Steve Lacy – The Wire

Oct.13, 2012

 

Steve Lacy Sextet – The Wire , Denon YX 7553 ND, 33 1/3 rpm ( Jap ) 1975

 

Very rare Japanese only release

 

 

This is definitely one of the hardest to get in the Steve Lacy discography!

And it is a fantastic musical document.

Steve Lacy on his first (?) trip to Japan, of many to come.

Improvising and playing his own compositions with the cream of the cream of the creative Japanese scene. The way the Togashi, Midorikawa, Satoh, Yoshisawa and Ikeda are dealing with the material and the music is astonishing. The interacting seems to really fit the way that the compositional material is constructed. The string dominated sound of he group works extremely well with the sole sax playing by maestro Lacy.

Lacy was studying traditional Japanese music for a longer time, especially the music of the Shakuhachi, and you can hear traces of that influence very clear on this beautiful piece of vinyl.

A great recording of an amazing meeting.

This vinyl beast is as rare as they come and was probably only released in a couple of hundred copies back in the day.

Was there ever an obi on this one… we wonder….?

the very first recording of the classic “deadline”!

and a killing version of “The Wire”, which s originally dedicated to Albert Ayler.

There is a UK magazine for modern music that named their mag after this vinyl record… a good start….

 

 

Steve Lacy – soprano sax

Masahiko Togashi – percussion

Masahiko Satoh – piano

Keiki Midorikawa – cello and bass

Yoshio Ikeda – bass

Motoharu Yoshisawa – bass