The First Recordings

Notes

Recording Location: Main Hall of the Academy of Music, Stockholm, Sweden
Recording Date: 1962/10/25
Alternate Titling:
The following editions used the alternate release title Something Different!:
* the original BNLP1
* both DIW P-1 & 25001 Japanese reprints
All editions lists Rollins' Tune, while this is indeed No Moe.
Additional:
Long thought to be the very first recorded material by Albert Ayler, there are indeed previous stuff, issued in the Holy Ghost box set.
There's also more material from this session, issued under The First Recordings, volume 2.

This consists of renditions of well known tunes (but the fourth track), with a small public audience (25 people), in a somewhat cavernous-sounding hall. As such, this hasn't been covered, and as far as I know was never presented in compilations, neither have they been played again by Ayler (apparently).

Mostly of interest to Ayler completists, or the most adventurous free-jazz souls, this is decently hard to find: note the Stateside LP edition contains a Lovecraft excerpt from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath on the back sleeve - it's visible here.
The sound quality ranges from decent to pretty poor, and it's unlikely that any edition did any remastering work (if even feasible...).

The most common edition seems to be the GNP Crescendo LPs, or one of the Sonet LPs. CD edition(s?) are not to be found at the time...

Sonet obviously acquired Bird Notes (and now belongs to Universal which obviously doesn't care about this stuff).
The GNPs have the same sleeve as the Sonets.
The Stateside clearly mentions this as a Sonet recording.
It's not clear what agreement DIW had (or not) with Sonet to release this.

There is some controversy about whether there is or not more material (beyond Volume 2) from this session.
Jeff Schwartz, mentioning Raben 1989, spoke about an unreleased Volume 3 possibly containing:
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (alternate take)
Softly As In A Morning Sunrise (second alternate take)
Lover Man
Everything Happens To Me
This has not been confirmed, despite the recent exhaustive research led by Revenant, and this has been denied by Bengt Nordström (mentioned by Jan Strom of Ayler Records).

From the sleevenotes of a Sonet LP 1969 release:
"This LP helps toward understanding the way that Ayler has set about hedging-in his freedom, the restraints he devises for himself, his own particular struggle between form and content. Nobody would describe it as his best record - there is, for a start, little genuine rapport between Ayler and his accompanists - but it occupies a fascinating and perhaps a significant niche in jazz history." (Charles Fox)

Quoting Albert Ayler (from Koyama):
"You know, that first record I made, on Sonet? I had been playing music like that a long time ago... A Swedish guy, he gave me the break to make a record. I said, 'Maybe I shouldn't make it.' He said, 'Come on, it won't hurt you,' and then I made that record...Spacing sound, just trying to work with sound, spacing that sound, you know? And that was even more different than the rhythm, playing the actual rhythm at that time,but I developed a rhythmic type of free-form which was very important. I developed a space type of rhythmic music that was, um, it really added another, um, uh, uh, what could I say?"

Issues

It's not really clear whether BNLP1 was issued in 1962 or 1963, and if it was for private use only or not (there is also some doubts about the definitive character of the other dates).
According to Schwartz, Ayler approved only the first volume release in 1969, and asked Nordström to trash the rest of the material. DIW relations to either Nordström or Ayler's estate apparently is rather unclear, to say the least.

Other re-issues not listed in release events:
Label: DIW - Catalog #: P-1-B - Format: 12"LP (200 copies limited picture disc edition) - Rel: (JP)
Label: DIW - Catalog #: 25001 - Format: 12"LP - Rel: (JP)
Dates are still unknown. Note that DIW may have issued this as cd (possibly 304).
Also, "ULS-1635" (Sonet?) is rumored around to be another (japanese) reissue of this.
Finally, some hints about a Sonet UPS-2013 (mono Japan pressing).

Apparently someone plays a few piano notes On Rollins' Tune.

SubOptimalCredit: Ayler performance on piano on track 1 is really additional, though a server bug prevents from setting it.
Valerie Wilmer credit is valid only for the Sonet LP and GNP Crescendo issues.