B. Goren.

Happy birthday!

Another one that just came to my mind: there are countless number of versions of *In a Sentimental Mood* but the greatest of all is the smoking version of Cassandra Wilson with Steve Turre. I think Duke Ellington would have been proud of them.

I didnt know that. Thanks for posting Claude.

From the New York Times: Steve Lacy, 69, Who Popularized the Soprano Saxophone, Dies By BEN RATLIFF Published: June 5, 2004 teve Lacy, an American soprano saxophonist who spent more than half of his 50-year career living in Europe and helped legitimize his instrument in postwar jazz, died yesterday in Boston. He was 69. The cause was cancer, according to an announcement from the New England Conservatory of Music, where Mr. Lacy had been teaching since 2002. After performing in New York, his hometown, Mr. Lacy moved to Italy and France, and became the most Europeanized of all expatriate American jazz musicians. He married one of his musical collaborators, the Swiss-born singer Irene Aebi, who survives him. He insisted on a literary dimension to his work, incorporating texts by novelists, poets and philosophers — as well as visual-art and dance components, when time and money allowed. For someone long considered an avant-garde artist, Mr. Lacy always insisted that nobody could get more avant-garde than Louis Armstrong; his best work was anti-highfalutin and doggedly practical. His most representative melodies, like "The Bath" and "The Gleam," use gentle repetition and gentle wit; he developed his saxophone tone to be as attenuated as a Hemingway sentence, and his improvised lines as succinct. At the end of his life, hounded by tax problems in France, he returned to the United States, moving in 2002 to teach at the New England Conservatory and live in Brookline, Mass. Mr. Lacy formed musical partnerships and made records at an astonishing rate. He led working bands of up to eight musicians for nearly 30 years; he also performed and recorded often as a solo saxophonist and in duos with partners as different as the American pianist Mal Waldron and the Japanese percussionist Masahiko Togashi. One of his discographies lists 236 items up to the year 1997, including more than 20 solo saxophone albums. Mr. Lacy was born Steven Lackritz and grew up on the Upper West Side of New York City. Clarinet was his first instrument; then, inspired by hearing Sidney Bechet's version, recorded in 1941, of a Duke Ellington song, "The Mooche," he decided to pursue Bechet's instrument, the soprano saxophone. At the time — it would still be a few years before John Coltrane would make it popular with his recording of "My Favorite Things" — he had little competition. At the age of 21, he was performing the standard Dixieland repertory on both instruments at Stuyvesant Casino and the Central Plaza in New York; he shared stages with musicians like Henry Red Allen, Pee Wee Russell, Buck Clayton and Hot Lips Page, and his teacher, Cecil Scott. And he was also playing at the Newport Jazz Festival with the pianist Cecil Taylor, who was terrifying audiences by doing away with traditional structure and tonality. Mr. Lacy worked with Mr. Taylor for six years and with other bandleaders as well, including Gil Evans; he always described this mix as the best possible training for a jazz musician. One of them was Thelonious Monk, who became a guiding aesthetic master to Mr. Lacy for the rest of his life. Through playing with Monk in a quintet and big band, and studying his music assiduously, Mr. Lacy was able to absorb the elder musician's wit, economy, insistence on simple rhythmic patterns and range of melody. He once described Monk's music as perfect for the soprano saxophone: "Not too high, not too low, not easy, not at all overplayed and most of all, full of interesting technical problems." In 1966, with no work at home, Mr. Lacy began his long trip away from America. He took a group to Argentina and ended up stranded there for nine months because of political unrest. Later he headed to Rome with Ms. Aebi, where they worked with Musica Elettronica Viva, a quartet that blended modern-classical tendencies with improvisation and included two other American expatriates, Frederic Rzewski and Alvin Curran. After a brief stay in Rome, Mr. Lacy and Ms. Aebi moved to Paris in 1970, in the beginning of the era that he often called "post-free": all experimentation came grounded in scale and melody. And with his long-lasting sextet, which he started shortly after he arrived in Paris, he found an original compositional style: lilting and singsongy with a bitter twist, often compared to nursery rhymes, though Thelonious Monk's sense of melody was probably a greater influence. Mr. Lacy preferred to collaborate with artists from other fields. Most of the time that meant setting words to music, and in his group Ms. Aebi sang poetic texts by Herman Melville, Robert Creeley, Gregory Corso and Lao Tzu, among many others; in other works he collaborated with dancers, painters and stage designers. "To me," he said in a 1990 interview, "music is always about something or somebody, or from somebody or something. It's never in the blue, never abstract." Mr. Lacy was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1992; he published a book of writings and saxophone exercises, "Findings," in 1994. The French government's ministry of culture appointed him Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1989 and Commander in 2002. In addition to his wife, his survivors include a sister, Blossom Cramer, and a brother, Martin J. Lackritz.

Same here.

I thought about it this morning in light of Lacy's death and I'm sure you all know this phenomenon: you listen to a jazz tune and you think to yourself: Hey, I prefer this performance or this interpretation of this tune over the original performance of the composer himself. Examples: many times I like Lacy's interpretation of Monk's compositions much more than Monk's performance. Another example: Earl Hines plays Ellington's compositions in a very interesting way. Nobody plays Ellington (IMHO) better than Earl Hines. His interpretation of the *The Shepherd* is the best I know. Any other examples to interesting interpretations ???

Steve Lacy was one of my favorite. I am happy I had the opportunity to see him playing together with Mal Waldron here in Tel-Aviv 5 years ago. It was a memorable concert. Rest in peace Mr. Lacy.

What are you going to start with??? Oh, tough life....

I am shocked and I pray for a miracle.

My vote goes to Shorter. Right now I am listening to them:

Anyone else heard this CD - Owner of the Riverbank? I did see a middling review on line. It has turned up used at a secret shop near me, and I am going to snag it tomorrow. If I am not crazy about it, I'll be willing to trade in a week or so. You got to give it more than a week, I think. Three listens might not be enough - it really grows, just as brownie said! I'd say if you don't like it after two or three listens, keep it, listen again a couple of times two or three weeks later. It needs time (as does all CT music). ubu Cecil Taylor's music is not easy to digest. It is not easy listening or background music. But with this album, I didn’t have any problem. I loved it from the first time I listened to it, from the first note to the last one. And I agree with Brownie: the more I listen to it, the more I like it. But if you don’t like, give it more chances as Ubu suggested.

Why not? If it indeed is, it might be one of the very few good investments... ubu

I have been told that the Italian Instabile Orchestra is financially supported by the Italian government. Do you know something about it???

Brownie, I know exactly what you are talking about. I picked it up a few days ago and I think this album is amazing, AMAZING, A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!!!! Every time I listen to it I discover something new. CT proves again he is a genius. IMHO, one of the best new releases of the last months.

Enrico Rava. I enjoyed so much his last release on ECM, that I diceded to add 2 more Rava CDs to my collection: Il Giro Del Giorno in 80 Mondi & Andanada.

No doubt about it.

Paul Chambers, disk #1

Jazzbo, This is a little bit off topic but have you listened to Moncur BN recordings on Mosaic Select???

I have to agree.

yes, it was. I have noticed myself that music can be acquired faster than it can be taken in. A purchase may be one click and second away, but to get acquainted with the music takes several spins and hours. Well known problem, my dear friends....

Pete, What about his recordings for SteepleChase???

Some of his Prestige recordings are very good. I recommens specially *4, 5 and 6* and *A Long Drink of the Blues*.

Eric Dolphy played the bass clarinet on most of the sessions he recorded for Prestige (as a leader and as a sideman).

I absolutely agree regarding "Line on Love".