STEVE LACY soprano saxophone
1 - THE BREATH - 5:33
2 - STATIONS - 6:19
3 - CLOUDY - 3:17
4 - THE NEW DUCK - 5:39
5 - JOSEPHINE - 5:38
6 - WEAL - 4:03
7 - NAME - 4:59
8 - THE WOOL - 5:49
Analogue concert recording by Georg Radanowicz
1972 AUGUST 7 & 8
Avignon (Theatre du Chene Noir)
STEVE LACY soprano saxophone
STEVE POTTS alto saxophone
IRENE AEBI cello, voice
KENT CARTER double bass
OLIVER JOHNSON drums & cymbals
9.1 - THE WOE - THE WAX - 1:22
9.2 - THE WOE - THE WAGE - 16:52
10 - THE WOE - THE WANE - 9:48
11 - THE WOE - THE WAKE - 2:23
Analogue studio recording
1973 JANUARY 26 - Zurich
Total time 72:40
1-8 originally issued in 1974 as Emanem LP 301
9-11 originally issued in 1979 on Quark LP 9998
All compositions by Steve Lacy
See interview.
This record is a cross-selection from two evenings of unaccompanied soprano saxophone music. They were given in the dissaffected church belonging to the Chêne Noir Theatre Group in Avignon. The acoustics are superb and the vibes were good.
Solo concerts by saxophonists are a recent development in jazz. Hawkins, Rollins, Dolphy and especially Anthony Braxton opened the way, and now it seems quite logical and, in a certain sense, easy to fill an evening with a single voice.
STEVE LACY (1974)
THE WOE is another story. Conceived in the horrors of the Vietnam War, it is a melodrama in four parts for quintet, two cassettes of war noises (air & ground) and voice. (The cassettes were played in the studio.)
This piece was the principal music we performed during the last two years of the U,S,A.'s involvement in Vietnam. This was the last time we played it. Thanks to Heinz Wehrle and the Zurich Radio, it was recorded (the night before the peace treaty was signed) in its entirety, and broadcast in Switzerland.
STEVE LACY (1977)
As well as being musically superb, the 1972 Avignon concerts are special for other reasons. Most importantly, they were Lacy's very first solo concerts, although he did make an excellent overdubbed solo record (LAPIS) for Saravah the year before. (For 'solo' read 'alone' or 'unaccompanied' rather than the usual music business meaning of 'very accompanied'.) They also contain the only published recordings of his pieces JOSEPHINE and THE WOOL, and the earliest of THE NEW DUCK and WEAL. Plus, this music was the first recording to be issued on the Emanem label, way back in 1974.
THE WOE, in its somewhat different way, is also superb and very special. This important suite is heard in its sole recording, although THE WANE was subsequently performed and recorded in isolation.
MARTIN DAVIDSON (1995)
"This [STEVE LACY SOLO] is the first release from Emanem, and I can't imagine a more beautiful first record for a record company. This record just exudes beauty. It must be the Steve Lacy record. Each piece is so very tight and together. Yet I've never heard Lacy extend himself so much nor use so many facets of his instrument. This has to be something of a landmark recording for Lacy. I can't recommend it too highly."
HENRY KUNTZ - BELLS 1974
"If you have only heard the more recent, understated recordings of this giant of the soprano saxophone, you may wonder what all the fuss is about. Just listen to this seminal album and you should understand right away why Lacy is such a formidable force. The initial eight tracks are a reissue of the first LP issued by Emanem, which was Lacy's first solo recording. Each is a gem: radical, accessible, and fascinatingly offbeat. One uses a random radio selection as a backdrop, another mimics duck warbles. The last three pieces are reissued from Quark, and constitute Lacy's anti-war suite, Woe. The sounds of bombs and missiles lend an authentic feel, and if the politics are dated, the music is as relevant as ever."
STEVEN LOEWY - ALL-MUSIC GUIDE 2000
"The historic dimension of reissuing long-gone new music albums on CD is heightened when it revives music that was before its time. Every night is not a good night, and it is possible that the excellence of Steve Lacy was obscured by the deluge of recordings that started to appear in the late seventies.
The first time I every heard Lacy solo was a marvellous experience, and this brings it all back; Lacy's quackhappy sound and his masterful variations in tone; the lightening runs alternating with poignant silences; the drama and the humour.
The second half is Lacy's anti-war suite The Woe. Not only do the sections of the suite contain some beautiful melodies, both in writing and playing, but its longest section, The Wage, should probably enter history as a classic freejazz statement. The quintet performs it along with taped sound effects; and the sheer passion makes most other tape-and-live playing efforts seem like intellectual exercises. Against the soundscape of machineguns, tank engines and bomb bursts, the furious playing of the quintet becomes the essence of warmth and compassion. The effect is heartrending."
DAVID LEE - CODA 1996
"Two important components to this very valuable reissue. The earlier recording is a document of Lacy's first ever solo soprano saxophone concerts. Just four years after Anthony Braxton's pioneering FOR ALTO, it is fascinating to hear Lacy take a very different course, sinuously melodic, less antagonistic in attack than Braxton but no less percussive and definite, and no less willing to superimpose different rhythmic shapes of a pretty basic line.
THE WOE was Lacy's anti-war suite, a powerfully advocated protest that gave this classic group something to get their teeth into. The recording is a little unfriendly to Aebi and to some of the quieter soprano saxophone parts, but there is so much meat and meaning to the performance that one hardly notices any such shortcomings."
RICHARD COOK and/or BRIAN MORTON - 'The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD' 1996
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