"Exhaustively documents Ayler's evolution from swing journeyman to freejazz god. Holy Ghost captures the ugly/beautiful, soothing/disruptive yet spiritually fierce essence of this most iconoclastic jazz man." -NPR's "All Things Considered": Tom Terrell

"As Sun Ra so aptly put it, 'It's a motherfucker, don't ya know?' Seems quite unlikely that there will be another release with such gushing importance and pleasure, mixed so sweetly, in our lifetime or the next."
-- Arthur Magazine
"Bull Tongue"
Reviews by Byron Coley and Thurston Moore
80 Goddamn Good Things of 2004

"The Everest of all jazz boxed sets in 2004. A major event. Holy Ghost represents a long overdue restoration of Ayler's art to a listening public that has had scant chance to hear it. -Chicago Tribune

"The folks at Revenant are known for their lush packaging, and Holy Ghost is no exception. Housed in a gorgeous spirit box, Holy Ghost is overwhelming in its size, breadth, its packaging and even its affordable price. It's a small price to pay for salvation. -Creem

"A landmark new box ... As you claw through the gorgeous packaging and fetishistic inserts, you may feel like a miner on a mission. You will find gold. -LA Weekly

"Revenant's Holy Ghost box is the sun around which all other recordings orbited in 2004. It comprises a phenomenal and gorgeous package, a solid (although by no means conclusive) body of research, and a gripping 10-disc parallel history to the sanctified saxophonist's existing discography that fills in a few long-gaping blanks in the time line. -Dusted (Bill Meyer)

"Eye-popping and mind-boggling, the Holy Ghost box treats Ayler with religious devotion. It's a requilary replete with replicas of a childhood photo, a handwritten note, a real pressed flower, and a weighty hardbound book of photos, timelines and essays. A beautiful object, a trove of rare music and a triumph of jazz scholarship, it's a bargain at under $100." -NPR's "Fresh Air (Kevin Whitehead)

"Best of 2005
Jazz Box Sets
#1 Albert Ayler--Holy Ghost"
-Chicago Tribune

"Released the first week of October, this 9-CD treasure trove of previously unissued and rare recordings by legendary free-jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler was the perfect antidote to Halloween's spiritual bankruptcy. The haunting transcendence of Ayler's music aside, his career is rightfully the stuff of myth, from his travels throughout Europe to his mysterious death by drowning in 1970 at the age of 34. At times I mistook my stereo for a Ouiji board. -ARTFORUM

"Top 10 Box Sets of 2004 (#3) --Amazon.com

"Painstakingly compiled. Recordings of Ayler's groups with brother Donald show the Ayler boys converting Now Orleans-like parade themes into exhilarating, exhortatory anthems. Demos of New Grass restore the raw soul edited out of the disappointing released version. Holy Ghost is a total immersion, and you risk being swept away by the sheer conviction of this wild man. -Tracks

"Lavish. Adds a bounty of musical riches--some previously only rumored to exist, others said to have been destroyed--to Ayler's canon. Collectors will no doubt covet most his collaboration here with Cecil Taylor; this is brilliant music from start to finish, the equal of anything Taylor had recorded up to this time. We may still not know all of the answers about Ayler, but at least we have more of the story than ever before. -Coda

"Revenant's obsessively assembled "monument in sound" is a massive achievement. No other Ayler release gives more of a sense of the pioneer's full context: his journey from tight trad jazz to near-total free improv, his tragically short career, his music's sometimes heartbreaking vacillation between uncommon genius and plain ol' hooey. In fact, Ayler seems such an appropriate recipient of the lavish-box-set treatment--the 208 page hardcover book includes not only essential information about the player's life and recordings, but also five essays and a compilation of tributary reminiscences by the likes of Harold Budd, Cecil Taylor, and Robert Frank, as well as a partial reproduction of a 1969 fanzine co-edited by Amiri Baraka--that if he hadn't existed, it would have been necessary for the label to invent him. -Washington City Paper

"Issued in a beautifully molded "Spirit Box" by Revenant Records, Holy Ghost provides almost double the amount of Ayler's music currently available. As an equivalent, try to imagine someone turning up another four albums' worth of unreleased Charlie Parker studio material or another twenty hours of live Coltrane. -The Nation

"Let us now praise Revenant Records, whose nine-disc Holy Ghost at last fixes Ayler's too-brief career in the wide spot it deserves. As was the case with its astounding 2001 Charley Patton box (Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues), Revenant's Ayler assemblage is both completist and reverential, a joyful balance between the archival and the emotional. Like the boxed sets of Coltrane's Impulse! recordings and Coleman's Atlantic sessions, Holy Ghost is essential for any avant-garde jazz library. -Detroit MetroTimes

5 stars -Gothenburg Post (Sweden)

"Holy Ghost isn't the kind of box set you merely "buy." You marry it - sacred vows, rings and all. Or maybe you just move yourself and your things into it, committing yourself to a long-term lease absorbed in its glories, its mysteries, its melancholy. Perhaps what it's really like is diving into an absorbing, demanding, picaresque novel chronicling the adventures of a romantic, martyred hero-saint - a story that becomes even more compelling when you know, in advance, how it turns out. -New York Newsday

"The challenging but joyous avant-cacophony of tenor saxophonist Albert Ayler is chronicled in this set on seven CDs of rare music, and a pair of illuminating interview discs help flesh out his mysterious legend. Also included: a hardcover book, a dedicated work of scholarship that has been accorded to very few musicians of Aylers' era, facsimiles of a concert poster, an underground arts magazine and a poetry booklet and a pressed flower, all contained in a beautiful "spirit box." "Holy Ghost" was created with a deeply felt respect for Ayler, who remains one of the most engaging and complex jazz figures of the '60s. -Denver Post

"Holy Ghost is one of the most lovingly produced archival packages ever dedicated to a jazz musician. More than that, it's such a spectacularly thorough, beautifully thought-out object that it, by its own existence, pays suitable homage to an artist as deserving as Ayler. ...With an astonishing array of photographs and clippings meticulously reproduced and designed, Holy Ghost sets a new, elegant standard for the presentation of historical materials." -Downbeat, October, 2004

"Revenant's design team has outdone itself with Holy Ghost; the imagination, effort, and sheer fetishistic music-collector insanity that went into this thing are staggering. ...This set is not for the casual listener. But if you're ready for total immersion, Holy Ghost is essential--don't even wait for Christmas." -Signal To Noise, Fall 2004

"Everything about this release is remarkable." -Cadence

"...meticulous and thorough... including remarkable live performances and interviews." -New York Times, September 11, 2004

"Beautifully compiled and lovingly realized, Holy Ghost is a long overdue celebration of one of jazz music's most important voices." -Jazzwise (UK)

"Likely to win a Grammy or three of its own next year." -Cleveland Scene

"Lavishly presented. Beautifully produced and illustrated, with illuminating essays and a great deal of new biographical information and first person reminiscence." -The Guardian (UK)

"From a bunch of fanatics known for reinventing box sets as objets d'art comes a heap of unreleased recordings by the blistering free-jazz saxophonist. Weirdly beautiful, deeply human. Sure to be at the top of Thurston Moore's birthday wish list." -Spin

"To all the worshippers in the Church of Albert Ayler, the holy rollers and the bug-eyed acolytes; to all the neophytes and skeptics, the critical naysayers and money lenders, listen up: the tablets just came down from the mountain. Ayler's music still sounds utterly unique, utterly compelling, simultaneously familiar and alien. This Pandora's box of previously unheard recordings unleashes the unseen forces that shaped his free spiritual music." -The Wire

"A remarkable collection ... beautifully packaged into a deluxe onyx 'spirit box.' The father of free jazz finally receives his due." -Billboard

"The Sistine Chapel of box sets ... 5 stars (out of 5)" -Sunday Times (UK)

"Grand and, yes, truly revelatory. Holy Ghost tells one of the most gripping and disturbing stories in jazz. Here, Ayler smashes the furniture and flies out the window." -Jazztimes

"Stunning. It's hard to imagine a better overview of such a singular artist." -Blender

"Eye-popping. Illuminates a figure still shrounded in mystery." -Time Out New York

"A trove of outside-oriented improvisation, Holy Ghost demands to be heard by followers of post-John Coltrane avant-garde jazz. Adds several mesmerizing hours to Ayler's small discography. A remarkable presentation." -Denver Post

"A wonderful box set. 5 stars (out of 5)." -Musikexpress

"Exquisite." -Signal to Noise

"5 stars (out of 5). Lavish. Holy Ghost is the monument Ayler deserves. In its elegance and heft, this set is a major, loving corrective to the disheveled state of his discography. This deep investigation of Ayler's performance history also illuminates the ancient force and forward march of Ayler's vision, far beyond free jazz. Holy Ghost is Ayler's rich, just memorial: a box of revelations that add up to a resurrection." -MOJO

"Nothing could have set the scene for this, a world-beating 9 CD set of rare and unreleased recordings. Beautiful. Jaw-dropping. Much more than the reissue of the year, Holy Ghost feels--and sounds--like the work of lifetimes." -Sunday Herald (UK)

"If only every artist of stature could get the Revenant Records treatment! There is a reason these guys win Grammys. Holy Ghost is full of bombshell recordings, but there is such a dizzying array of material here that to describe them only begins to scratch the surface of what is to be found packaged inside this lavish box. There is truth and clarity in these songs and at 90-some-odd dollars for 10 CDs, Revenant is practically giving away one of the most essential musical documents to be released this year. Highest recommendation!" -Other Music, NYC

"A monument to the memory of Albert Ayler. Disque d'emoi! 5 stars (out of 5)." -Jazz Magazine (France)

"Worshipful. Excavates much that will be new even to fetishists with home burners; to my knowledge only one of the recordings has been issued before. Holy Ghost is immediate in a way that "historical" releases rarely are by virtue of its chronological presentation and an implied biographical narrative that restores his harmonic tremors to the context of the racial and cultural eruptions of the '60s. [The previously unpublished Ayler New Grass demos] are irresistible. The black onyx box itself is a trove of memorabilia. This year's most intriguing jazz release." -Village Voice

"Housed in a gorgeous replica of a hand-carved spirit box, along with a definitive 208 page book on Ayler, Holy Ghost is a vast compilation--you hear the full arc of Ayler's brief but intense career. Ayler and Coltrane both believed in a path to 'spiritual unity.' There is a similar sense of devotion in Holy Ghost itself." -New Yorker

"Holy Ghost sets the platinum standard for Aylerology. Unprecedented." -Dusted

"A magnificent new box set (and what a box, fabricated to resemble a spice chest from North Africa) of rare and unreleased recordings. Over nine CDs of music and interviews, the initially shadowy figure of Ayler comes into focus." -The Independent (UK)

"Unprecedented. What's being called the most important jazz release of the decade." -Austin American Statesman

"Lavish. A work of art." -Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Albert Ayler The Revenant Ð JAZZ EVENT OF 2004. A monument to the Glory of Ayler." -Le Nouvel Observateur (France)

"Monumental, Titanesque ... hard to use other words for this labour of love by the remarkable label Revenant" -Vibration (France)

Winner of the Grand Prix du Disque de l'Academie Charles Cros (France)

"Revenant's Charley Patton box set won three Grammy awards in 2002, but Holy Ghost is even more impressive, in both packaging and content. Illuminates every phase of Ayler's brief career. The spirit of Ayler's music lives on in Holy Ghost." -Chicago Tribune