A native of Cleveland, Ohio, Ayler was born July 13, 1936, in a musical home. His father, Edward Ayler, was a saxophonist, violinist and singer, and his brother, Donald, was a trumpeter who worked with Albert after the saxophonist's first brush with fame. After starting with alto sax at age 7, Ayler studied at the Academy of Music in Cleveland for seven years, working with r&b bands. A stint in the U.S. Army (1958-'61) took him to Europe, where he returned in 1962, taking residence in Sweden.

Ayler made his first recordings in late 1962 in Sweden, then taped My Name Is Albert Ayler in Denmark in early 1963. He returned to the United States and participated in the Jazz Composers' Guild, then recorded such iconoclastic 1964-'65 albums as Spiritual Unity, Bells and Spirits Rejoice for ESP and the rare and long-out-of-print classic Ghosts for Danish Debut with trumpeter Don Cherry, bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Sunny Murray. He worked occasionally in pianist Cecil Taylor's combo. His high-energy playing, rooted in black gospel music, folk songs and marches, was marked by wide and wild interval leaps, shrieks and foghorn effects. His later recordings on Impulse!, in a career that rarely held much commercial success, began as cutting-edge examples of the avant garde but declined over a few years, and were considered a sell-out by early fans. Ayler died Nov. 25, 1970, shrouded in mystery. He had been missing for 20 days when his body was found floating in New York City's East River.

In 1983, Ayler was elected by the Critics into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.