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Steve Lacy


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I personally always thought -and still think - of Evidence as the masterpiece within the great bunch of session Lacy recorded in those years (Prestiges and Candid).

I agree. Reflections and Straight Horn seem to get more attention, but Evidence is the one from those early years I'd take to a desert island.

I really love his work on Prestige, "Reflections" is a masterpiece IMHO. I would love to hear the Candid date.

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A few that have not been mentioned very much or at all.

Wow - I've got a pretty good Lacy collection, but you've got a few that I don't have. I've been trying to track down a copy of Follies for a while.

The 70s are not my favorite decade for Lacy - he himself called some of his music from that era "scratchy" - but I think that two you mention, The Crust and Raps, are among his best from the period.

Yes - very rarely see Follies around. It was never reissued on CD as far as I can see.

All this Lacy talk has set me off on a listening binge. It is wonderful to have so much of his work recorded! I've also really been picking up on Jean-Jacques Avenel's excellent bass playing - particularly from the late 80's onwards.

I had the great pleasure of having dinner with Steve and UK improviser Steve Beresford in 1978 in Berlin. He was totally charming, hugely intelligent and very funny. I wish I could remember more of our conversation although I do remember talking about poetry as well as music - Jack Spicer and Jerome Rothenberg's Technicians of the Scared collection. We were all transfixed at one stage by the German family on the next table who worked their way through four whole roast chickens....

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[All this Lacy talk has set me off on a listening binge. It is wonderful to have so much of his work recorded! I've also really been picking up on Jean-Jacques Avenel's excellent bass playing - particularly from the late 80's onwards.

JJ Avenel is one of the most amazing bassists on the planet. I'm not sure how widely this is recognized, though.

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[All this Lacy talk has set me off on a listening binge. It is wonderful to have so much of his work recorded! I've also really been picking up on Jean-Jacques Avenel's excellent bass playing - particularly from the late 80's onwards.

JJ Avenel is one of the most amazing bassists on the planet. I'm not sure how widely this is recognized, though.

I am beginning to think that if a musician stays with one band for a long time (John Gilmore, Jimmy Lyons etc) that the downside is that they don't the recognition they deserve.

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  • 2 years later...

The last time I saw Lacy play was when he did the Beat Suite at Iridium, with George Lewis. It was bittersweet--everybody played great, but I had learned from a friend of Steve's, before it was announced officially, that Steve had been diagnosed with cancer earlier that week. You could see the sadness and concern on Irene's face the whole time. The ironic thing is that he and Avenel had been planning to record a duo album in NY, because Steve had been afraid he'd never get the chance again because Jean-Jacques had cancer before Steve was diagnosed. The recording date got canceled, but there is a duo concert floating around in the trading/torrenting world.

The last time I saw Lacy was in the audience at a Ran Blake solo concert at Cobi Narita's place (Cobi is a remarkable, eternally young woman).

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  • 1 month later...

I wanted my 5000th post to be in this thread. Steve Lacy's music has, for years, been for me a source of both inspiration and chagrin - a lesson on getting to the point, musically, that I still haven't learned in 40 years of playing the saxophone.

This postcard is one of my prized possessions:

388126_224318080969546_100001740662000_565159_359023315_n.jpg

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There will be a Lacy tribute at The Stone in NYC in April:

4/13 Friday

8 and 10 pm

ICTUS Tribute to Steve Lacy

Joe McPhee, Roberto Ottaviano, Joe Giardullo, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Gilles Laheurte (soprano saxes)

2 sets presenting great soprano players performing Steve Lacy music and improvisations.

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There will be a Lacy tribute at The Stone in NYC in April:

4/13 Friday

8 and 10 pm

ICTUS Tribute to Steve Lacy

Joe McPhee, Roberto Ottaviano, Joe Giardullo, Andrew Raffo Dewar, Gilles Laheurte (soprano saxes)

2 sets presenting great soprano players performing Steve Lacy music and improvisations.

That is worth heading up I-95 for! It's a very nice thought to present this show, but let's face it: Lacy is inimitable. Nevertheless, will have to put this on the calendar. BTW, I've been dipping into the ICTUS 30th Anniversary box set, which has a lot of Lacy. The Lacy discs are great.

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great reading this thread again , I do get the feeling that there aren't any "bad" Lacy records out there, listening again to Clangs

Well, I don't much like Alter Ego, a duet with bass clarinetist Walter Zuber Armstrong, but I haven't listened to it in years. Probably time to give it a spin and see if it's grown on me.

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great reading this thread again , I do get the feeling that there aren't any "bad" Lacy records out there, listening again to Clangs

Well, I don't much like Alter Ego, a duet with bass clarinetist Walter Zuber Armstrong, but I haven't listened to it in years. Probably time to give it a spin and see if it's grown on me.

I liked it the first time, but I liked it a lot more the second time. Hopefully, it works for you on the next spin.

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My Lacy collection:

Mal Waldron -Hard Talk w/ Lacy and Manfred Schoof

The Door

Anthem

Momentum

The Holy La

Lacy & Rudd-Early & Late

Lacy/Evans-Paris Blues

Live At Sweet Basil

A nice collection! Check out some of the earlier stuff (although you've got 25 minutes on Early and Late)- Evidence from the early 1960's, Disposability from the middle of the decade, and some early-to-mid 1970's stuff - Trickles, maybe. And you've got to have at least one unaccompanied solo album - 5 X Monk, 5 X Lacy is maybe my favorite, although there are many excellent ones.

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 11 months later...

My Lacy collection:

Mal Waldron -Hard Talk w/ Lacy and Manfred Schoof

The Door

Anthem

Momentum

The Holy La

Lacy & Rudd-Early & Late

Lacy/Evans-Paris Blues

Live At Sweet Basil

A nice collection! Check out some of the earlier stuff (although you've got 25 minutes on Early and Late)- Evidence from the early 1960's, Disposability from the middle of the decade, and some early-to-mid 1970's stuff - Trickles, maybe. And you've got to have at least one unaccompanied solo album - 5 X Monk, 5 X Lacy is maybe my favorite, although there are many excellent ones.

I've been itching for some more Lacy. I think I'm going to get the Soul Note box. I'd love to have the Hat Hut set that Clifford mentioned, but I think it's oop. I listened to the club recording of Seagulls from one of those albums which is sublime and surreal. Such a beautiful performance accompanied by indifferent patrons talking away in the background.

Since my last post I picked up One-Upsmanship, and I ordered the 2-fer Sortie/Disposability.

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Yes yes yes on the Soul Note box. The Monk albums are very nice, as are the sets with Waldron but my favorite Lacy material of all is his trio stuff. The Flame and The Window from the box are incredible.

Blinks, another top shelf Lacy record on Hat, is in print. Its cut down from the original 2xLP/CD but you can't miss.

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like much of the Lacy discography but I've NEVER been able to aquire a taste for irene....

my personal favorite has always been Morning Joy on hatART with the bext Steve Potts known on record.

Windows (soul note), Cliches (hat) (ithink that is name of the one with George Lewis with the band) and NYC Capers (hat) are all also terrific - none with too much if any singing....

We See (hat) is a fine recording of Monk tunes with a sextet.

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Yes yes yes on the Soul Note box. The Monk albums are very nice, as are the sets with Waldron but my favorite Lacy material of all is his trio stuff. The Flame and The Window from the box are incredible.

Blinks, another top shelf Lacy record on Hat, is in print. Its cut down from the original 2xLP/CD but you can't miss.

Speaking of trio material, there's a live trio CD, In Concert, that sounds good.

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