for albert ayler (23)

for albert ayler
(1936 --1970)

a double kwansaba

no one knew what u were trying to
do! yrs was a jazz beyond jazz;
breach birthed out of the blues, out
of gospel, out of sousa march tunes
(for god’s sake) into full blown atonal
soul cries & soul lows moving at
light speed to holy change into energy,

just another kind of blues, u said,
a real blues, a brand new blues
that floats, wafts over our heads, just
beyond our grasp. one day we will
know these blues, will find & cleave
them to us – like we surely found
yr body wafting in the east river.

© Joseph McNair;2010