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Artist: STEVE LACY/ROSWELL RUDD QUARTETS Title: Early And Late [2 cd set] Label: Cuneiform 250/251 Country: USA Format: CD Status: AVAILABLE $21.00
Description: 80% of the material on these two discs is live recordings from 1999 and 2002 with J J Avenel on bass and John Betsch on drums; the last 23 minutes of Disc 2 is four demos cut in 1962, with Denis Charles on drums and Bob Cunningham on bass, consisting of three Monk tunes and one by Cecil Taylor!!!
Until his death in 2004, soprano saxist Steve Lacy worked with trombonist Roswell Rudd as often as circumstances would permit, from their start together in Dixieland-style bands in the 1950s to the more adventurous styles that both master players are known for. This album of all previously unreleased material with great sound presents work spanning a 40-year period. The majority of this album (nearly 2 hours) is taken from concerts from 1999 and 2002 and features the great 'free-bop' quartet they co-led that featured the rhythm section of Lacy's longtime sextet, Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass and John Betsch on drums. This band's repertoire here features a number of compositions by Lacy as well as one each by Roswell, Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. Additionally there is over 20' of studio recordings (so far, the only studio recordings ever released!!) by the famous 'School Days' quartet (Lacy, Rudd, Bob Cunningham-bass and Denis Charles-drums) from October, 1962! This album was compiled and produced for us by noted Lacy expert Jason Weiss, who contributes short liner notes and pulled together the best performances from the different shows. An essential, swinging, free-jazz release.
"Fans of Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd, rejoice! The title of this splendid, highly selective compilation covering the two ends of a fruitful 40-year period, tells it all. The 2CD album offers splendid examples of an amazingly rich musical friendship through a total of 13 unreleased recordings selected from Lacy and Rudd's private tapes collection: 4 from an early demo session recorded in NYC in September 1962 (a pre- Schooldays gem, featuring Denis Charles and Bob Cunningham), and 9 from various gigs recorded Live in Arizona, Amsterdam and New York between 1999 and 2002 (featuring John Betsch and Jean-Jacques Avenel). In these late sessions, the tunes -- mostly Lacy's, plus one each by Monk, Nichols and Rudd -- reveal the great dynamics and bond of a well-oiled band through a broad spectrum of brilliant inventions.
"The Rent", "The Bath", "The Hoot", "Blinks", "Bookioni" and "Bone" - Steve lacy was great with titles -- regularly played by the quartet during that late period, are good examples of Lacy's "democratic" approach, giving ample room to each musician's own harmonic and sonic explorations of the tunes, resulting in many mesmerizing solos. Listen in particular to Lacy's colorful, almost "Gilmoran" phrasing in The Hoot, that dedicatee John Gilmore himself would have loved to hear, and to his long, wonderfully articulated soprano solo in Bone; Rudd's clever rendition of imaginary running water "sounds" in The Bath; how Avenel manages to make his double-bass sound like an African kora in several tunes, not forgetting Betsch's carefully constructed and picturesque drumming throughout. The catchy song Bamako, written by Rudd during his first trip to Mali in 2002, soon became part of the quartet's regular repertoire. The version included here, taped at Iridium in NY, stretches out, over 20 minutes of bursting energy.
It is fascinating to hear the early demo session of 1962 - regretfully cut down to 4 out of the 7 originally recorded pieces, when it would have been so enlightening to hear this precious "historic" event in its entirety -- AFTER the recordings of these "late" years. It seems to say: "Hey guys, this is where it all started!" If the demo unmistakably reminds us of the School Days album, miraculously captured live a few months later on a mono tape recorder, it also serves to remind us that the Lacy-Rudd deep complicity was always there, right from the very start, intriguingly blending Rudd's playful and extroverted trombone with Lacy's intelligent and introverted soprano. Like two painters sharing the same canvas, the contrast between Lacy's razor sharp/precise brush lines and Rudd's broad crude strokes resulted in artful pieces of catchy textures and subtle colors.
Curiously, the release of Early and Late coincides with the 3rd anniversary of Steve Lacy's untimely passing on June 4, 2004 in Boston. Let this intelligent compilation album be a special homage to a beautiful friendship." - Gilles Laheurte, friend of Steve Lacy during his lifetime
| Artist: STEVE LACY/ROSWELL RUDD QUARTETS |
| Title: Early And Late [2 cd set] |
| Label: Cuneiform 250/251 Country: USA |
| Format: CD Status: AVAILABLE $21.00 |
| Description: 80% of the material on these two discs is live recordings from 1999 and 2002 with J J Avenel on bass and John Betsch on drums; the last 23 minutes of Disc 2 is four demos cut in 1962, with Denis Charles on drums and Bob Cunningham on bass, consisting of three Monk tunes and one by Cecil Taylor!!! Until his death in 2004, soprano saxist Steve Lacy worked with trombonist Roswell Rudd as often as circumstances would permit, from their start together in Dixieland-style bands in the 1950s to the more adventurous styles that both master players are known for. This album of all previously unreleased material with great sound presents work spanning a 40-year period. The majority of this album (nearly 2 hours) is taken from concerts from 1999 and 2002 and features the great 'free-bop' quartet they co-led that featured the rhythm section of Lacy's longtime sextet, Jean-Jacques Avenel on bass and John Betsch on drums. This band's repertoire here features a number of compositions by Lacy as well as one each by Roswell, Thelonious Monk and Herbie Nichols. Additionally there is over 20' of studio recordings (so far, the only studio recordings ever released!!) by the famous 'School Days' quartet (Lacy, Rudd, Bob Cunningham-bass and Denis Charles-drums) from October, 1962! This album was compiled and produced for us by noted Lacy expert Jason Weiss, who contributes short liner notes and pulled together the best performances from the different shows. An essential, swinging, free-jazz release. "Fans of Steve Lacy and Roswell Rudd, rejoice! The title of this splendid, highly selective compilation covering the two ends of a fruitful 40-year period, tells it all. The 2CD album offers splendid examples of an amazingly rich musical friendship through a total of 13 unreleased recordings selected from Lacy and Rudd's private tapes collection: 4 from an early demo session recorded in NYC in September 1962 (a pre- Schooldays gem, featuring Denis Charles and Bob Cunningham), and 9 from various gigs recorded Live in Arizona, Amsterdam and New York between 1999 and 2002 (featuring John Betsch and Jean-Jacques Avenel). In these late sessions, the tunes -- mostly Lacy's, plus one each by Monk, Nichols and Rudd -- reveal the great dynamics and bond of a well-oiled band through a broad spectrum of brilliant inventions. "The Rent", "The Bath", "The Hoot", "Blinks", "Bookioni" and "Bone" - Steve lacy was great with titles -- regularly played by the quartet during that late period, are good examples of Lacy's "democratic" approach, giving ample room to each musician's own harmonic and sonic explorations of the tunes, resulting in many mesmerizing solos. Listen in particular to Lacy's colorful, almost "Gilmoran" phrasing in The Hoot, that dedicatee John Gilmore himself would have loved to hear, and to his long, wonderfully articulated soprano solo in Bone; Rudd's clever rendition of imaginary running water "sounds" in The Bath; how Avenel manages to make his double-bass sound like an African kora in several tunes, not forgetting Betsch's carefully constructed and picturesque drumming throughout. The catchy song Bamako, written by Rudd during his first trip to Mali in 2002, soon became part of the quartet's regular repertoire. The version included here, taped at Iridium in NY, stretches out, over 20 minutes of bursting energy. It is fascinating to hear the early demo session of 1962 - regretfully cut down to 4 out of the 7 originally recorded pieces, when it would have been so enlightening to hear this precious "historic" event in its entirety -- AFTER the recordings of these "late" years. It seems to say: "Hey guys, this is where it all started!" If the demo unmistakably reminds us of the School Days album, miraculously captured live a few months later on a mono tape recorder, it also serves to remind us that the Lacy-Rudd deep complicity was always there, right from the very start, intriguingly blending Rudd's playful and extroverted trombone with Lacy's intelligent and introverted soprano. Like two painters sharing the same canvas, the contrast between Lacy's razor sharp/precise brush lines and Rudd's broad crude strokes resulted in artful pieces of catchy textures and subtle colors. Curiously, the release of Early and Late coincides with the 3rd anniversary of Steve Lacy's untimely passing on June 4, 2004 in Boston. Let this intelligent compilation album be a special homage to a beautiful friendship." - Gilles Laheurte, friend of Steve Lacy during his lifetime |