Reviews that mention Irene Aebi
September 17, 2021
Organized by Guillaume Tarche
Lenka Lente
By Ken Waxman
Strictly speaking American saxophonist Steve Lacy (1934-2004) is finished. That is if we’re speaking about leave taking of this temporal plane. However the influence of the musician who introduced the soprano saxophone to modern Jazz and improvised music is far from over. Significant as an innovator, performer, composer and mentor, Lacy’s career, much of which was spent in Paris, was richer, varied and more complex than simple biographies and discographies can convey. This 470-page volume provides a kaleidoscopic, if somewhat eccentric, compendium of the many strands of Lacy’s life from 43 contributors writing in English, French and Italian. MORE
February 6, 2018
Free for a Minute (1965-72)
Emanem 5210
Spontaneous Music Ensemble (1968)
Karyobin are the imaginary birds said to live in paradise
Emanem 5046
Hans Reichel (1973)
Wichlinghauser Blues
Corbett vs. Dempsey CvsD CD 033
Roscoe Mitchell (1977)
Duets with Anthony Braxton
Delmark/Sackville SK 3016
Something In The Air: Historical Free Music Documents Reappear on CD
By Ken Waxman
Arguably the most important and least understood sound of the 20th Century, Free Music which combined jazz’s freedom with noted music’s rigour, while aiming for in-the-moment creation has now been around for almost six decades. With its advances now accepted as part of the ongoing sonic landscape, long out-of-print are being reissued and reappraised for their excellence. MORE
August 16, 2012
The Sun (1967-73)
Emanem 5022
Steve Lacy Quintet
Estilhaços
Clean Feed CF 247 CD
Comfortable in his status as an expatriate musician, by the late 1960s soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy (1934-2004) was ensconced in Europe experimenting with different configurations. When he finally settled on his unique version of the quintet format, he maintained it on-and-off for the next quarter century. These valuable reissues of tracks from 1967, 1968, 1972 and 1973 not only itemize his early combo experiments, but also demonstrate the subtle shifts in Lacy’s playing at that time that would characterize his work from then on. MORE
August 16, 2012
Estilhaços
Clean Feed CF 247 CD
Steve Lacy
The Sun (1967-73)
Emanem 5022
Comfortable in his status as an expatriate musician, by the late 1960s soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy (1934-2004) was ensconced in Europe experimenting with different configurations. When he finally settled on his unique version of the quintet format, he maintained it on-and-off for the next quarter century. These valuable reissues of tracks from 1967, 1968, 1972 and 1973 not only itemize his early combo experiments, but also demonstrate the subtle shifts in Lacy’s playing at that time that would characterize his work from then on. MORE
January 19, 2004
The Beat Suite
Sunnyside/Enja SSC 3012
DEEP LISTENING BAND/JOE MCPHEE QUARTET
Unquenchable Fire
Deep Listening DL 19-2003
Blending music and texts -- either poetry or prose -- has never been a particularly easy task, especially when the music involved is improvised. Yet for the past 50 years at least, variations of the concept have been tried with various degrees of success.
Among his other sonic inquiries, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy has turned his hand to text-based material for many years; he has been able to utilize the voice of his partner Irene Aebi as his speaker/vocalist since the late 1960s. THE BEAT SUITE is his most recent grapple with the concept -- and one that is particularly apt. The words, which intermingle with the music here, were written by 10 of the most accomplished Beat versifiers. All had or have an affinity for improvised music and most were known personally by either Lacy or Abei. MORE
December 22, 2003
The Holy la
Sunnyside SSC 1120
Definitely not a misprint for the common expression “the Holy Land”, this fine trio CD takes its name from something held even more sacred by musicians: “la”, the pitch to which all instruments are almost always tuned.
During the course of these nine tracks, soprano saxophonist Steve Lacy and his associates also prove that they can do just anything they want with any variations of “la” and the other degrees of the scale most famously celebrated by Rodgers and Hammerstein in the song “Do-Re-Mi”. MORE