Steve Lacy Plays Monk,1; His First Recordings, and "Evidence"

Steve Lacy (1934-2004) followed a unique artistic path. He began as a clarinetist, and then was inspired by Sidney Bechet to take up the soprano saxophone. (Bechet played both, brilliantly.) Although Lacy grew up in the modern jazz era, he became part of a circle of musicians who played what was once called “mainstream jazz,” or, as his trumpeter friend Dick Sutton called it, “Progressive Dixieland.” On his first recording session he only played clarinet in ensemble sections, using soprano sax for all of his solos. Here is the first solo he ever recorded, in August 1954, when he had just turned 20. It’s the old standard ‘Avalon” by Sutton’s group, with Mark Trail (b), Billy de Hay (d), and no piano:

Soon, Lacy made the unique decision to play only soprano sax, and he devoted himself to that instrument for the rest of his life. Here are two more early solos. These are from sessions led by brass player Tom Stewart in 1956:“Out of Nowhere” with Dave McKenna (p) Whitey Mitchell (b) and Al Levitt (d), followed by “Indian Blanket,” an original blues by the guitarist on the recording, Joe Puma, with Whitey Mitchell (b) and Herb Wasserman (d):

It’s clear that Lacy already had a strong musical personality. He played with the clarity and melodic logic of early Lester Young, but he was also at times breaking free. Did you notice these little exclamations in the above audio clips?:

So, perhaps it wasn’t really a drastic change of direction when, from as early as 1955 through early July 1957, Lacy performed and recorded with Cecil Taylor's quartet. At the time, Taylor still used a walking bass and on occasion he played and recorded standards, as well as “Bemsha Swing,” which Monk wrote with drummer Denzil Best. So, Lacy’s transition from early Taylor to Monk kind of makes sense too. Soon, Lacy delved into Monk’s music. He included Monk’s difficult piece “Work” on his first album as a leader, recorded in November 1957, and in 1958 he made the first tribute album of all Monk tunes. (French saxophonist Barney Wilen’s first album as a leader, recorded in January 1957, has one side of Monk tunes, but was clearly not conceived of as a tribute to Monk.)

Starting in 1962, Lacy and trombonist Roswell Rudd led a quartet that only performed Monk. And Lacy performed with Monk on a few occasions—we’ll hear one track below. From the late 1960s onward, Lacy still liked to swing over a walking bass on occasion, but he was heavily involved in “free” jazz. Even then, imaginative treatments of Monk tunes remained an important part of his repertory right through to the end.

Lacy’s deep involvement in Monk’s world meant that his performances carried some authority. When I was preparing for a Monk concert with Dave Liebman in 2013, I found that it was difficult to transcribe “Who Knows” from the 1947 recording. Lacy’s 1961 version was cleanly executed (although I still ended up using a combination of the two versions).

Lacy had a particularly brilliant, lyrical, and original way of improvising on Monk tunes. Let's check out two versions of Monk’s “Evidence,” based on the chords of “Just You, Just Me.” First, a “live” radio broadcast from a jazz festival in Philadelphia on August 26, 1960. (It was broadcast on the 27th so it is sometimes listed on that date.) Lacy was added to Monk’s regular quartet of Charlie Rouse (sax), John Ore (bs), and Roy Haynes on drums. (Remember, Haynes had been Monk’s regular drummer for most of 1958.) Let’s hear the “A” section of this unusual piece (Rouse is a bit off here), and the beginning of the soprano sax solo. It seems to me that Lacy feeds off of the “concept” of Monk’s theme— the unpredictable rhythms and spaces, for example—without imitating the actual notes of the theme in any way. Notice also that at 0:21 he seems to hit upon another Monk theme, “Jackie-ing,” which had just been released in 1959:

Here is the full performance. Rouse doesn’t get the first A section quite right, and there is a bad splice at 0:29, so the beginning of the bridge is missing. But the excellent solos by Rouse, Lacy (at 3:21), and Monk are all intact:

In November 1961, Lacy performed “Evidence” in a studio with Don Cherry (tp), Carl Brown (b), and Billy Higgins (d)—and no piano, as on his first recording in 1954. Little is known about Brown, except that he was a tall Black man from San Francisco and a friend of Higgins. His first recording, in 1959, was in Melbourne, Australia. We don’t know how he ended up there, but he returned to S.F., where one of our subscribers, drummer George Neidorf, played with him at the Jazz Workshop in 1961: “He had a huge sound and a Sam Jones kind of feel that made him easy to play with. As a drummer, all I had to do was ride on that magic carpet.” By the time of the November 1961 session, Brown was in New York City, where he and Lacy had performed together around Greenwich Village. In fact, he gave Lacy’s address as his own on the contract for this session, so he may have been staying with Lacy, or perhaps was only briefly visiting New York. Brown’s only other recording, besides the one in Australia and the one with Lacy and Cherry, is another session with Lacy. That one was never issued—but you’ll hear it next time!

Is it possible to improvise in a totally organic way, without any references to traditional “licks”? Lacy’s astounding solo here shows that the answer is Yes. First, let’s hear one short segment. At the beginning of this excerpt, he sails, with rhythmic freedom, up to a very high Bb on his soprano (concert Ab). He follows that phrase, at 0:10, with what I call a “story telling” phrase. It almost sounds like he’s saying, in “vocalese,”“Now, let me tell you more things that I know…” Check it out:

Here is the complete performance by Lacy, Cherry, Brown and Higgins. It all rides over the drummer’s irresistible dancing beat:

The whole album, titled Evidence, is terrific, and easy to find on streaming platforms or on CD. You will also enjoy Lacy and Cherry playing Monk in Copenhagen, preserved on a radio broadcast. Next time we will listen to Lacy performances of Monk that have never been available before!

All the best,
Lewis

P.S. I fixed a typo about the high note. Also, subscriber and author/saxophonist Carl Woideck sent me a pitch-corrected “live” recording. Thanks also to Evan Rapport. And thanks to all of you for your comments!