Berkeley Barb, July 4 - 10, 1975 Page 13 Kathy's Genius

writer this far into the seven­ Kathy addresses herself to the that schizophrenia is a more ties, and it's too strong to ever problem of truth and fabrica­ valid way for me to reach an­ be popular. tion in the most direct and other person, than the rigidity Kathy's publisher sent me her challenging way I've come of identity, the rigid mind-iden­ book with only one promotional across. She takes a character tity structures, I have some­ quote, by Fielding Daw son. created by another writer, and what non - consciously been 'There is a young woman writ­ retells the story imagining her­ dealing with and through." ing on the West Coast who has self as the main character, until Contemporary writing is in a received noi attention at all. Her the line separating her life and stage of upheaval, and writers name is Kathy Acker....She is, the character's becomes blurr­ literally, the wildest writer go­ must be judged by how well they ed virtually beyond recognition. destroy and reinvent language, ing...Her prose is direct, fast, In Andrei's book, he is osten­ character, and reality itself. sexy, hot, horny, furiously sibly presenting us with an edit­ In Life & Times, Andrei's honest,' tender and very, very ed version of his memory ."Con­ language is straightforward and / funny ... Insofar as I can see, sequently, every thing he pre­ unambiguous, with an occa­ she's the dark horse in Ameri­ sents comes to the reader with sional ejaculation in upper case. can Lit. Not for fame, but for a built-in question of credibi­ In Childlike Life, Kathy's lang­ influence. Originality. Sheer lity. (Could his first wife.Kira, uage is often incredibly free and voice. Guts." really have been as fabulous a inventive, as in section #6, Only one voice Tor Kathy, but person as she's portrayed? where she confuses herself with a particularly important one. Then how could he leave her, the Marquis De Sade: "Squish Fielding Dawson is the author even to get out of the draft?) out the gushy stuff out of my of Franz Kline: An Emotional Kathy doesn't present me­ ass yum roll around o yes lean Memoir (Pantheon), which com­ mory, she uses it as a creative, orgasm o yes. Goo goo goo goo. bines personal reminiscences tool, plays with it, experiments I'm remaking myself proud." of his fellow artist and teach­ with it. So what he says Andrei's use of character er with painfully honest, almost doesn't have to be true, but tends to be rigid, even when he confessional, revelations about when it is there's an added re­ writes as characters other than himself and the milieu he and sonance. Here's what Kathy himself, as in his book License Kline and Jackson Pollock shar­ says about her memory experi­ to Carry a Gun. Kathy's char-: ed. The result is a picture of ments: "Divide my remember­ THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AN Assistant Promo Person to that acters are extremely fluid, Kline much truer and deeper ing, for functional purposes, sometimes even changing sex INVOLUNTARY GENIUS, by An- end. But the proof of stardom is than a conventional biography into three processes: learning, in the product,and in mid-sentence, giving rise to drei Codrescu (George Brazil- Andrei's new could get. retention, recall. Can only test the kind of dynamic confusion ler, Inc.) 1975 book, The Life & Times of an The essence of where con­ retention through recall. Ex­ Burroughs generates. THE CHILDLIKE LIFE OF Involuntary Genius, doesn't temporary writing finds itself periment: simultaneously (1) Andrei's approach to reality THE BLACK TARANTULA, by quite have what it takes. right now is in this exploration recall memories about myself. is fundamentally conventional, Kathy Acker (Viper's Tongue At the same time Andrei's of the essential nature of I base my identity, my sense of and he preserves the unities of Books) 1975 book was getting its big promo "truth" and of fabrication. myself, on these memories. space and time. Kathy fractures push, his friend Kathy Dawson writes poetry and bio­ Loren Means Acker I am myself, not other people. the space/time continuum con­ had her first book published by graphy and autobiography, and "(2) Learn by copying some­ stantly, destroying the essential George Braziller, Inc., the the very obscure Viper's Ton­ the three are indistinguishable one else's memories. Change ground of being, so you never folks who publish Andrei Co- gue Books of New York. Kathy from each other. Andrei's new the third person (third person know where you are with her, drescu's books, call him "one has been doing radio shows for book is his autobiography, but in relation to myself) of the book the essential location is con­ of this country's best known and KPOO and KPFA under the he writes about himself in the to first person: therefore, learn stantly knocked out from under, most powerful young poets." pseudonym of the Black Taran­ third person, and there's al­ new facts about myself. My and you grope careening into But if you haven't heard of tula, and her book is called The ways a feeling of fabrication identity is also based on these the void. him, don't feel too deprived Childlike Life of the Black Ta­ overriding. Bukowski calls his memories. Are all my identities So Andrei will probably be a that'y^ just publisher's hype. rantula. The book was written character Chinaski, but he ad­ valid? Are all these memories star his work is fun, and Braziller would love Andrei to in the middle of 1973 and ori­ mits, "Like Chinaski, my valid? How can I tell which me­ doesn't threaten. And Kathy will "become a Poet Star, and have ginally issued in six chapbooks shorts were hanging down in the mories/identities of myselfare probably remain as she is him a tot of advance bread in a very limited edition. It's rain, I screamed at old women, valid, and which aren't? pissed off and brilliant, and so his own West Coast Under the most exciting book by anew I was a mess out there." "Experiment suggests to me scary.

is a disaster but not nearly as for one of the great creators of grotesque as what followed our times has never been ex­ 'Ayler's Apocalyptic Sound NEW GRASS, MUSIC IS THE plained to anyone's remote sat­ HEALING FORCE OF THE UNI­ isfaction. Some say his death was VERSE, arid LAST ALBUM. I suicide, motivated by depression by Duck Baker WITCHES AND DEVILS is a ful ly- the company of Murray and bas­ still remember my shock (shared over various personal problems, realized creation, demonstrating sist Gary Peacock, and the same by others) when I first saw Love among them his inability to re­ Albert Ayler is one of the pi­ dramatically what a strong and group plus trumpeter Don Cherry Cry in a record store, grabbed concile the beautiful world his votal figures of twentieth century unique conception Ayler posses­ made VIBRATIONS a few months it, took it home and put it on. I music spoke of so vividly with music. His music represents the sed. later. The music on these parti­ think that that record, along with the "realities" of the Great So­ final stage in the development of In many ways, Ayler's music cular records are beyond criti­ Pharoah Saunder's anemic Kar­ ciety. Others, who cannot recon­ "jazz" into an all-inclusive, uni­ was the most extreme to come cism, in my mind. There is no ma, made me aware of the change cile the idea of suicide by such versal folk music. As of 1975, for out of the revolution fostered way in the world anyone can add in the jazz world following Col­ an incredibly vital purveyor of all the expansions of contempor­ primarily by the work of Ornette to the perfectly articulate sounds trane's death in 1967. the life force as Albert Ayler, ary music achieved by The Art Coleman and Cecil Taylor in the on these records; they are com­ Whether, as has been alleged, have been inclined to accept the Ensemble, Anthony Braxton, and late fifties (Sun Ra's unsubstan­ parable to whatever summit of Impulse's determination to make possibility that Ayler was mur­ the British school, nothing has tiated claims regardless). Ayler musical expression you might pop stars out of their artists was dered. come forth to compare in inten­ took the folk-like "primitive" refer -- Parker's Dials,Oliver's responsible for the change in the As a Washington D.C. musi­ sity to the apocalyptic outpour­ approach of Ornette to it's ulti­ Gennets, Sun Ra's Heliocen­ output of Ayler, Shepp and Saun- cian, Bishop Brock, told me, ings of Ayler during his peak mate conclusion; even Ornette tric Worlds, Boulez's Marteau ders, or the absence of Coltrane "Man, you know who killed Al­ period ten years ago. VIBRA­ makes some use of chords in his Sans Maitre, Beethovens last as a guiding influence, or the bert Ayler. He was a revolution­ TIONS, formerly GHOSTS on the improvising -- although it is the quartets, whatever. _ sincere desire of these men to ary force, and the people on the hard-to-find Dutch Fontana label, most basic kind of use. Ayler The other two ESP records reach more people was respon­ other side knew it." Maybe they is one of Ayler's greatest rec­ abandons chords and even note- under Ayler's name, Spirits. sible, virtually nothing thatthese did. One way or the other, the ords, and the most important values altogether. His heads are Rejoice and Bells, are nearly three, once considered the ob­ circumstances of his death froze release on the newly-formed th'e simplest possible folk melo­ as great. On these records, Ayler vious keepers of the flame, have the blood of a lot of people in Arista-Freedom label. dies, things a child might hum. shares a free front line with his done since Trane's demise has 1970 when it was obvious that his A listen to VIBRATIONS will Yet in Ayler's music they serve brother, Donald, a wild blower been worth hearing. Exceptions death had a symbolic implication give an idea why discussion of as condensed kernels of energy, on trumpet who lacked the great to this gloomy truism areShepp's even beyond the fact that another Ayler's contributions so often which explode into space in a way subtlety of Don Cherry but fit spectacular Life at the Dohau- of America's great artists had, read like excercises in hyperbole. which is really indescribable; into the fiery ensembles well; shingen on Saba, his The Way like Bessie Smith, Fats Waller, It is not an easy record to listen you have to hear it. and altoist Charles Tyler, who Ahead, on Impilse, and Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, to, a fact which may make it sound The effect of Ayler on other plays beautifully with Ayler, es­ the two records of Ayler live on and Eric Dolphy (all of them hap­ a little dated in light of the cur­ musicians was immediate and pecially on BELLS. Another rec­ Shandar, a French label with un­ pen to have been black) died a rent search for the ultimate in profound. Cecil Taylor, with ord of ESP, NEW YORK EYE limited distribution. tragic, premature death. That superficiality, a la Corea, Han­ whom Ayler worked during 1962- AND EAR CONTROL, was a film These records, recorded in implication, of course, was that cock or Jarrett. But for anyone 64, recently described Ayler, in sound track which brought to­ 1970 (after THE LAST ALBUM) the "new thing," as it was called, still interested in the deepest Bells newsletter, as "the great­ gether Ayler, Cherry, Murray, show that Ayler was still capable the beautifully free and libera­ and most catalytic expressions est virtuoso of the tenor saxo­ and Peacock with trombonist of playing beautifully, but the ting music of the sixties, died Of the human condition, it is a phone. ( .He influenced many Rudd and altoist John Tchicai. supporting band, to my mind, .is with Ayler. vital and life-giving creation. players, including Coltrane.' ' Ayler is the dominating force on much weaker than those of the Nowadays, unless you catch I Ayler's first two records are Coltrane himself said that he once the record, and he (and everyone earlier days. Like the first two Cecil Taylor or Ornette or Sam Strange, abortive dates owing to had a dream in which he played else) plays beautifully, but it is records, the last two provide oniy Rivers at their best, you won't a'ttempts by record companies to like Ayler, but had never been not as cohesive as the other Ay­ a glimmer of the brilliance of hear music anymore. True, the fit his music into pre-existing able to do it. (Coltrane's last ler ESP's, principally because Ayler's genius. Art Ensemble, Braxton and the categories. On Albert Ayler, on recordings, Expression and In- of the clash between Ayler's ex­ In November 1970, Ayler's bo­ English players are taking the First Recordings, on GNP, the tersteller Space, on Impluse, troverted style and the introspec­ dy was found floating in New music in beautiful new directions, results of this meddling are show that Trane was in tive playing of Tchicai. Rudd, and York City's East River, a bullet but compared to BELLS, it's all somewhat comical, and his play­ the process of wedding his own especially Cherry, react to both in his head. This shocking end as "cool" as Al and Zoot ing is often very good, despite unmatched harmonic sophistica­ sides, but Ayler and Tchicai re- the total incongruity of the strai­ tion with Ayler's wild energy at main inflexible. Nevertheless, ght rhythm sections. Later, when the time of his death.) And Paul NEW YORK EYE AND EAR CON­ Impulse Records was calling the Bley, in a Downbeat interview TROL is a fascinating record with shots, the results were much last year, expressed his belief many beautiful moments, and is worse. On the currently hard-to- that Ayler was the last great very underrated. I personally find Witches and Devils acoustic virtuoso, and that only think it's much better than either lydor), Ayler was able, for the by going into electronics could Coltrane's Ascension or Ornet-i first time, to record his own the music go beyond the plateau te's Free Jazz. music. His colleagues on this to which Ayler had taken it. The last record which is indi­ 1964 date were trumpeter Nor­ Ayler's two greatest records cative of Ayler's greatness is man Howard, bassists Henry Gri­ by most counts are VIBRATIONS, LIVE IN THE GREENWICH VIL­ mes and Earle Henderson and which is finally easily available LAGE, his first Impulse date and drummer Sunny Murray. Although in the U.S., and Spiritual Unity, one_ fully as jubilantly beautiful not a&.oyerwhelmingly convincing the first record he made for as 'Bells and Spirits Rejoice as the two records to follow it, ESP-Disc. Unity was made in The next Impulse, Love Cry,