Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy (1934 to 2004) was an American soprano saxophonist and composer who brought a neglected instrument into modern jazz in the mid 1950s and then devoted his whole life to it. He began in Dixieland, played in Cecil Taylor's first groups, and from the late 1950s built much of his repertoire on Thelonious Monk, whose tunes he studied more closely than anyone. Based in Rome in the late 1960s and in Paris from 1970 to 2002, he wrote hundreds of pieces, many of them settings of poets sung by Irene Aebi, and led a sextet with Steve Potts for decades.
Maledetti (Maudits) - Color LP
Temporary nicer price ** 500 copies, numbered edition. Clear Splatter Vinyl ** 1976 was a year of flux and change. For the recording of the fifth Area album, the core membership of Stratos, Fariselli, Tofani and Tavolazzi were present, but drummer Capiozzo only appears on about half of the album, replaced on various tracks by either Walter Calloni or Paul Lytton. Steve Lacy augments the band, as do several other studio musicians (including a string quartet). Perhaps it was the contributions of t…
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Prayer
I think it's important and proper to play Steve Lacy's music today and that we have to take the risk. Keeping his example alive means to me every time to question the results achieved. My relationship with his music is not occasional. Steve is present in three tracks of my first album "trochus". Later I played his music alone and in various groups. I would like to remember at least the Fish Horn Quartet, with Fabio Martini, Jean Jaques Avenel and John Betsch, the sextet 5or6 Bones with Sebi Tram…
Chirps
Limited edition of 500 copies.* What could possibly happen when two ultimate masters of soprano saxophone square off for their only recording of duets? Chirps is the only place to find out. Steve Lacy – the one who planted the flag for soprano saxophone in the ground of modern jazz, who established its iconic status, who devoted himself to the axe with monkish devotion, who brought shakuhachi breath and stairstep melody into its upper-register antics. Evan Parker – arguably the one who pushed th…
Straws (LP)
At long last, after remaining out of print for decades, the Milan based imprint, Dialogo, dives into the legendary catalog of Cramps, bringing forth the first ever vinyl reissue of Steve Lacy’s LP, "Straws", issued as the sixth instalment of the label’s DIVerso series in 1977. Truly singular in the legendary American saxophonist’s discography - featuring stunning solo excursions and dialogs with himself - it remains one of the great documents of 1970s improvisation, and is as engrossing, creativ…
Event '76
Wonderfully varied Free Improv, with a nice balance of different elements to keep it interesting (and not overly self-indulgent). One of those elements is Demetrio Stratos' voice, which is put to good use as a wild instrument (complete with duck quacking). It's rare for a band, that features Steve Lacy and Paul Lytton, to pull off free improv so completely convincingly when it is not within their normal milieu, but this performance is a testament to their musicianship and their listening skills.…
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Steve Lacy (Unfinished)
**478 page! Texts in English and French ** A polyphonic evocation of the American saxophonist through the testimonies of some forty international musicians. And you, how do you hear him? As we approach the twentieth anniversary of Steve Lacy' death (or the ninetieth anniversary of his birth), Guillaume Tarche asked the question, in English, in French, in Italian, to Steve Adams, Irene Aebi, Guillaume Belhomme, Etienne Brunet, Frank Carlberg, Kent Carter, Andrea Centazzo, Allan Chase, Alvin Curra…
Live In Montreal
Steve Lacy on soprano saxophone and percussionist John Heward in a single long improvisation recorded live in Montreal on 20 June 2003, one of Lacy's last recordings, ending with a tribute to Oliver Johnson.
The Forest and the Zoo
"In 1966, the late Steve Lacy visited the new ESP-DISK office at 156 Fifth Avenue with a master tape of his concert in Buenos Aires with his quartet... He offered to sell the master for what I thought was an exorbitant price. I bought it. ... In 1992, the master tape was brought to engineer Ken Robertson at the Sony Studio, who observed that it had been recorded out of phase, and he corrected the phasing." - Bernard Stollman
"Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's impressive career was filled with man…
Evidence
Soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy continued his early exploration of Thelonious Monk’s compositions on this 1961’s Evidence Lacy worked extensively with Monk, absorbing the pianist’s intricate music and adding his individualist soprano saxophone mark to it. On this date, he employs the equally impressive Don Cherry on trumpet, who was playing with the Ornette Coleman quartet at the time, drummer Billy Higgins, who played with both Coleman and Monk, and bassist Carl Brown. Cherry proved capable of p…
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New York Total Music Company 1968 - SWR Broadcast
Restocked, very last copies ** Private edition, limited to 107 hand-numbered copies ** Broadcast from SWR, recorded at 10th Deutsches Jazzfestival Frankfurt, Germany, on March 24, 1968. This is is Cherry at his absolute best, encountering him with a stellar line up comprised of Don Cherry (tpt, cnt, bamboo fl); Steve Lacy (ss); Karl Berger (vb, p); Kent Carter (b); Jacques Thollot (d). This live set captures a pitch perfect image of his roving, restless and ambitious creative mind – an artist p…
Flaps
**500 copies** Steve Lacy had plenty of fantastic moments on the European scene of the 70s – but this unique album may well stand as one of his best! The set's very different than any of Steve's recordings with his own group – partly because the core energy here comes from trumpeter Franz Koglmann – who sets things up in a really unusual way, by often embracing rhythm – but also setting it free in all these other erratic patterns too – which proves to be a perfect foil for Steve's soprano sax, a…
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Threads
** Killer. Released in 1977 on Horo Records, first time available again after 40 years** New York-born alto saxophonist Steve Lacy became associated with the avant-garde jazz movement from the mid-1950s, playing on free jazz pianist Cecil Taylor’s influential debut LP and early work by the Canadian pianist Gil Evans, before serving a long tenure with the idiosyncratic improv pianist Theolonius Monk, whose work he would continue to reference throughout his career. Visiting Europe from the md-1960…
Live at Yubin Chokin Kaikan Hall, Tokyo,14.05.1986
For this historical concert held at the Yubin Chokin Hall, in Tokyo on May 14, 1986, the legendary Japanese drummer Masahiko Togashi brought together an amazing line-up with such modern jazz luminaries as Steve Lacy (soprano sax), Don Cherry (pocket trumpet) and Dave Holland (bass). This particular album consists of four previously unpublished tracks (on vinyl), including some highly regarded Lacy's compositions such as The Crus and Quakes, and Don Cherry's African flavored anthem called Mopti. …
Situations
My relationship with Steve Lacy’s music is not occasional. It was for me the “door”. Since 2009, titled So Long!, I have presented several times a program with his compositions on bass clarinet. In the summer of 2013, on the mountains, I recorded the solo using the Bb clarinet, finding a bare, naked and raw dimension that marks an important point in my personal process with the music of Steve. “I try to be empty and to see what sounds” (Tom Raworth) Giancarlo nino LocatelliLacy’s tunes are devis…
The Complete Remastered Recordings. Solos Duos Trios
In the Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note box set series, Steve Lacy's Solos, Duos, Trios volume is a standout. These recordings are not arranged chronologically, but according to the number of personnel involved on their individual dates. The set commences with 1985's Only Monk and is followed by More Monk from 1989. These are both brilliant recitals by the man who was one of the Thelonious Monk's greatest interpreters. The programs are a balance of canonical and lesser-k…
Reflections: Steve Lacy Plays Thelonious Monk
Jeanne Dielman presents a reissue of Steve Lacy's Reflections, originally released on New Jazz in 1959. The legendary reeds-man Steve Lacy takes on the brilliant compositions of Thelonious Monk. Reflections is a glorious quartet session with Lacy on soprano sax, accompanied by the great Mal Waldron on piano, as worthy a pianist to take on the tunes of Monk as one could imagine, along with Buell Neidlinger on bass, and the amazing Elvin Jones on the trap kit. Though it's only Lacy's second record…
Stamps
Corbett Vs. Dempsey present a reissue of Steve Lacy's Stamps, originally released in 1979 as a double-LP on Hat Hut. Stamps was Steve Lacy's first for the legendary Swiss label, and it remains one of the strongest statements of what he termed the "scratchy seventies". With the classic lineup of Lacy's soprano saxophone, Steve Potts on soprano and alto sax, Irene Aebi on cello (and singing on one track), Kent Carter on bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums, the recording catches the band live, perfor…
Distant Voices
Aguirre Records present a reissue of Distant Voices, Steve Lacy's rare Japanese collaboration album, originally released in 1976. Renowned for remarkable solo concerts that confirmed his mastery of the soprano horn and that carried its instrumental language into previously unexplored regions, Lacy also loved to collaborate with musicians who could inspire him to stretch the boundaries of his own artistry. During the summer of 1975 Lacy toured Japan, and on June 24th he entered a Nippon Columbia …
Il Bestiario
** Temporary super offer, very last copies ** There was never anyone like Maria Monti – and this album is a true testament to her genius! Il Bestiario might be best understood next to albums by artists like Brigitte Fontaine, Scott Walker, and Catherine Ribeiro, all of whom began their careers within the saccharine confines of popular music, before embarking on some of the most revolutionary recordings of the era. It enlisted the radical poet Aldo Braibanti (a man defined “the lone true Italian…
Free for a Minute (1966-72) 2CD
An incredible package – one that brings together two very important albums from reedman Steve Lacy – plus unreleased material from the same time too! First up is the record Disposability – presented here with the first-ever correction to the cymbal sound – a key session in the development of Steve Lacy – and a great one too! The album was one of Lacy's first European recordings – caught in the studio in Rome in 1965, with a very free-styled trio that includes Alberto Romano on drums and Kent Car…
Tips
2015 release. A reissue of Steve Lacy and Steve Potts's Tips, originally released on Hat Hut Records in 1981. Soprano saxophonist Lacy wrote the suite of tunes for Tips to feature the aphorisms of painter Georges Braque, as sung by Irene Aebi. Together with his right-hand-man, alto saxophonist Potts, he and Aebi recorded these 14 anthemic tracks in Paris in 1979, and the young hat Hut Records label issued them on a now-rare LP. The music allowed Lacy to extend and deepen his longstanding interes…
New Jazz Festival Balver Höhle (New Jazz 1974 & 1975)
Recorded live at the cave at Balve, West Germany, July 27/28, 1974 and May 31/June 1, 1975. Box Set with 11 CDs featuring the best of the New Jazz Scene from Europe and the USA in 1974/75. 32-page booklet with concert pictures, posters, flyers and newspaper clippings (in German and English). Includes complete performances and improvisations by Peter Brötzmann, Jasper van’t Hof, John Surman (with the legendary Trio Surman-Osborne-Skidmore) Misha Mengelberg, Han Bennink and many more!
RECORDED li…
Eternal Duo
One of the most compelling albums Steve Lacy recorded during the 80s – a spare set of duets with Japanese percussionist Masahiko Togashi, who really helps shape Steve's style on the record! Togashi approaches his instruments with a very introspective, almost tentative style – hardly the bold rhythms of other drummers, and instead this subtle stepping forward that almost feels, at times, as if Masahiko is discovering his instruments for the first time – and figuring out the sounds in a careful wa…
Last Tour
Steve Lacy (soprano saxophone), Irene Aebi (voice), George Lewis (trombone), Jean-Jacques Avenel (double bass) and John Betsch (drums). After a long tour of North America, this quintet concluded by playing two concerts in Boston (March 2004) - most of the first one being included here. The material is five of the Beat poems featuring Irene Aebi, plus three instrumentals, including one (Baghdad) that has not been on record before as it had only just been written. After a lot of working together, …
Morning Joy ...Paris Live
"Reissue as part of the 40th anniversary of Hat Hut Records. What we have here is a one-nighter by the Steve Lacy Quartet at Paris' Sunset Club...The four members of the quartet get a chance to stretch out and you can feel the club energy clearly in the recording - it's a good night at the Sunset...in this era of homogenization - of jazz players who are filled with technique but have gotten their sound from textbooks - there is not enough attention that can be focused on an uncompromising jazz i…
The Complete Remastered Recordings on Black Saint & Soul Note 10
A wonderful run of music from the great Steve Lacy – all of the larger group recordings done for the Black Saint/Soul Note label – nearly 20 years of really inventive albums! Lacy's solo and smaller group material were already collected in another excellent box in this series – but this collection shows Steve stepping out in a mode that's not nearly as well-represented on other labels – some of his more intense, complicated efforts – done with both familiar associates, and some surprising choice…
Cycles (1976-80)
Solo saxophone performances of three of Lacy's rarest cycles. The eight-part SHOTS (Moms / Pops / The Kiss / Tots / The Ladder / Fruits / Coots / The Wire) comes mostly from a 1977 Roman concert, with a couple of missing pieces taken from other contemporaneous performances. The only other complete (duo) release of this material was on a long deleted (Musica) LP. The rest of this 2-CD set comes from a 1980 solo recording session and concert in the lively acoustics of an old church in Porrentruy i…
Avignon and after - Volume 1
The 1972 Avignon concerts were Steve Lacy’s very first solo concerts, although he did make an excellent overdubbed solo record for Saravah the year before. (For ‘solo’ read ‘alone’ or ‘unaccompanied’ rather than the usual music business meaning of ‘very accompanied’.) Thanks to an introduction by John Stevens, I first met Lacy when he visited London in 1973. He brought with him some of the Avignon tapes in order to try and interest a record producer to issue this music. However, record producers…
The Sun
It is a disturbing fact that most of the major disputes throughout history have been settled by physical fighting involving killing. Have we really risen much above the rest of the animal world? On the contrary, many animals do not kill members of their own species even though they may fight. It used to be that battles were fought in a remote location between two armies that comprised a small percentage of the population. But let us not forget that military fighters, whether voluntary, conscript…
School days
“In 1962 I went to New York for the first time. My father had worked for Boac for so long that the flights were free - I had only to pay 7/6 (=37½p) airport tax. I stayed in NY for two weeks, only leaving Manhattan to take the standard tourist boat trip around the island. A lady on the plane had taken an interest in my plans, and when I told her that I didn't think there would be time to experience more than what Manhattan had to offer, she implored me, 'Please don't judge America by what you se…
The Rest
The first and only recorded meeting between two absolute giants of the soprano saxophone - Steve Lacy and Joe McPhee - finally sees the light of day after 36 years! On June 9, 1977, Lacy and McPhee shared a double bill in Basel, Switzerland. Lacy invited McPhee to join him for a duet to close his set, and McPhee brought out his own soprano saxophone for what would become a historic encounter. The main part of Lacy's performance was issued on the classic Clinkers LP back in the day, but this fina…
Yuji Takahashi / Steve Lacy / Masahiko Togashi
'Egg Farm' is a private concert space in an egg farm (really!) in north of Tokyo. Originally, the space was established in early 80's and named 'Space Who'. Owner of the egg farm organized many live show of free improvisation at the space (Takayanagi, Evan Parker, Richard Titelbaum, Arthur Doyle and more. especially she loves Kosugi and Steve Lacy).
Hooky
Virtually the whole of the 1976 Montreal solo concert -- one of his best -- including the complete Tao cycle and several other pieces, one of which ('Hooky') is not on any other record. Reissue of half of Quark LP 9998 with over 50 minutes of previously unissued material from the same concert.
Saxophone special +
Music for four saxophones (Steve Lacy, Evan Parker, Steve Potts & Trevor Watts) with guitar (Derek Bailey) & synthesizer (Michel Waisvisz). Plus highlights from an earlier London concert by Lacy, Potts, Bailey, Kent Carter & John Stevens. Improvisations on original compositions. Reissue of Emanem 3310 (plus an extra piece from the same concert) and the better half of Emanem 304.
Weal & woe
If you have only heard the more recent, understated recordings of this giant of the soprano saxophone, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Just listen to this seminal album and you should understand right away why Lacy is such a formidable force. The initial eight tracks are a reissue of the first LP issued by Emanem, which was Lacy's first solo recording. Each is a gem: radical, accessible, and fascinatingly offbeat. One uses a random radio selection as a backdrop, another mimics duck wa…