ayler play, that he had once dreamt that he would someday be playing the same way Albert did. (John Tchicai - entrevista por Mike Trouchon)

Albert [Ayler] we found out quickly, could play his ass off. Some critics said his sound was primitive. Shit, it was before that! It was a big massive sound and wail. The crying, shouting moan of black spirituals and God music. Pharaoh [Sanders] was so beautiful and he had a wildness to him too, a heavy force like the world could be opened, but Albert was mad. His playing was like some primordial frenzy that the world secretly used for energy. (Gennari, John. “Jazz Criticism: Its Development and Ideologies.” in Spiritual Unity and the Resurrection of Albert Ayler.)

(...) Coltrane was greatly influenced by Ayler, even commenting to the younger musician after recording Ascension: “I recorded an album and found that I was playing just like you". (Wilmer, Valerie. "As Serious as Your Life: The Story of the New Jazz". London: Allison & Busby, 1977 in Spiritual Unity and the Resurrection of Albert Ayler.)