After two minutes and 40 seconds of Ayler’s famous screeching, the saxophonist speaks the following verbal message to a somber soundscape of flute and horns:

The music I bring to you is of a different dimension in my life. I hope you will like this record. Through meditation, dreams, and visions, I have been made a universal man through the power of the Creator, who made us all. The music I have played in the past I know I have played in another place at a different time. And I was sent once again to give the people of earth a spiritual message. The message I bring to you is one of spiritual love, peace, and understanding. We must restore universal harmony. Everybody is only thinking of themselves—a selfish evil. We must have love for each other and our fellow man. Woe, woe, unto the false prophet that prophesizes out of his own heart. This is a sin against the Lord. We must understand this. We must get ourselves together, soon, ’cause there will be nothing left. Praise to the Lord. Repent, pray again, and repent. Please do that for your sake.

Reading this message during Ayler’s saxophoning (as you’ve just done if you played the YouTube recording above) puts the saxophonist’s spoken message into direct conversation with his sonic message, or at least his sonic message up until this album. Recorded in 1968, New Grass marks a diversification of sound for Ayler, one that has been read as compelled by his record label, Impulse, to increase sales, a common desire by the industry at this time vis-à-vis its jazz stars, and a context that also informs the recording of Miles Davis’s In a Silent Way this same year.