Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Steve Lacy: Snips: Live at Environ

419

Steve Lacy: Snips: Live at Environ

By

View read count
Steve Lacy: Snips: Live at Environ
1976. Lacy, long in exile, appeared in a loft in New York. People sat on couches or on the floor to hear him play solo. The music would have been gone in the air were it not for a young man named Jim Eigo. The recording is a bit dodgy here and there - was the tape recorder in his coat? - but the music comes through with remarkable clarity and force.

Here was Lacy exploring the full possibilities of solo saxophone music, from the sheer beauty of the opening "Hooky" and the expansive spirituality of two suites, "The 4 Edges" and the famous and oft-recorded "Tao," to the exhilarating noise effects of what's styled here as "The New York Duck" (cf. "Swiss Duck" on hatART's The Way ) and the bravura resignation of "Revolutionary Suicide."

So you get Lacy in daring, dashing form, chanting "Don't go to school!" for "Hooky" and a Buddhist mantra for "The 4 Edges." He shows his mastery of the horn - his conquest of the horn - in high-register passages throughout (see especially "Coastline (Water)," the third part of "The 4 Edges"). He displays a tenderness and lyricism that are utterly original - they don't make even the slightest gesture to standard balladry or to any other standard "melodic" motifs. (See, for example, "Pearl Street.") He experiments with form, as on "Deadline (Earth)," the fourth of "The 4 Edges," a piece which consists of a motif that's repeated faster and faster until it launches the performer into open space.

The solo soprano saxophone, when played by Steve Lacy, is a musical universe unto itself. The places Lacy goes on these two discs would fill a travelogue. And every inch of the ride is magnificent, involving music.

Track Listing

Disc 1: Hooky / The New York Duck / The 4 Edges / Snips Disc 2: Pearl Street / Tao / Revolutionary Suicide

Personnel

Steve Lacy
saxophone, soprano

Steve Lacy, soprano saxophone

Album information

Title: Snips: Live at Environ | Year Released: 2001 | Record Label: Jazz Magnet Records

Tags

Comments


PREVIOUS / NEXT




Support All About Jazz

Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Today Yesterday
Anton Mikhailov
Waking Dream
Randy Napoleon
Hold On
Mark Winkler
The Hat with the Grin and the Chuckle
Ben Thomas Tango Project

Popular

Old Home/New Home
The Brian Martin Big Band
My Ideal
Sam Dillon
Ecliptic
Shifa شفاء - Rachel Musson, Pat Thomas, Mark Sanders
Lado B Brazilian Project 2
Catina DeLuna & Otmaro Ruíz

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.

Install All About Jazz

iOS Instructions:

To install this app, follow these steps:

All About Jazz would like to send you notifications

Notifications include timely alerts to content of interest, such as articles, reviews, new features, and more. These can be configured in Settings.