Byard Lancaster


Byard Lancaster was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist and flutist.

Early life and education

He attended two colleges, one for music, before attending the Berklee College of Music. He moved to New York City and participated in jam sessions which included saxophonist Archie Shepp and drummer Elvin Jones.

Career

In 1965, he recorded Sunny Murray Quintet with the album's eponymous musician in New York, performed in the Parisian Actuel festival with him in 1969, and continued to work in the drummer's groups throughout his career. By the 1970s, Lancaster had played with musicians such as McCoy Tyner, Khan Jamal, and Sun Ra, as well as some outside of jazz, such as blues pianist Memphis Slim and blues guitarist Johnny Copeland.
Near the end of his life he performed regularly with cellist David Eyges and recorded as a leader and sideman for the record label Creative Improvised Music Projects. He died of pancreatic cancer on August 23, 2012.

Discography

As leader / co-leader

  • 1968: It's Not Up to Us
  • 1972: Live at Macalester College as the J. R. Mitchell/Byard Lancaster Experience
  • 1974: Us with Steve McCall, Sylvain Marc
  • 1974: Mother Africa with Clint Jackson III
  • 1974: Exactement with Keno Speller
  • 1977: Exodus
  • 1977: Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions as Flight To Sanity
  • 1979: Funny Funky Rib Crib
  • 1979: Documentation: The End of a Decade
  • 1979: Personal Testimony
  • 1988: Lightnin' Strikes! with David Eyges
  • 1992: My Pure Joy
  • 1993: Worlds
  • 2000: Byard Lancaster Trio
  • 2001: Philadelphia Spirit in New York with Odean Pope, Ed Crockett, J.R. Mitchell
  • 2003: The Out Cry as Crockett, Mitchell & Lancaster
  • 2005: "A" Heavenly Sweetness
  • 2005: Pam Africa
  • 2006: Soul Unity as Thunderbird Service
  • 2006: ''Ancestral Link Hotel''

    As sideman

With Arcana
  • Arc of the Testimony
With Big Youth
  • A Luta Continua
With Change of the Century Orchestra
With Cool Waters
  • Cool Waters
With Johnny Copeland
  • Copeland Special
  • Jungle Swing
  • Texas Party
  • Honky Tonkin
With Bill Dixon
  • Intents and Purposes
With David Eyges
  • The Arrow
  • Crossroads
With fONKSQUISh
  • Useless Education
With Doug Hammond
  • Folks
With Kip Hanrahan
  • Coup de tête
With Ronald Shannon Jackson
  • Eye on You
  • Nasty
With Khan Jamal
  • Infinity
  • Cubano Chant
  • Black Awareness
  • Impressions of Coltrane
With Dwight James
  • Inner Heat
With Bill Laswell
With Garrett List
  • American Images
  • Fire & Ice
  • The New York Takes
With Geoff Leigh and Frank Wuyts
  • From Here to Drums
With Byron Morris and Gerald Wise
  • Unity
With Sunny Murray
  • Sunny Murray
  • An Even Break
  • Charred Earth
  • Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions
With Robert Musso
  • Innermedium
With Errol Parker
  • Graffiti
With Odean Pope
  • The Ponderer
With Vito Ricci
  • Postones
With Sounds of Liberation
  • New Horizons
  • Unreleased
With Pierre Van Dormael, David Linx and James Baldwin
  • A Lover's Question
With Marzette Watts
With Larry Young'
  • ''Heaven on Earth''