Jazz Articles about Byard Lancaster

About Byard Lancaster

Album Review

Henry Grimes & Marzette Watts: The Call

Read "The Call" reviewed by Glenn Astarita

by Glenn Astarita
October 5, 2026

Long before Henry Grimes became known as jazz's great Lazarus story, he was simply one of the most technically astonishing bassists working in New York City's' free jazz underground. Recorded on December 28, 1965, and issued by ESP-Disk in 1966, The Call stands as his debut as a leader, and it remains a document of quiet audacity rather than the raw energy so often associated with the label's catalog. Teaming with clarinetist Perry Robinson and drummer Tom Price, Grimes assembled ...

Album Review

Bill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited

Read "With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited" reviewed by Giuseppe Segala

by Giuseppe Segala
June 10, 2024

È benvenuta questa pubblicazione nel catalogo ezz-thetics Revisited, collana che prosegue con risolutezza nella riproposta di lavori importanti, spesso fondamentali del jazz contemporaneo, concentrando in particolare la propria attenzione sugli anni Sessanta e abbinando in unico CD registrazioni storiche, opportunamente restaurate e corredate di inedite, meticolose note di copertina. Protagonista di questa uscita è Bill Dixon, figura singolare, di notevolissimo valore, la cui presenza discografica è stata purtroppo rara e saltuaria, spesso affidata alla diligente attenzione di ...

Album Review

Bill Dixon: With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited

Read "With Archie Shepp, 7-Tette & Orchestra Revisited" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
September 17, 2023

If Bill Dixon is today, in 2023, less widely remembered than other New Thing warriors such as Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor and Albert Ayler, it is partly because he had little desire for celebrity, devoting much of his energy to organizing on behalf of his fellow musicians and composers, and teaching. In 1964, midway through making the 1962-1967 recordings collected on this album, Dixon organized the historic October Revolution in Jazz at the Cellar Café in Manhattan, which ...

Radio & Podcasts

Stratusphunk: From the Airliner Lounge to Outer Space

by David Brown
August 9, 2022

This week, birthday tributes to Abby Lincoln and Byard Lancaster, solo piano works from Lucian Ban, Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou and Dr. Billy Taylor, Ellington arranges Monk, early works from George Russell and a swingin' Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Quartet live at the Airliner Lounge, and more! Playlist Thelonious Monk “Esistrophy (Theme)" from Live at the It Club-Complete (Columbia) 00:30 Abbey Lincoln “Afro-Blue" from Abbey is Blue (Craft Recordings ) 02:00 Greg Ward “The Contender" from Stomping off from Greenwood (Greenleaf ...

Radio & Podcasts

A Few Of My Favorite 2022 Jazz Things (So Far) - Part 2

by Ludovico Granvassu
July 23, 2022

Here are some of the tunes that we have loved the most during these first six months of the year. Surely there are tens more of equal value, but this is not a scientific exercise... rather, since jazz is all about living in the moment, we made our selections based on the strong, and lasting, impression these tunes elicited when we first heard them. Happy listening! Playlist Ben Allison “Mondo Jazz Theme (feat. Ted Nash & ...

1,010

Profile

Byard Lancaster: From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine

by Clifford Allen
August 25, 2012

[ Editor's Note: This 2005 article was reprinted in memory of Byard Lancaster who died on August 23, 2012. ] “From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine" is reedman Byard Lancaster's personal aesthetic mantra, something that recalls the theme of the Charles Moffett tune “Avant-garde Got Soul Too." Free jazz and creative improvisation historically have not often been viewed as the music of the people, but the idea behind the term 'avant-garde' is ...

721

Album Review

Byard Lancaster: Sounds of Liberation: New Horizons

Read "Sounds of Liberation: New Horizons" reviewed by Clifford Allen

by Clifford Allen
March 11, 2010

In the years following saxophonist John Coltrane's death and the related dearth of opportunities to perform and record the New Music stateside, a significant body of musicians relocated to Europe, to ply their art in a more receptive atmosphere. Reedman Byard Lancaster was one of the second wave of American free jazz musicians to relocate to Paris in the late 1960s, recording and gigging as part of drummer Sunny Murray's Acoustical Swing Unit and leading his own ensembles with musicians ...