Mount Everest Trio: Waves from Albert Ayler

Mount Everest Trio’s saxophonist Gilbert Holmstrom’s tone’s a little sharp, his sax lines are a little blunt, and his time is a little off. He’s also very powerful: even when he plays with vibrato he sounds like an ass-kicker. On 1975’s Waves From Albert Ayler, Holmstrom and the rest of Mount Everest-drummer Conny Sjokvist and bassist Kjell Jansson-pay tribute to the titular and fellow free-jazz butt-booter on eight tracks; three bonus cuts are added from a later session.

Mount Everest Trio was a Swedish group led by Holmstrom, and the group influenced hugely celebrated modern-day free-jazz saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, who produced this reissue for John Corbett and Atavistic’s Unheard Music Series. You can see why Gustafsson, himself a fireball of unrestrained energy, digs Mount Everest. But Mount Everest also has some subtler sides, such as on the chiming, driving, droning “Orinoco,” and the trio also has a way with modal funk, as on the dancing covers of Ornette Coleman’s “Ramblin'” and Gary Bartz’s “People’s Dance.”