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Jimmy Lyons Live Box Set


Guest Chaney

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Somewhat related question: Did this one

lyons_jimmy_otherafte_101b.jpg

ever come out on disc? (I have a feeling it didn't.) I have the one track "Premonitions" from the BYG box, and would like to hear the whole set!

Yes, it was released at the time it was recorded in 1969. It's one of my favorite albums since. Know it's been reissued and should be available.

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Somewhat related question: Did this one

lyons_jimmy_otherafte_101b.jpg

ever come out on disc? (I have a feeling it didn't.) I have the one track "Premonitions" from the BYG box, and would like to hear the whole set!

Yes, it was released at the time it was recorded in 1969. It's one of my favorite albums since. Know it's been reissued and should be available.

Are you saying this has been reissued on CD? It's available on LP, but I've never seen it on CD anywhere.

Edited by J.A.W.
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  • 2 weeks later...

Where did these reviewers get the song titles for the new Jimmy Lyons Box set?

Not quite understanding your question, I asked Jan Strom of Ayler Records for an assist and received this reply:

Most of the titles are made by Jimmy Lyons who composed all except the Monk and the Borca pieces. The totally improvised tunes were given titles by Karen Borca just for this release. -- Jan Strom
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  • 4 months later...

I just wanted to bring this up because this Jimmy Lyons' Box Set is some kind of wonderful. Lyons is able to "tell a story" with every solo, with every composition, with every aspect you can think of in this box set. I've even found his solo concert great, and I usually find those kinds of things tedious beyond belief. There can't be too many left out of the run of 500, and once it's gone, you'll be kicking yourself that you missed out. Really, just beautiful music. :wub:

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  • 2 months later...

The Village Voice has a review of the box in their edition just out today

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0423/hull.php

 

Alto saxist shows what he brought to Cecil's daunting party

Pushin' Hard

by Tom Hull

June 7th, 2004 7:15 PM

Approach his box set from the inside out.

(photo: Guy Kopelwicz)

Cecil Taylor's pianistics are so spectacular, and so daunting, that it's surprising he ever spent much time in small groups with horns. Indeed, since the late '80s, he hasn't. But from 1961 to 1985 Taylor's groups featured alto saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, often with a trumpet or tenor saxophonist in addition. After Lyons fell ill and died in 1986 at age 54, Taylor tried replacing him, but soon backed off to a trio, solos, and one-shots with Europe's top avant-gardists. Even though Lyons recorded a handful of albums under his own name, the few people who know of him know him through Taylor. The relationship between the two has been compared to Hodges and Ellington, or Desmond and Brubeck, but it is inevitably more difficult to untangle.

Anyone who has wondered what Lyons brought to the party will be helped out immensely by The Box Set, a small, unfancy package crammed with five previously unreleased discs of solo and small-group Lyons, doubling what was heretofore available, and a fact-packed 60-page booklet. Jan Ström, whose devotion to Lyons previously resulted in a 120-page sessionography, has strategically selected the material to cover a broad range of dates and groups, each in enough detail to stand on its own.

The logical way to approach the box is from the middle out. Start with the 11-minute interview that fills out disc four, to get an introduction to the man, particularly his propensity for seeing composition and improvisation as the same thing. Then go to disc three for his solo concert: sounds a lot like practice, as he strings together breath-length thoughts, twisting and turning around each other, like a painter laying out his palette. The pace is methodical, easy to follow, but on disc two he adds bass and drums and gets his back up. He starts with a 25-minute run, structurally like his solo exercise, but blisteringly fast. After he lets the bassist play a little, he finishes furiously, then does it all again. Lyons is sometimes characterized as the guy who brought Charlie Parker into the avant-garde. But this disc shows that the essential lesson Lyons took from Parker was to keep pushing harder and faster.

The fourth disc features another trio, but with bassoonist Karen Borca replacing the bassist, giving him two lead instruments plus drums. Nearly as fast, the contrast in tones and the trading of lines are dazzling. The fifth disc also features Borca, but the interaction is a bit less intense, perhaps because added bassist William Parker stands out, or perhaps because in 1985 time was running out for Lyons. After all, the freshest, most pleasurable disc is the first one, recorded in 1972, with Raphe Malik's bright trumpet sparring with Lyons. One thing you notice in all three of these discs is that Lyons often feeds the others his best lines. Malik and Borca have never sounded so confident as in his company. And while it would be a stretch to say the same about Taylor, Lyons's selflessness may have been the secret of the Cecil Taylor Unit's success. Without naming anyone, Taylor once said, "It's rare to find musicians who are loyal and protect you and give you space to be yourself. You learn to value them highly and to give them the same space they give you." The Box Set was specially designed for Cecil Taylor fans who care about that space.

The photo that goes with the article is one of a series of images I took when Jimmy Lyons played with the Cecil Taylor Unit at the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul de Vence in July 1969.

The Village Voice managed to mispell my name :angry:

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  • 3 months later...

Dare I bring this up again from the land of lost threads? Well, of course I will. This Lyons is a major artist, and with each listen of "The Box Set" my adimration grows and grows. There's a great humility to Lyons' playing; my sense is that for Lyons, the music was truly the most important thing, not himself, not wowing people with his music, but it was just Lyons and his music, trying to communcate. The solo work on disk three is almost transparent in the way he lays everything out, a kind of braverary to it. This man was a musician, pure and simple, and should not be forgotten.

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I just wish he hadn't have smoked so much. He'd probably still be alive. But maybe not. You never know, really.

Ramsey Ameen told stories of countless marathon 8+ hour rehearsals w/Cecil's group where Jimmy would literally go through several packs, chain smoking (Camels, IIRC) all the way.

Hey, I'm a smoker myself, but....wow. That's not good.

But yeah, Mr. Lyons was definitely the real deal. More than that need not be said!

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  • 1 year later...

Btw: great word "unhas," first I've heard of it but concur with its sentiment.

'Unhas' was a widely used word in the pre-internet journalistic world when newspeople sent their stories by telegraphic lines and every word counted!

Obviously spent too much time in that world :D

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  • 3 weeks later...

If anyone is sitting on the fence for this box- JUMP OFF & BUY IT! Ayler Records is offering a great deal at $60 with free shipping. I ordered it and got it in about 10 days- from Sweden to Brooklyn is pretty good.

The music is excellent, and my only previous exposure to Lyons was from Cecil Taylor. Highly recommended.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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