School Days

Steve Lacy - School Days (1960-1963) {Emanem 5016 rel 2011}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 288 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 165 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 25 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1960-63, 2011 Martin Davidson (Emanem) | 5016
Jazz / Post Bop / Avant-Garde Jazz / Saxophone

Seminal work from Steve Lacy – a set that was recorded in the early 60s, but not issued until the mid 70s – when it quickly became one of THE key records for understanding Lacy's sound and style! The set's based on the work of Thelonious Monk – and like Lacy's early Prestige album, Reflections, it features these wonderful angular extrapolations on Monk's modern ideals – really taken to the next level, and in a way that's even more far-reaching than Lacy's previous recordings of Monk. The group here is a key part of the album's strength – with Lacy on soprano sax, Roswell Rudd on trombone, Henry Grimes on bass, and Dennis Charles on drums – and titles include "Bye Ya", "Monk's Mood", "Brilliant Corners", and "Skippy".

Every pro electric-bass player and their mothers wore out the grooves of this record when it first came out, trying to cop Clarke's speedy, thundering, slapped-thumb bass licks. Yet ultimately, it was Clarke's rapidly developing compositional skills that made this album so listenable and so much fun for the rest of us, then and now. The title track not only contributed a killer riff to the bass vocabulary; it is a cunningly organized piece of music with a well-defined structure…