My Name Is Albert Ayler

Jazz enthusiasts are the obvious audience for Swedish director Kasper Collin's impressionistic portrait of saxophonist Albert Ayler (1936-1970), but the story of his troubled life and premature death is engrossing without prior knowledge of his place in the history of experimental jazz.

Born and raised in Ohio, Ayler (who pronounces his name "eye-ler," though many of his associates prefer "ail-er") learned to play alto sax from his father, Edward, and his musical ambitions were encouraged by his mother from the time he was a child. Ayler began playing clubs as a teenager and continued to hone his skills in the army, which he joined after graduating high scho...