Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy (* 23. July 1934 in New York City as Steven Norman licorice ; † 4. June 2004 in Boston ) was an American jazz - musicians ( soprano saxophonist , bandleader and composer).
Live and act
Lacy is considered one of the most outstanding soloists on his instrument. He studied with masters of Dixieland jazz such as Henry "Red" Allen , George "Pops" Foster and Zutty Singleton and later played with Kansas City jazz musicians such as Buck Clayton , Dicky Wells and Jimmy Rushing . In the 1950s he turned to modern jazz and developed into an important avant-garde of jazz in the 1960s . He played with the free jazz pioneer Cecil Taylor , the arranger and band leader Gil Evans ( Gil Evans and Ten , 1957, Great Jazz Standards 1959 and The Individualism of Gil Evans , 1963/64) and the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk ( Big Band and Quartet in Concert , 1964) and Mal Waldron together. Monk's work has a special place in Steve Lacy's oeuvre. He studied Monk's pieces very early on and played them again and again in the course of his career, also dedicated some records exclusively to Monk's work and recorded some together with Roswell Rudd , Kent Carter , Misha Mengelberg or Mal Waldron.
After Lacy was able to release some albums under his own name around 1960, but did not achieve satisfactory commercial success, he decided in the mid-1960s to relocate to Europe. After a few years in Rome, where he was also involved in founding the improvisation collective Musica Elettronica Viva , he settled in Paris. He spent more than 30 years of his career in Europe and during this time worked intensively with his permanent sextet and also with various musicians and representatives of other arts. Lacy set Brion Gysin's poems and songs to music with this sextet in 1981 . In 1992 he was a MacArthur Fellow .
To introduce other soprano saxophonists to his playing style, Lacy published a textbook and two CDs with practice examples in 1994 .
At the invitation of the DAAD , he spent an artist in residence year in Berlin in 1996 .
In 2002 Lacy returned to the United States, where he began teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts . He had one of his last public appearances in front of 25,000 people in Boston in March 2002.
In August 2003, when Lacy cancer diagnosed. He continued teaching until shortly before his death at the age of 69. Lacy left behind his wife and close collaborator, the Swiss singer and cellist Irène Aebi .
Illuminating exchange of words
Frederic Rzewski once asked Lacy: "Steve, explain to me the difference between composition and improvisation in ten seconds ." And Lacy replied: "For ten seconds of composition you have all the time in the world, for ten seconds of improvisation - exactly - ten - seconds. “And that answer took exactly ten seconds.
literature
- Steve Lacy: Findings - My experience with the soprano saxophone , (book and double CD), CMAP / Éditions Outre Mesure, Paris, 1994, ISBN 2-907891-08-1
Web links
- Web presence
- Steve Lacy at Allmusic (English)
- Steve Lacy at Discogs (English)
- Steve Lacy's FMP releases
- Obituary in The New York Times
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frederic Rzewski, Nonsequiturs . Writings and lectures, Cologne: Edition MusikTexte, 2007, page 51
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lacy, Steve |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Lackritz, Steven Norman (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz musician and soprano saxophonist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 23, 1934 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New York City , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 4, 2004 |
| Place of death | Boston , Massachusetts |