Steve Lacy (saxophonist)


Steve Lacy was an American jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone. Coming to prominence in the 1950s as a progressive dixieland musician, Lacy went on to a long and prolific career. He worked extensively in experimental jazz and to a lesser extent in free improvisation, but Lacy's music was typically melodic and tightly-structured. Lacy also became a highly distinctive composer, with compositions often built out of little more than a single questioning phrase, repeated several times.
The music of Thelonious Monk became a permanent part of Lacy's repertoire after a stint in the pianist's band, with Monk's works appearing on virtually every Lacy album and concert program; Lacy often partnered with trombonist Roswell Rudd in exploring Monk's work. Beyond Monk, Lacy performed the work of jazz composers such as Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington and Herbie Nichols; unlike many jazz musicians he rarely played standard popular or show tunes.

Early life and career

Lacy began his career at sixteen playing Dixieland music with much older musicians such as Henry "Red" Allen, Pee Wee Russell, George "Pops" Foster and Zutty Singleton and then with Kansas City jazz players like Buck Clayton, Dicky Wells, and Jimmy Rushing. He then became involved with the avant-garde, performing on Jazz Advance, the debut album of Cecil Taylor, and appearing with Taylor's groundbreaking quartet at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival; he also made a notable appearance on an early Gil Evans album. His most enduring relationship, however, was with the music of Thelonious Monk: he recorded the first album to feature only Monk compositions and briefly played in Monk's band in 1960 and later on Monk's Big Band and Quartet in Concert album.

Europe and sextet

Lacy's first visit to Europe came in 1965, with a visit to Copenhagen in the company of Kenny Drew; he went to Italy and formed a quartet with Italian trumpeter Enrico Rava and the South African musicians Johnny Dyani and Louis Moholo. After a brief return to New York, he returned to Italy, then in 1970 moved to Paris, where he lived until the last two years of his life. He became a widely respected figure on the European jazz scene, though he remained less well known in the U.S.
The core of Lacy's activities from the 1970s to the 1990s was his sextet: his wife, singer/violinist Irene Aebi, soprano/alto saxophonist Steve Potts, pianist Bobby Few, bassist Jean-Jacques Avenel, and drummer Oliver Johnson. Sometimes this group was scaled up to a large ensemble, sometimes pared down to a quartet, trio, or even a two-saxophone duo. He played duos with pianist Eric Watson. Lacy also, beginning in the 1970s, became a specialist in solo saxophone; he ranks with Sonny Rollins, Anthony Braxton, Evan Parker, and Lol Coxhill in the development of this demanding form of improvisation.
Lacy was interested in all the arts: the visual arts and poetry in particular became important sources for him. Collaborating with painters and dancers in multimedia projects, he made musical settings of his favourite writers: Robert Creeley, Samuel Beckett, Tom Raworth, Taslima Nasrin, Herman Melville, Brion Gysin and other Beat writers, including settings for the Tao Te Ching and haiku poetry. As Creeley noted in the Poetry Project Newsletter, "There's no way simply to make clear how particular Steve Lacy was to poets or how much he can now teach them by fact of his own practice and example. No one was ever more generous or perceptive."

Later career

In 1992, he was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship.
He also collaborated with a wide range of musicians, from traditional jazz to the avant-garde to contemporary classical music. Outside of his regular sextet, his most regular collaborator was pianist Mal Waldron, with whom he recorded a number of duet albums.
Lacy played his 'farewell concerts to Europe' in Belgium, in duo and solo, for a small but motivated public. This happened in Brussels, Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges and Mons. In duo he played with Fred Van Hove, Joëlle Léandre, Mikhail Bezverkhni, Irène Aebi, Frederic Rzewski, Christopher Culpo and the dancer Shiro Daimon. This recollection is published by Naked Music, Afkikker, Ghent. In Ghent he played with the classical violinist Mikhail Bezverkhni, winner of Queen Elisabeth Concours. Two of these concerts were organized by Rita De Vuyst, his last muse in Europe, to whom he dedicated his solo CD Mother Goose solo @ afkikker. This CD is published within the book, Bone, a tribute to Lacy. He returned to the United States in 2002, where he began teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. One of his last public performances was in front of 25,000 people at the close of a peace rally on Boston Common in March 2003, shortly before the US-led invasion of Iraq.
After Lacy was diagnosed with liver cancer in August 2003, he continued playing and teaching until weeks before his death on June 4, 2004, at the age of 69.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

CompilationsScratching the Seventies/Dreams Associates Opium with Bill Dixon, Franz Koglmann – rec. 1973-76; compiles tracks from the Koglmann/Lacy album Flaps and the Koglmann/Dixon album Opium for Franz The Complete Whitey Mitchell Sessions – rec. 1956Tao with Andrea Centazzo – rec. 1976-84Early and Late with Roswell Rudd – rec. 1962, 1999, 2002The Sun Avignon And After Volume 1
  • ''Avignon And After Volume 2''

With Mal Waldron

Journey Without End Mal Waldron with the Steve Lacy Quintet Hard Talk One-Upmanship Moods Sempre Amore – rec. 1986The Super Quartet Live at Sweet Basil Hot House – rec. 1990I Remember Thelonious – rec. 1992Let's Call This... Esteem – liveCommuniqué One More Time Live at Dreher, Paris 1981 – compilation

As sideman

With AreaMaledetti Event '76 – rec. 1976
With Miles DavisMiles Davis at Carnegie Hall – rec. 1961Quiet Nights – rec. 1962–63
With Gil EvansGil Evans & Ten – rec. 1957Great Jazz Standards The Individualism of Gil Evans – rec. 1963–64Parabola – rec. 1978
With Giorgio GasliniNuovi Sentimenti Il Grido: Big Band Live Fabbrica Occupata – rec. 1973. also with Jean-Luc Ponty
With Globe Unity OrchestraEvidence, vol.1 – rec. 1975Into the Valley, vol.2 – rec. 1975
With Roswell RuddBlown Bone – rec. 1976Broad Strokes
With Dick SuttonJazz Idiom Progressive Dixieland
With Cecil TaylorJazz Advance – rec. 1956At Newport – also with Gigi Gryce. rec 1957.
With Giovanni TommasoIndefinitive Atmosphere – rec. 1968La Banda Del Cibo Salutare
With others