28 January 2008

STEVE LACY "WORDLESS" (FUTURA, 1971)




In 1971 steve lacy was hitting a real peak of sorts incorporating , what was happening musically in the the jazz laboratory that paris happened to be for those half a dozen years from 67-73. .
Lacy describes the fertility of the era and location( in his notes to the 3 disc set ‘dreams scratching the seventies’ on the savarrah lable, with amazement).


Braxton and members of the art ensemble of Chicago lived near by ( lacy reffers to them as the best free improvisors of the day), and lacy was also performing with experimental rock musicians, and electronic composers/ fluxus members such as alvin lucier and Fredrick rzweski who were both along with lacy rotating members of the pioneering electro acoustic improvising ensemble MEV.

All this seems to have informed the bold synthesis of total free improvisation and his distinctive monk influenced , deceptively simple compositional style.


That synthesis was only beginning to take shape by 1971.
This is album is fairly unique in being one of the few lacy albums one might consider ‘free jazz’ a very tough listen .. this is edge of the precipice stuff, lacy spins out of his classic tunes some of the most sonically aggressive improvisations of his career.

This one features the expat African American Ambrose Jackson , a mysterious presence (on trumpet) who appeared exclusively on a few albums recorded in paris, then disappeared again (from recording at least).
It would be interesting to know what happened to him, although he is a bit of a bystander on this album, he had a fulsome tone that showed promise and a degree of originality.


I think this is a fantastic album which deserves consideration for a full remastered reissue.
I’d certainly buy it.
Could be though that the master tape is lost or damaged gerard terrones who runs the marge/futura label has not seen fit to re release it.
Indeed this was my 1st ever upload in the comments of the ch#9 blog almost a year ago now!!




1/ Existence (Lacy) 5:55
2/ The Way (Lacy) 3:35
3/ Bone (Lacy) 7:30
4/ Name (Lacy) 8:30
5/ The Breath (Lacy) 9:00
6/ Prologue A Life On Its Way (Lacy) 5:30

Recorded Au Theatre de l'Epee de Bois, Paris on January 4, 1971
Produced by Gerard Terrones

Steve Lacy: soprano; Ambrose Jackson: trumpet; Irene Aebi: cello; Kent
Carter: bass; Jerome Cooper: drums.

1971 - Futura (France), GER 22 (LP)
???? - Musica Records (France), MUS 2006 (LP)

(this post from the OOP CD)

thanks to Dale for the original futura cover!!

30 comments:

SOTISE said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

could you please let me know the full link for the previous steve lacy post please

SOTISE said...

the full link is there in the comments to the previous post.
i even made it smaller for you, cut and paste it into your text document, making sure to eliminate the gaps.
then paste it into your browser.
i dont see what more i can do

Anonymous said...

Thx got the post ,I do not have much to post in the way of music so if you want to do it this way I would not mind sending you a couple of cds in the mail if you like i can put up my email address then once I get a message i will send you a list of some derek bailey & other titles it will not be expensive for me and i do not mind as i would like to contribute to your blog and I sell cds on ebay so iI know how to send them cheap Steve

Anonymous said...

Again ! Again ! Again... a magnificient post by SOTISE and al.

Lacy, Waldron, Harriot, Murray, Company, Air, Wright (...) - it's all over the place...! filling iPod, compacting hard drives, burning CDs... and looking every place to find those records! Can't keep up with the pace!

I can't thank you enough. I'll figure a way...

Cheers.

dalemcbdnl said...

It's nice to see this particular Lacy. A GEM and kinda rare! I do have a fairly good scan of the Futura cover which I did of my own LP jacket. If people want it I will get a copy to you. MY OPINION, however, is that it is uglier than the Musica cover provided in this posting. All the times etc are the same so it's just a matter of whether you want/prefer the Futura cover because it is earlier. Basically, it is a blurry photo by Mario Murschik of the band in performance. Dale

bravo juju said...

Great! Yellow Thanks

SOTISE said...

dalem, perhaps you could upload the original cover to an image host and leave us the url, id love to see it.
no question the musica release is more common than the futura .

both are unaccountably rare.

Unknown said...

Always amazing!
As I say to Boromir. The work you're doing is really great. What a lot of good music.

Thanks Sotise

I used to sign uCi_X, I told to you in an older post that I've got several recordings from Bimhuis and Loco pa loppen. I'm still working on sound. I don't want to be heavy, but I if I have something to share I don't want to be a lurker. So I decided to create my own blog. I'll invite to all of you in the next days.

I'll wait for your next post! Sure is going to be another surprise!

dalemcbdnl said...

I made a Flickr account and put a few images on the site. The address below should get you to the Futura cover (I hope). http://www.flickr.com/photos/23387269@N06/2233466598/

Let me know if this doesn't work. I'll make an effort to get images to people who want them. Sometime soon I hope to try some mp3 up-loads. I believe I share your view(s) that this music (free jazz or whatever you want to call it) needs to be out there for the public.

I repeat my view that you people on this blog (and a few others) are providing a great service to the entire field of creative improvised music. Both artists and listeners benefit!
Dale

Anonymous said...

Thanks Dale for your Lp scan. I really appreciate it... and it worked fine from your Flickr gallery.

See you.

intempestif said...

Thanks a lot for this great Lacy record! It's one of his releases I could never find anywhere. There's something strange going on with the mp3 version though - the bit rate seems to be 32 kbps, or at least that's what my iTunes says. But the sound quality makes me think it could be true. Could you please confirm that the mp3s sound the way they should. If not I'll go for the flac version. Cheers.

Arcturus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Arcturus said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Arcturus said...

w/ Jerome Cooper? well, damn! yumm . . .

[do any of you have a copy of Lacy's Tips: 14 Aphorisms by Georges Braque? (a hat release, i think) - we heard a rather extraordianry performance of it a few weeks ago (by Bruce Ackley, Phillip Greenlief, & Aurora Josephson) & I'm curious to hear the orginal now]

intempestif said...

sorry, the mp3s sound all right actually. something wrong with my ears.

ABE said...

Thanks very much for this.

Anonymous said...

thanks a lot for this wonderful stuff,
looking forward to hear and write something nice,
cheers
lorenzo

Calagan said...

Hello Dear Inconstant Sol...
This Lp has just been reissued by Futura in a digipack Cd...
If someone is interested, one can check the futura site : http://futuramarge.free.fr/
3 cds are 30€, no postage fees for Europe, and directly in the (super empty) pocket of Terrones...
If he sells some units of it, he will be able to reissue more lost recordings.

Webmaster said...

Hi Inconstant Sol- love your blog, this is the music I've collected for 25 yrs. Small favor- do you have a way for me to contact intempestif? He mentioned a Baraka/Shepp/Roach recording I'd like to discuss with him. Many thanks-Marc

Eric said...

Ambrose Jackson was a dear friend of mine, who died about a year ago, He returned to the US and played with, among others, Charli Persip Superband. He settled in Ellenville NY and freelanced as a trumpet player doing everything from Catskill show bands to classical work with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra. So that's some of what happened to Ambrose.

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much! :)

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

the links are dead someone please re-upload this again

Ernst Grgo Nebhuth said...

1fichier

rev.b said...

Speechless

francisco santos said...

BIG THX!...

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much

cvllos said...

Thank you. Lacy is great!!!

Michael said...

Re-up would be greatly appreciated.