This box is totally nuts. Revenant specializes in releasing exhaustive box sets that have tons of artist information and mega amounts of rare and unreleased music. Every box is beautiful. You feel like you've purchased a piece of art. The Albert Ayler box, Holy Ghost: Rare and Unissued Recordings (1962-70), looks better on a Noguchi coffee table than on a shelf with your crap records.

Inside a 10-inch-by-10-inch "Spirit Box" cast from a hand-carved original, you'll find a hardbound book that includes full-color photographs from Ayler's childhood and adult life, tons of quotes from his family, friends, and free jazz comrades (Rashied Ali and tons of others), a list of every performance he ever gave, new writings by Val Wilmer and Amiri Baraka (among many others), and detailed descriptions of all the music found on each disc. Two of the 10 discs are filled with interviews, which are great. You hear Ayler having a beer and chopping it up about his music, spirituality, and evil record companies. Holy Ghost also comes with old programs, flyer and photo reproductions, and a dried flower, which you shouldn't eat (my buddy Noel ate the flower in his set, and he hasn't been the same since). If you're a fan, you have to own this. If you can't afford it (it retails for about $90), then do what I did and sell a bunch of your lame CDs and buy it. It's worth it.

You get to hear Ayler playing with Pharoah Sanders and the Cecil Taylor Quartet and at the much-talked-about John Coltrane funeral, which, from what I understand, was previously only available to hardcore tape-trading jazz nerds. Sure, it sounds like it was recorded in the bathroom, but the pure emotion of the event come pouring through. The cavernous church reverberates in a way that makes it sound like the quartet are playing in heaven, and their version of "Our Prayer" could easily bring one to tears. You hear him playing with his brother as a leader in the Don Ayler Sextet, and this is also totally crazy awesome – the recording is so blown-out, brutal, and intense that it gives you chills.

You hear demos of his flirtations with R&B, which are painfully enjoyable – insane saxophone scorching over pretty straightforward blues jams. Some have vocals, which is where the pain sets in. Because these are demos, the musicians keep repeating the same lines over and over, and after 10 minutes you start to feel all loopy and can't help but laugh. Holy Ghost also comes with a bonus two-song disc of Ayler playing in the U.S. Army band, which is really cool and creepy. It sounds like the big band that played in the gold room in The Shining.

It's important for fans and musicians alike to hear this body of work. Free jazz hasn't seemed to evolve much since Ayler died (he committed suicide in 1970). Certainly, there have been a number of amazing musicians and recordings since, but listening to this box and reacquainting myself with Ayler's body of work has reminded me that not only has jazz reached a plateau, but also it's lost a lot of the soul, emotion, and spirituality Ayler brought to the table. That's what makes this music so important and inspiring. So, yeah, a must for Ayler fans – duh. (Paul Costuros)