Events Calendar

“Trane was the father, Pharoah was the son, and I am the Holy Ghost.” – Albert Ayer

Albert Ayler was one of the most influential and polarizing innovators of 1960s free jazz. Although he died in 1970, at just 34 years old, his unbridled playing style, “ungovernable sounds”, and emotional searching inspired subsequent waves of jazz improvisers, while “his boundless approach to creativity and the parameters of sound would also resonate with those in noise, hardcore punk, and other experimental circles” (All Music).

Guitarist Tony Wilson has been inventing and reinventing on the West Coast creative music scene since the 1980s, and his playing has spiritual kinship with Ayler’s transcendent melodicism and ecstatic eruption. Wilson started Flowers for Albert back in 1992, and over the years the project has featured a Who’s Who of great Canadian and international players. The 2026 Vancouver International Jazz Festival sees Wilson debuting a brand-new configuration featuring James Meger bass, Kenton Loewen drums, Feven Kidane trumpet, and Ruthie Ha saxophones.