The one that started it all. Saxophonist Albert Ayler sounded like no one else on Earth; his melodies had a singsong, pre-blues feel, like something a marching band might have played a hundred years earlier, and his tone was both booming and sandpapery at once. Sometimes he rises to ecstatic heights, shrieking and roaring through the horn, but he’s just as capable of murmuring, introspective phrases. He’s one of the most human-sounding jazz musicians ever to pick up an instrument, and it’s that raw, pure spirituality, shaped by extremely sophisticated technique, that makes his work so fascinating, even decades after his death.

This trio, with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray, plays music of uncompromising freedom. Following the initial melodic statements of pieces like “Ghosts” (of which two versions are heard), “The Wizard,” and “Spirits,” the music can go in any direction at all, and either Ayler or Peacock can take the lead. Murray never plays a traditional beat, mostly focusing on the cymbals and only occasionally attacking the kit itself. While the album was recorded in mono, it nevertheless has an extremely full and reverberant room sound, which draws you in; it’s like you’re sitting on the floor in the middle of these three men as they create this astonishing music in front of you.