Steve Lacy Five

Steve Lacy Five: The Way

by Clifford Allen
October 27, 2004

Steve Lacy once said that his gradual engagement with free improvisation, “dropping the tunes" as he put it, was a mode in which he (or any musician) could get to that indescribable “thing" on the other side. It is also likely that his intense study of the songbooks of Monk, Nichols and Ellington in the '50s and early '60s not only led to freedom, but also to the unique compositional style that came from free playing. In a sense, each ...