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Artist Profiles
Steve Lacy and Japan
Gilles Laheurte
A humanist of many talents, some of his friends consider him as a contemporary Renaissance man...“ All the LPS / CDs produced 'over there' indicate without a doubt what a profound source of inspiration Japan was to him. ”
Pretty much like "Rosebud," Orson Welles' famous mysterious enigma in Citizen Kane, there was "something" about Japan in Steve Lacy's life, something that no one will ever fully understand. Call it karmic ties, call it subconscious bond, call it deep inner connection, there was "something" there, definitely. Ever since his first tour in 1975 (invited by Aquirax Aida, critic, producer, poet, fan, that Lacy considered as "The Diaghilev of Jazz"), Steve always talked about Japan with a certain inner glow and respect that revealed an undecipherable mystical personal link. What that link really was will most probably - as it should - always remain a mystery.
Mystery about the man, and the music itself... So much of it was created during Lacy's twelve Japan tours, the details of which - venues, musicians, artists — are still being researched by a dedicated Japanese librarian. As could be expected, some of these details are rather difficult to obtain and confirm after so many years. And the concrete musical output of these 12 tours still retains an aura of mystery, as Japanese LPs never reached many outside of Japan, the music remaining largely unknown outside serious Lacy fans circles. The first tour of June 1975 produced some of the most daring and rarest LPs in Lacy's discography ( Stalks, Solo at Mandara, Torments, The Wire, Distant Voices ); the last one in October 2000 is fortunately documented by the much praised solo performance Ten of Dukes + Six originals (a limited Edition of 1000 copies), still available in selected NYC and Tokyo music stores and through Steve Lacy's website, www.SenatorsRecords.com .
All the LPs / CDs produced "over there" indicate without a doubt what a profound source of inspiration Japan (= Japanese life, Japanese culture, Japanese landscapes, Japanese art, Japanese musicians, and even Japanese food) was to him. Indeed, a brief review of each tour - bringing out names such as Kent Carter, Mal Waldron, Don Cherry, Dave Holland, his celebrated Sextet (with Oliver Johnson, Irene Aebi and Steve Potts), his core Trio (with JJ/JB), Togashi and many other outstanding Japanese musicians, or simply playing alone - shows that some of his most astonishing recorded music (if regrettably not widely distributed) was created THERE. We all know that the music magazine "The Wire" was named after his composition / album of the same name. On a personal level, every time I had the opportunity to be alone with him - in Strasbourg, New York or Fukaya — he more than often suggested: "How about sushi?" Interestingly, the Austrian monthly "Jazzzeit" published in June 2003 an article about Steve entitled "der Sushimeister in der Mönchskutte" (the Sushi Master in the Monk's Cloak)... Rather revealing...
What was to be his 13th Japan tour - Tokyo, Nagoya, Saitama, Nagano and back to Tokyo, from 10 to 24 June — was abruptly stopped on Friday 04 June in Boston. And with it, the Steve Lacy Trio 2004 Japan Tour (with Jean-Jacques Avenel and John Betsch) will sadly remain just a dream, another unrealized project. Another unresolved mystery of what could have been.
Four years ago, during the week-long Egg Farm Festival with Masahiko Satoh, Haruna Miyake, Masahiko Togashi and Yuji Takahashi (review of all concerts are available on Steve's website under the section: memorable concerts) I was fortunate to have many informal private conversations with Steve. We talked a lot about Japan; About Buddhism; About the soprano saxophone; About art; About silence; About life. Humble, quite vulnerable, with an unusual outlook on life, he was a gentleman opening his heart and soul to me, either over Japanese breakfast, or over Japanese lunch or dinner, or over a drink, or during casual leisurely walks in the streets of Fukaya. And I found myself to be in a kind of total communion with him. Our conversations confirmed to me there are never any coincidences in life: we were meant to meet someday. We were both "expats," on each other's life path.
When he gave me his last copy of Hooky, with the dedication: "To Gilles, the greatest hooky player that I know" in acknowledgement of my cutting work in NY to attend the Egg Farm Festival, he told me there was always a reason for everything... And he was right, the reason for being there with him turned out to be the production of the Senators CD, as well as a better understanding of who Steven Norman Lackritz — the human being — was deep inside...
Last year, in April 2003, shortly before the Muscle Shoals gig in NYC with Douglas Dunn and Dancers, he sent me a postcard with these words: "It looks like the Egg Farm once more: flying 8 June to Japan until 18. Some gigs with Kosugi, Satoh, Trio JJ/JB in Tokyo 16 June Pit-Inn, etc... Why not come?" I told him I was ready to join and play hooky again. Unfortunately the 2003 tour was eventually cancelled for various reasons, but in the process his postcard revealed to me how eager he was to get back THERE again...
