MEV – United Patchwork (Horo Records ‎– HDP 15-16 / 2LP-1978)

Label: Horo Records ‎– HDP 15-16

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album, Gatefold cover / Country: Italy / Released: 1978

Style: Experimental, Free Improvisation

Recorded Rome, November 15 and 16, 1977, Mama Dog Studio.

Antonio Ortolan / art direction

Sandro Lodolo / cover art

Maria Tereza Tannozzini / cover design

Raul Matta / graphic design

Aldo Sinesio / producer

Gianni Gualberto / assistant producer

Raimondo Caruana / recording engineer

Joachim-Ernst Berendt / liner notes

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side A): HDP 15-16 - 2 A

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side B): HDP 15-16 - 2 2

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side C): HDP 15-16 - 2 3

Matrix / Runout (Runout Area Side D): HDP 15-16 - 2 4

side 1:

A  -  Via Della Luce  (Richard Teitelbaum) ............................................................... 23:24

side 2:

B1 - Fox  (Steve Lacy) .............................................................................................. 9:43

B2 - Cross Over One  (Karl Berger) .......................................................................... 2:25

B3 - Slugging Rocks  (Garrett List) ........................................................................... 6:48

side 3:

C1 - Psalm  (Alvin Curran) ...................................................................................... 14:07

C2 - What Is Freedom?  (Frederic Rzewski) ............................................................. 5:25

side 4:

D1 - Dewline  (Steve Lacy) ....................................................................................... 7:54

D2 - Cross Over Two  (Karl Berger) .......................................................................... 3:14

D3 - Cross Over Three  (Karl Berger) ....................................................................... 3:06

D4 - Sea Line  (Steve Lacy) ...................................................................................... 5:25

Musicians:

Frederic Rzewski – piano, electric piano, composer

Alvin Curran – synthesizer, piano, vocal, flugelhorn, composer

Richard Teitelbaum – synthesizer, shells, composer

Karl Berger – vibraphone, piano, electric piano, melodeon, composer

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone, composer

Garrett List – trombone, composer

One of the most mythical experimental groups of all time, Musica Elettronica Viva was formed in 1966 by a group of American composers in Rome, its nucleus comprised of pianist Frederic Rzewski, sound improviser Alvin Curran, and the improvisatory keyboardist Richard Teitelbaum. Taking cues from John Cage and David Tudor, MEV employed open, limitless structures, using found instruments, toys, a homemade synthesizer, and the first Moog to reach mainland Europe. Improv and critical listening practices aimed to liberate listeners from the constraints of bourgeois capitalism and as their sound evolved, forms of Jewish mysticism and surrealist automaticism pointed to transcendent potential.

An abortive US tour in 1970 split MEV into three units, but the Kabbalistic Dixieland band later reformed with Rzewski, Curran, and Teitelbaum joined by saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Garrett List, and keyboardist Karl Berger. The resultant double album United Patchwork, a return to classic form for MEV – after some of the more tripped-out experiments of the early 70s, recorded in November 1977 at Mama Dog for Horo Records, captures MEV in all of their discordant, improvisatory glory, from Teitelbaum's side-long opener, "Via Della Luce", to the honking noise of Lacy's "Fox", the excessive keyboard meanderings of Curran's "Psalm", Berger's vibraphone folly, "Cross Over One" and Rzewski's ponderous "What Is Freedom".
But, the whole album is, thanks to a very freewheeling sense of improvisation, a stunning mix of free jazz and electronics.

Note:

Richard Teitelbaum, an electronic artist, keyboardist and composer who combined an interest in non-western musical languages with a focus on experimental practice, died on Thursday, April 9, 2020 at HealthAlliance Hospital in Kingston, N.Y.

If you find it, buy this album!

WALTER ZUBER ARMSTRONG / STEVE LACY – Duet - Alter Ego (LP-1979) and Call Notes (LP-1980)

Label: World Artists – LP WA 1004

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: Canada / Released: 1979

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz

Recorded live at the BIM-house, October 13, 1979, Amsterdam, Holland.

Produced by – Walter Zuber Armstrong Production

Photography by  – Tom Strappers

Cover Design – Sheila Miller

Engineer – Sjaak Willemse

Composed By – Walter Zuber Armstrong

A - Alter Ego ............................................................................. 25:53

B - Alter Ego ............................................................................. 23:37

Walter Zuber Armstrong – contrabass, bass clarinet

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone

Recorded in 1979 in Holland, this intriguing duet album between multi-reedist Walter Zuber Armstrong and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy is endearing and charming for its radical approach to the intimacy of what focused instrumentalists can attain when approaching the same goal from different directions and learning from the other's process on the way. There are two takes of the title track, clocking in with an average time of 24 minutes.

Here Armstrong plays bass clarinet to Lacy's soprano. What becomes startling immediately is how both men look to establish from their corners melodic invention and a lyrical sensibility for their tonal explorations. Tonal journeying is a big part of what these two long compositions are all about, meeting in the middle of extremes and dovetailing one another with a timbral elegance that offers the listener the gentler side of each instrument without either player backing off of his exploratory nature. There is little drama that plays out here in an hour, but there doesn't need to be, because what is happening here is of the aural reception variety, deep listening music made by two masters of both hearing and speaking. What is left unsaid here is almost as important as what is, and the poetry of that knowing, that will to silence and economy, is what shapes this recording and gives it its considerable depth and dimension.

_ Review by Thom Jurek

Walter Zuber Armstrong / Steve Lacy - Call Notes, recorded also in the Bimhuis, on October 13, 1979, Amsterdam, Holland, is a continuation of the first album.

WALTER ZUBER ARMSTRONG / STEVE LACY – Call Notes (LP-1980)

Label: World Artists – WA 1005

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: US / Released: 1980

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live at the BIM-house, October 13, 1979, Amsterdam, Holland.

Produced by – Sheila Miller, Walter Zuber Armstrong

Photography by  – Tom Strappers

Cover Design – Sheila Miller

Engineer – Sjaak Willemse

Composed By – Walter Zuber Armstrong

        Call Notes

A1 - Cut 1 ................................................................................... 12:18

A2 - Cut 2 ..................................................................................... 3:14

Walter Zuber Armstrong – flute, Bolivian wooden flute

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone

        Lost Lagoon

B1 - Cut 1 ................................................................................... 13:52

B2 - Cut 2 ..................................................................................... 1:26

Walter Zuber Armstrong – bass clarinet, soprano flute

A West Coast reed player with a haunting tone and an armload of self-published albums, Walter Zuber Armstrong was highly influenced by free jazz legends Eric Dolphy and Anthony Braxton. Like them, he was drawn to the idea of multi-instrumental textural dexterity. Zuber Armstrong chose the bass clarinet and flute to cover opposite extremes, a pair of instruments Eric Dolphy had used as an exotic sideline to his alto sax.

Then Zuber Armstrong pretty much set aside the entire jazz content of Dolphy's music to concentrate on more spaced-out ideas. From Braxton he adopted the idea of solo reed performances, although unlike his model he was not particularly into shrieking displays of intensity. Zuber Armstrong was based out of the sleepy border town of Bellingham, WA, for most of his career, meaning that one of his main performing possibilities was nearby Vancouver, British Columbia. The bustling jazz scene in this city led to collaborations with Canadian performers such as pianist Paul Plimley and drummer Greg Simpson. Zuber Armstrong cannot be said to have toured excessively during his career, yet he did leave behind collaborations with multi-instrumentalist Milo Fine taped in Minnesota as well as duos with Steve Lacy recorded in Amsterdam. The latter session is considered by many free jazz fans to be Zuber Armstrong's finest recordings.

Despite snippy comments made by some players and critics about his technique, Zuber Armstrong was a classically trained musician who studied at the New York College of Music, the Julliard School, and Toronto's Royal Conservatory of Music. He largely supported himself by teaching contemporary music at Western University in Bellingham and Fairhaven College in the town of the same name. He performed two of his final concerts in the late '90s at Bellingham events in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and Black History Month. His recordings with Lacy were done in 1979, and were released on two different albums. In the early '80s, he performed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, teaming up for part of the show with the reclusive and fussy improviser Milo Fine. The earliest of Zuber Armstrong's releases on his own World Artists label dates from 1973 (Alpha And Omega, WA 1001).

_written by Eugene Chadbourne

If you find them, buy these albums!

STEVE LACY – Dreams (LP-1975 / Saravah – SH 10058)

Label: Saravah – SH 10058

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: France / Released: 1975

Style: Free Jazz

Recorded at Saravah Studios Paris, May 12-15-1975

Artwork [Cover Art] – Claude Bellegarde

Engineer – Christian Jence

Photography By [Photos] – Bunny Brissett

Producer – Pierre Barouh

Technician [Assistant] – Larry Martin

A1 - The Uh Uh Uh .............................................................. 7:20

A2 - Dreams ......................................................................... 3:05

A3 - The Oil ......................................................................... 9:10

B1 - The Wane ................................................................... 10:00

B2 - Crops ............................................................................ 7:00

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone, composed

Steve Potts – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone

Derek Bailey – guitar

Jean-Jacques Avenel – bass

Kent Carter – bass

Irene Aebi – voice, cello

Kenneth Tyler – drums, percussion

featuring:

guitar – Boulou Ferré (tracks: A2, B2), Jack Treese (tracks: A2, B2)

Dreams is easily Lacy's greatest moment from the 70s, and the one that sounds, simultaneously, most and least like him.

Recorded at Saravah's studios in Paris in May 1975, Dreams is the fourth of five albums cut for the label by Steve Lacy between 1969 (Roba) and 1977 (The Owl) -- the intervening pair being 1971's Lapis and 1974's Scraps -- and features the soprano saxophonist in the company of his favorite playing partners, altoist Steve Potts, bassists Kent Carter and Jean-Jacques Avenel, guitarist Derek Bailey, drummer Ken Tyler, and not forgetting the composer's partner, Irene Aebi on cello and vocals on the dreamy, almost Debussyesque setting of Brion Gysin's permutational poem "Dreams." For the occasion, the group is joined by Saravah regulars guitarists Boulou Ferre and Jack Treese, who also contributes some spindly banjo to the closing "Crops." It's quintessential Lacy, all relentless harmonic cycles with saxophones locked together a whole- or half-tone apart, but extraordinarily varied in scope nevertheless, running the gamut from the twisted psychedelic funk of "The Uh Uh Uh" to the rolling free folk of "Crops," via the tense, claustrophobic weave of "The Oil." On this, the tough nut of the set, Bailey's pinched Webernian splutters are the perfect foil for the rigorous saxophone dirge, and his volleys of harmonics complement Treese's fingerpicking to perfection in "Crops." And anyone who still doubts Lacy's consummate mastery of his instrument needs only to check out the ease with which he negotiates the ferociously difficult theme in "The Wane."

As the story unfolds one small piece at a time over this LP, the vision of the man comes clearly into view and his true genius is revealed. Lacy saw jazz in the 70s as a way to make sense of the entire world -- a world in transition and fragmentation. His musical view was all-inclusive (Bailey's rock and funk moves on the Dreams album) and sought order using a musical language that would open the doors to dialogue: first with musicians and then with other artists everywhere. The amazing thing is that -- at least in the avant-garde music world -- he succeeded: because everyone there cites him as an influence...........

Enjoy!

If you find it, buy this album!

MAL WALDRON (Solo / Sextet) – Moods (2LP-1979)

Label: Enja Records – enja 3021  

(also; Inner City Records – IC 3018-2)

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1979

Style: Free Jazz, Post Bop

Recorded in May 1978, Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg.

Design [Cover] – Weber, Winckelmann

Photography – Ghert Chesi

Producer – Horst Weber, Matthias Winckelmann

Recorded By – Carlos Albrecht

A1 - Minoat . . . . . . . . . . 8:08

A2 - A Case Of Plus 4's . . . . . . . . . . 14:59

B  -  Sieg Haile . . . . . . . . . . 20:14

C1 - Anxiety . . . . . . . . . . 3:29

C2 - Thoughtful . . . . . . . . . . 6:07

C3 - Lonely . . . . . . . . . . 6:34

C4 - Happiness . . . . . . . . . . 3:04

D1 - Soul Eyes . . . . . . . . . . 6:49

D2 - I Thought About You . . . . . . . . . . 7:39

D3 - Duquility . . . . . . . . . . 8:31

Mal Waldron — piano

Terumasa Hino — cornet

Steve Lacy — soprano saxophone

Hermann Breuer — trombone

Cameron Brown — bass
Makaya Ntshoko — drums, percussion

This double-Lp features pianist Mal Waldron in two very different settings. On the first three songs (including the 20-minute sidelong "Sieg Haile"), he performs three of his compositions in a sextet with cornetist Terumasa Hino, soprano-saxophonist Steve Lacy, trombonist Hermann Breuer, bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Makaya Ntshoko. While that set has its share of fireworks, the remaining seven selections (six originals including his famous "Soul Eyes" plus the lone standard "I Thought About You") showcase Waldron as a sensitive solo pianist. This enjoyable and subtle music (which was also available at one time domestically on Inner City) gives one a well-rounded picture of Mal Waldron's talents in the late 1970's.

_ Review by Scott Yanow

Clocking in at over an hour, this generous presentation is nicely varied, alternating solo piano pieces with a fine sextet. In the latter, Waldron is joined by frequent collaborator Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone. In addition to the rhythm section, cornet player Terumasa Hino and trombonist Hermann Breuer round things out. Waldron relocated from the United States to Europe in the late '60s, and MOODS was recorded, with extraordinary warmth and clarity, in Germany in 1978. After the brief solitary piano of "Anxiety," "Sieg Haile" comes marching in with supple relentlessness. Waldron's compositions favor sharply defined chordal structures supporting simple, yet unexpected melodic lines. The album closer is the set's one cover, Jimmy Van Heusen's "I Thought About You." This performance embraces the same heartbreaking beauty favored by Billie Holiday, for whom Waldron was the final piano player in the '50s...

Beautiful music on two LP's. Enjoy!

If you find it, buy this album!

MAL WALDRON QUINTET with STEVE LACY - One-Upmanship (LP-1977)

Label: Enja Records – enja 2092

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: W. Germany / Released: 1977

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on February 12, 1977 at Conny's Studio, Wolperath, Germany.

Design [Coverdesign] – Winckelmann, Weber

Engineer – Conny Plank

Photography By [Cover] – Christian Fauchard

Producer – Horst Weber, Matthias Winckelmann

A1 - One Upmanship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11:20

A2 - The Seagulls Of Kristiansund . . . . .  11:30

B  -  Hurray For Herbie . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . 19:56

Manfred Schoof – trumpet

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone

Mal Waldron – piano

Jimmy Woode – bass

Makaya Ntshoko – drums, percussion

Pianist Mal Waldron and soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy first recorded together in the late-'50s. Both spent most of the careers working and living in Europe, and this album was recorded in Germany. Both musicians mix a precise sense of angularity with deeply emotive poetics. The three quintet pieces, featuring a rhythm section and trumpet player Manfred Schoof, include the staggeringly beautiful "The Seagulls of Kristiansund." Lacy's playing is an apt voice for this piece's melancholy seascape. All the album's compositions were written by Waldron...

The appearance of any recording by Mal Waldron should be a cause for celebration, but this one is particularly special for a number of reasons. Not only is Waldron joined by his longtime duo partner, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy, but by three other performers with a keen simpatico: trumpeter Manfred Schoof, bassist Jimmy Woode, and drummer Makaya Ntshoko. The playing of each of these men, including Waldron, on One-Upmanship should alone be enough to give them unsung hero status.

This set includes the multifaceted title track, the delicate "Seagulls of Kristiansund," and the rousing "Hooray for Herbie." Lacy plays with emotional restraint wrapped in breathtaking virtuosity, as in his extended upper-upper-register fadeout on "Seagulls." Schoof sets him off with ferociously fluent solos at the opposite end of the emotional spectrum. And Mal Waldron - well! There is a point where words fail.

Absolutely first-rate jazz. Highly, highly recommended.

If you find it, buy this album!

STEVE LACY TRIO – The Rent (2CD-1999) / Live at The Old Church, Portland

Label: Cavity Search – CSR 44

Format: 2 × CD, Album / Country: US / Released: 1999

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live on 30 November 1997, at The Old Church, Portland, Oregon

Cover painting: Pierre Buraglio ("À Philippe de Champagne" - 1996)

Photos: Gilles Laheurte

Art Direction – Christopher Cooper and John Eckenrode

Recording By – Eric Squires

Mastering By – Eric Squires, Jeff Batts and Danny Swofford

CD #1 - 1st Set

1-1/ Shuffle Boil (Thelonious Monk) . . . 7:22

1-2/ The Bath (Steve Lacy) . . . 8:25

1-3/ The Rent (SL) . . . 10:23

1-4/ Prayer (SL) . . . 10:05

1-5/ Blinks (SL) . . . 9:37

CD #2 - 2nd Set

2-1/ The Door (Steve Lacy) . . . 10:56

2-2/ Retreat (SL) . . . 10:02

2-3/ Gospel (SL) . . . 7:15

2-4/ Flakes (SL) . . . 8:05

2-5/ Bone (SL) . . . 11:19

2-6/ Bookioni [encore] (SL) . . . 3:22

Steve Lacy / soprano saxophone, voice

Jean-Jacques Avenel / bass

John Betsch / drums, percussion

The Rent is an absolutely remarkable recording and much credit goes to Avenel and Betsch for their truly inspired performances. Plenty of solo space, depth and wonderfully recorded, The Rent stands out in glowing fashion as one of Lacy’s finest and most satisfying recordings of recent years. Then again it is often difficult to keep pace with Lacy’s ongoing yet voluminous discography; however, this one should be deemed essential listening...

In a 1992 interview for Cadence, Steve Lacy explained: "To me, music is always about something or somebody, or from somebody or something. It's never in the blue, never abstract. You have to dig into the music to see what's happening, you have to question it. Sometimes I don't know what it's about or who it is about until the music comes out; after a while, I question it, and I see - "Ahh, that's who that is!" And so, all his compositions are just that: a portrait of / an homage to "somebody" or a reference to "something." Lacy's thoughts on this process are evident on his sheet music: at the end of each tune, he attaches a small picture with the name of the person to whom he offers the tribute. The finished sheet is in itself a work of art, combining graphics and collages.

This album with its title piece, THE RENT, is humbly dedicated to the memory of the French jazz critic Laurent Goddet, whose untimely death by suicide in the late 80's affected everyone in French music circles. He was one of the first people to generously help Lacy when he moved to Paris in 1970. After several years of disentchantment in Rome with enthusiastic but amateur Italian musicians, the music scene in Paris had seemed to Lacy a bit like the promised land. However, finding enough gigs was tough, and Lacy and his wife Irene Aebi were soon "in the dumps", scraping and scratching to survive. Goddet helped them out selflessly.

To all who knew Goddet, his suicide was a total surprise. To those who loved him, his death was like a brutal rip in a delicate and cherished piece of fabric. The tragedy was devastating to Lacy who was left with "une profonde déchirure au coeur," i.e. a rent in his heart. It also left Lacy with a deep indebtness to Goddet for the altruistic help he had received from him, which he suddenly realized he could possibly no longer return, except through his music. As a result, the tune THE RENT carries the scars of the violent rip of emotions, the indebtness owed a true friend ("the rent is a phenomenon that we're all forced to deal with - we have to pay the rent, you know") and it is also a play on his name, "The Rent" - Laurent. The piece is both bright (a lighhearted "A" part, sort of a Cha Cha Cha) and dark (a grinding "B" part, screaming the blues), as if to reflect the dichotomy between the apparent insouciance of Goddet's life and the scorching pain he was hiding in his soul.

The other tunes in this album are also tributes in their own special way: SHUFFLE BOIL, the current "standard" opening number to the trio's concerts, obviously expressing Thelonious Monk's everlasting mark on Lacy's Muse; THE BATH, to Dexter Gordon, a dark blues "inspired from a film called "Max" (Einer Moos), where Henri Miller allows his favorite bum to bathe and change in his Paris flat"; PRAYER, to Charlie Rouse, a kind of "soul" music with an angular melody, but in fact an Irish-American spiritual with Zen/Buddhist overtones; BLINKS, to trombonist Kid Ory, its principal lick taken from an old Dixieland phrase of the 20's; THE DOOR, to Joseph Haydn, who liked to employ knocking rhythms in some of his work; RETREAT, "a little Rhapsody for Bob Marley, based on a mode from the Far East in tick-tock time"  inspired by a quote from 18th Century painter Thomas Gainsborough; GOSPEL, "a shout and a blues, a stomp and a wail", to Stevie Wonder ; FLAKES, to American painter Mark Rothko; BONE, the oldest composition in the set (1969), to Lester Young, from the song cycle "The Way / Tao Suite", based on a Lao-Tzu poem; and BOOKIONI, the current encore to the trio's performances, inspired by Lacy's former drummer, Oliver Johnson.

They represent only a fraction of the group's vast repertoire - several pieces from Monk, all others from Lacy's own musical universe. They have been explored extensively since 1995, when the famous twenty year-old Steve Lacy Sextet was stripped down to the current Trio, and were explored further during the rather ambitious North American Tour of November 1997, when this recording was made: 25 cities in 30 days, flying back and forth from the West Coast to the East Coast, from North to South, a truly grueling schedule. This was one of the last concerts before flying "home" to Paris. Yet the musicians, and the music, show no sign of fatigue. Quite the contrary, it is as if the presence of Laurent Goddet was felt and had energized everyone present.

The album is blessed with the wonderful acoustics of the picturesque "Old Church" in Portland. It is also blessed with a very crisp engineering which brings out beautifully the natural sounds of Lacy's sharp and varied timbral inflections, Avenel's warm virtuoso solos and embroideries, and Betsch's subtle/attentive dosage of colorful drumming. It is further blessed with a very responsive and enthusiastic audience. Another special blessing is the release of the two sets in their unexpurgated form, as they happened, giving the CD listener the magical illusion of "being there," a great compensation to all who could not be in Portland that night. The two sets demonstrate the unerring sense of balance in Lacy's choice of tunes, deceptively simple elegant melodies, in which his improvisations remain fresh, always, even after 45 years of soprano playing.

One often says that time fosters deep alliances between minds, and this album effectively shows the ease with which the three musicians relate. There is an empathic equilibrium which makes their "communion" in the Old Church seem effortless and complete, all three musicians flying high and landing impeccably on their feet. No doubt that, had he been alive and present that night, Laurent Goddet himself would have been delighted, and would have simply said : "What great music! Listen!"

_By Gilles Laheurte (February 1999)

Buy this album!

STEVE LACY / ROSWELL RUDD / KENT CARTER / BEAVER HARRIS – Trickles (LP-1976)

Label: Black Saint – BSR 0008

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1976

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded on March 11 and 14, 1976 at Generation Sound Studios, New York City.

Engineer – Tony May

Painting [Cover Paintings] – Kenneth Noland

Photography By – Nina Melis

Producer – Giocomo Pelliciotti

Steve Lacy / soprano saxophone, composed

Roswell Rudd / trombone, chimes on B2

Kent Carter / bass

Beaver Harris / drums, percussion

... ''For me it was a chance to explore some great music, specifically that of Thelonious Monk. Steve was further down the road, having already released recordings of Monk's music. He even played in Monk's band. So the shared passion for this music became a special focus for us. There was not a week that went by that we didn't rehearse. Steve and I would play regardless of whether bass or drums would show up. This devotion, happening as it did in our early 20s, was to become a fulcrum into the future for us, a permanent musical, even emotional, bond.

The joy of the sound that we got stemming from Monk's high musical intelligence was enough for me. However Steve's vision included more; for him it was also about realizing the commercial potential of this sound. Thankfully there was an entrepreneurial side to him that would serve him abundantly in the years ahead - and many other performers, myself included, would also benefit from this. But here in NYC in the early '60s, that commercial breakthrough never quite happened. For instance, when Steve found a flea-ridden, dark basement beneath Harut's Restaurant in the West Village, I went home, got my hammer, nails and saw. We cleaned up the space and built a platform out of scrap lumber to play on. This was where we first played out in 1961. We passed the hat for six months before moving on to better venues. Finally it was our poet friend Paul Haines who recorded us on a borrowed tape machine in a coffee shop that was released on Emanem Records a few years later as School Days, with Henry Grimes (bass) and Denis Charles (drums). This went through several re-releases in different formats and it has become a favorite collector's item. When Steve pulled up stakes and went to Europe in 1963 he hit the ground running and eventually attracted American musicians residing in Europe as well as European musicians who were drawn into the Monk mystique and Steve's passion for the music. From this point on he would develop the shank of a career spanning the next 40 years. In fact, all and more of the opportunities denied to him in NYC in the early '60s, he would realize in Europe and other parts of the planet, including NYC and America. His musical spirit would produce many remarkable solo performances as well as unique ensembles including his wife, violinist/vocalist Irene Aebi. There is a formidable body of original music that came out of all this.

Thus during the years 1964-2004 I followed his career and although we were living and pursuing whatever we could on two different continents, there were occasional opportunities to touch base or do things together here or in Europe. Over there in 1965 he told me “I'm free now. I'm playing free,” and he was now writing and recording his own material for the first time. In 1976 a little known album called Blown Bone was recorded in NYC, featuring all my compositions. And Trickles (Soul Note) featured music by Steve with Beaver Harris (drums) and Kent Carter (bass). This was actually the first time I played Steve's music. It had a similar deliberate quality to it reminiscent of Monk''...

_ ROSWELL RUDD

If you find it, buy this album!

CECIL TAYLOR QUARTET and GIGI GRYCE-DONALD BYRD JAZZ LABORATORY – At Newport (LP-1957)

On The Trail Of Old Albums

Label: Verve Records – MG V-8238

Format: Vinyl, LP; Country: US - Released: 1957

Style: Free Jazz, Post Bop

Recorded live at Newport Jazz Festival on July 6, 1957 (tracks A1 to A3) and July 5, 1957 (tracks B1 to B3).

Liner Note By – Bill Simon
Photographer By – Burt Goldblatt

Jazz on a Summer’s day, the audience is cool,  Newport Rhode Island sounds a great place to have been, Freebody Park.

Cecil Taylor Quartet is almost easy-listening, with the rhythm section holding down the base, Steve Lacy’s straight horn carrying melody, while Taylor begins to disassemble the piano convention. At times, it sounds like Taylor is playing a different number to the rest of the band. Perhaps that’s the thing.

The short-lived Gigi Gryce Jazz Laboratory quintet was formed to extend and seek out new directions for bebop. It’s all in the American pronunciation:  I get Ceecil Taylor, now I learn it’s G.G. Gryce, not Gigi.  This was apparently the only live recording of the Jazz Laboratory.

Cecil Taylor Quartet:

CECIL TAYLOR (piano); STEVE LACY (soprano saxophone); BUELL NEIDLINGER (bass); DENIS CHARLES (drums)

A1 - Johnny Come Lately . . . 7:13

A2 - Nona's Blues . . . 7:40

A3 - Tune 2 . . . 10:22

Gigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory Quintet:

GIGI GRYCE (alto saxophone); DONALD BYRD (trumpet); HANK JONES (piano); WENDELL MARSHALL (bass); OSIE JOHNSON (drums)

B1 - Splittin' (Ray's Way) . . . 8:32

B2 - Batland . . . 7:21

B3 - Love For Sale . . . 7:34

The young pianist Cecil Taylor and saxophonist Gigi Gryce

At first combining a set by Cecil Taylor with another by the Gigi Gryce-Donald Byrd Jazz Laboratory seems like an odd pairing, but it ends up working rather well. These live recordings, which come from the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival, have stood the test of time rather well. 

It is a fascinating contrast between an original angle on the then popular hard-bop style (Byrd/Gryce) and the revolutionary Taylor's extraordinary evolution beyond it. Steve Lacy plays soprano saxophone throughout Taylor's set, and he foreshadows John Coltrane's sound on the same instrument a few years later. Lacy's unlubricated, slightly sour tone and eventually curiously hopping swing develop the spontaneous possibilities of Billy Strayhorn's Johnny Come Lately against Taylor's relentlessly angular piano figures. The original Nona's Blues is a mid-tempo, nearly-swinging tune for the leader's pounding chords and fragmentary melodic clusters alongside Lacy's loose and exuberant solo. Taylor's evolution explicitly deployed a lot more European contemporary classical elements later, but his jazzy momentum and affection for Thelonious Monk are exhilaratingly up-front here.

The Gryce/Byrd band, though closer to the usual jazz grooves of the day, is enhanced by Gryce's distinctive writing. Pianist Hank Jones plays with gleaming urbanity, the young Donald Byrd with a crackling boppish bounce, though Gryce's Parker-influenced alto lines are a little thin. But it is the mix of styles here, pointing up Cecil Taylor's astonishing independence, that makes the set so attractive.

_ By JOHN FORDHAM, The Guardian

If you find it, buy this album!

STEVE LACY SEVEN – Prospectus (2LP-1983)

Label: Hat Hut Records – ART 2001

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP, Album; Country: Switzerland – Released: 1983

Style: Free Jazz, Contemporary Jazz

Recorded on 1st (A1, B, C, D2) & 2nd (A2, A3, D1) November 1983 at IRCAM Espace De Projection, Paris.

Credit for Percussion on Side C actually says 'Cyrille Few and his friend'.

Artwork and Complete Design by ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO

(Original hat Hut cover included also)

Producer – Pia & Werner X. Uehlinger

Recorded By – Peter Pfister

Steve Lacy – soprano saxophone, composed

Steve Potts – alto saxophone, soprano saxophone

Irene Aebi – cello, violin, voice

Bobby Few – piano

George Lewis – trombone

Jean-Jacques Avenel – bass

Oliver Johnson – drums, percussion

Sherry Margolin (tracks: C, D2) – percussion

Early 80's Larger Steve Lacy group, featuring longtime cohorts Jean-Jaques Avenel on bass and Bobby Few on piano, along with George Lewis, Steve Potts, Irene Aebi and Oliver Johnson. As always, Lacy's brilliant melodicism and remarkable songcraft provide a platform for a colletive of impressive soloists and deft group interplay.

This session from 1983 is the original rare double LP (Hat Hut Rec.-ART2001) and is called the "Prospectus."

The Steve Lacy Sextet sessions with the addition of George Lewis on trombone are truly startling for the reason that they show this band at the absolute peak of its creative and intuitive power. Recorded as a portrait of the "state of things" within the band at the time, it is really no more than that -- and perhaps that's why it looks so large. Lacy's compositional style had been evolving for some time toward larger groups and, by the time the sextet had hit its stride, he was offering his musicians works to play that were originally written for much larger ensembles. On "Stamps" and "Wickets," one hears the arrangement style of Charles Mingus in the foreground; the long, asymmetrical, repetitive foreground lines are shadowed by the rhythm section playing a deep blues that echoes the piano playing of Bobby Timmons. When the horns join in the blues reverie, it's time for pianist Bobby Few to step out and let Lewis hold down the fort. It's blues, blues, and all blues -- though they certainly are a different shade of blues. Next up is the crazy "Whammies," which Lacy claims is based on lines from Fats Navarro. And it is crazy and even unbearable, with all that intensity happening at one time and all those conflicting harmonies, adding up to one big musical mess! But as the album's shining diamonds -- "The Dumps" and "Clichés" -- come into view, it's easy to hear the near telepathic communication among this band's members. Lacy doesn't even have to lead; he only needs to name the tune. At this time in his career, Few was a pianist with no peers; coming from equal parts bop and vanguard jazz, he is the ballast for the group, and all roads lead from him to Lacy and from Lacy into the stratosphere. Lacy and Lewis have a tremendous rapport, particularly on "The Dumps," where they counter and then play each other's solos! As the record closes with the rollicking abstraction that is "Clichés," listeners can feel the closeness of this "chamber" ensemble, even with Lewis in the mix. Both the percussive and rounded edges of the piece offer aspects of listening in a mode seldom heard on jazz records anymore. This record is a bouquet of essences, amplifications, dissonances, and complex melodic invention. It was one of the Steve Lacy Sextet's closest steps to perfection. Highly recommended.

_ Review By THOM JUREK 

If you find it, buy this album!