Albert Ayler. Photograph by Michael Snow. Courtesy of mynameisalbertayler.com

During the month of April, the Pickford Theater will host Jazz in the Spring at the Nation’s Library, curated by Larry Appelbaum, Reference Specialist in the Music Division.  The series begins Monday April 5th with the Washington Premiere of My Name is Albert Ayler. The prophetic free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, who today is seen as one of the most important innovators in jazz, was obsessed with his radical music and by the thought that people one day would understand it. As he said in his own words, “If people don’t like it now, they will.” In 1962 he recorded his first album in Sweden. Eight years later he was found dead in New York’s East River, aged 34. Kasper Collin’s documentary follows the trail of Ayler from his native town of Cleveland by way of Sweden to New York, meeting family, friends and close colleagues. Albert Ayler and his brother Donald guide with voice and music in what JazzTimes called “One of the most starkly beautiful and moving documentaries ever made about a jazz musician.” Learn more about “My Name is Albert Ayler”