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Steve Lacy Quintet: Last Tour
by John Eyles
As its title says, this album dates from Steve Lacy's last tour, which ran from the summer of 2003 in NYC through to March 2004 in Boston, (where Lacy was living at the time, as he was teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music). The eight tracks on this album were recorded in Boston's ICA on March 12. Lacy was joined on the tour by musicians he knew well, his wife Irène Aebi on vocals, Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass, ...
read moreSteve Lacy: Cycles (1976 – 1980)
by John Eyles
The autumn 2014 releases from Emanem brought a double dose of good news for admirers of the late, great soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy. Firstly, the label's excellent 2011 reissue of the classic School Days album is available again, now that wrangles over some of its content have been amicably resolved. Secondly, and remarkably, this twenty-track double CD set, Cycles contains fifteen previously unissued tracks of solo Lacy in peak form, recorded between 1976 and 1980--a total of some 111 minutes ...
read moreSteve Lacy: Avignon and After Volume 2
by John Eyles
In 2012, Emanem released Avignon and After Volume 1 which consisted of re-released and previously unreleased tracks from the late great soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's first solo concerts, at Avignon in 1972, plus previously unreleased tracks recorded live in Berlin in 1974. It was an excellent and valuable addition to the Lacy discography. Teasingly, its sleeve notes hinted that there was still enough unreleased Lacy material for another volume. Now, to confirm that, here is that second volume as promised. ...
read moreSteve Lacy: Avignon and After - 1
by John Eyles
Emanem and Steve Lacy have been entwined since the label was born with the release of the saxophonist's LP Solo (1974). The first eight tracks of this CD hold the contents of that album, recorded at two August, 1972 concerts in Avignon--significantly, Lacy's very first solo concerts. Ever since, the label has championed the music of Lacy with several landmark releases. This CD and its companion, The Sun (2012), are prime examples. Together, this pair of albums replaces the 1995 ...
read moreSteve Lacy Five: Blinks...Zurich Live 1983
by Glenn Astarita
Blinks...Zurich Live 1983 is one of those ageless albums that accentuates the unparalleled synchronicity of iconic soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy's Five, captured live at a 1983 concert in Zurich, Switzerland. Packed with the leader's linear and concise theme constructions, the band reconfigures and rewinds many of the primary melodies amid moments of energized minimalism and lyrical eloquence. Over the course of time, it is perhaps more apparent these days that Lacy and saxophonist Steve Potts were near perfect foils--indeed, a ...
read moreSteve Lacy Five: Blinks...Zurich Live 1983
by Raul d'Gama Rose
Few musicians bestrode the world of the avant-garde like the proverbial Colossus, but Steve Lacy did. He played with the heart of a giant and a soul in which a flame was lit in the '50s, when he began his career playing Dixieland music. By the time he made his presence felt in the avant-garde playing the straight horn, he was in the middle of a forest fire of his own making. So hot was the music he played both ...
read moreSteve Lacy: School Days
by Raul d'Gama Rose
As the title suggests, School Days is both ironic--because the ingenuity of these musicians might have actually been the best schooled at the time of the recording--and iconic, as well. The reason? Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd formed one of the great, seminal repertory ensembles of all time, playing the music of Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. Moreover, this reissue includes two tracks of Monk's group that included Steve Lacy. While the recordings with Monk have been issued previously, on ...
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