The Magic of Byard Lancaster III
1973. Or was it 1974. Anyway, it was a hot summer day! Uta, Christiane, and me. We had six days in Paris and lived in two quite rotten appartments in Abbèsses. I was looking for a jazz concert that lived up to my expectations of the city of love‘s mythical history, and, by chance, I found a record store with incredible albums: the rarest works of Sun Ra, German hard core Free Jazz from FMP, a Michael Cuscuna label (that would pubilish gems like a duo album of Charlie Haden, the best Sunny Fortune album ever, and a brilliant Dave Liebman longplayer, with a fine version of the Beatles‘ „Within You, Without You“). The whole world in a little store.
Of course all the early ECM stuff – and, unknown for my hungry ears, the French label „Palm“ which had its office just around the corner. I had never ever heard of a guy called Byard Lancaster III (who had just released an album on that label parisienne). The manager told me about this black American guy, he described his style, on the sax, on the piano. And he would play that week in a small theatre in „Mouffetard“ (maybe that was the name of the place, or the area). We went there. A French bass player who did a fine job, Steve McCall (i think, it was him, the magician, on drums and percussion) – and Byard Lancaster III. They only played one set, maybe 45 minutes, and I was totally entranced. I had entered the „blow-away-zone“.
In the time being there, i bought his long player „Us“ which was highly recommended in „le jazz magazine“. Later, when being asked about the best concerts of my life, this evening always popped up. It was free, melodic, soulful, it was running down every road of the avantgarde with blissful nonchalance – not hesitating to dive into some Ray Charles territory with heartfelt singing and piano playing.
At that time I still didn’t know the books of Julio Cortazar, but it still makes me shiver to think that this guy (who later became one of my favourite writers ever, a man who lived jazz, by the way) had been sitting two or three rows behind me. In the years to come, I played Byard‘s album titled „Us“ incredibly often – and, now, for the first time ever, Souffle Continu will open the archive and bring all of Byard‘s albums for „Palm Records“ back to the world from dusty shelves.
8 Kommentare
Michael Engelbrecht
Go here for more information:
http://soufflecontinurecords.com/
Souffle Continu records is thrilled to present Byard Lancaster – The Complete Palm Recordings 1973-1974 reissues available september 27th, 2024 as a 7LP’s deluxe box set and 4 stand alone CD editions.
Olaf Westfeld
Thank you for this walk down memory lane. I almost feel like having sat somewhere between Julio & you. And I think somebody must tell Santa Claus to give me that box set as a christmas present.
BTW: „Orange Fish Tears“, the album I wrote about two weeks ago, also originally came out on Palm Records and was reissued by Souffle Continu last year.
Michael Engelbrecht
This is what I call synchronicity! Really, that was from Palm, too?! A really small label from a distant century.
I didn’t play journalist in the first place and ordered the package of four cds regularly via PayPal.
Afterwards i contacted Souffle Continu, and now i can listen to every track of the box on mp3 files.
They even showed me a discreet access to downloading via DropBox, but i have severe problems with Dropbox🥹 if i can download a track of my desire in time, it might end on JazzFacts in September….
Norbert Ennen
must have
Anonymous
Indeed
Lajla
Jetzt komme ich so langsam auf flowworker an. In was für Welten wir geschickt werden und uns fürderhin schicken. Wirklich spannend.
Michael Engelbrecht
From an old blog entry on the magic manafonistas blog:
Wenige, vielleicht hundert, Schallplatten erfuhren in meinen Siebziger Jahren in Würzburg eine dermasse hohe Wertschätzung wie die beiden Alben „Geechee Recollections“ und „Sweet Earth Flying“ des Altsaxofonisten Marion Brown, die 1973 und 1974 bei Impulse Records erschienen sind. Die Besprechung von Hartmut Geerken verschlang eine jüngere Ausgabe von mir im Zeitschriftenladen Montanus, und keine Woche später lieferte „jazz by post“ die Ware. Es iat erstaunlich, wie aehr man bei manchen Alben nicht nur die Umstände des ersten Hörens erinnert, sondern sogar das sommerliche Wetter in der City von Würzburg, als ich die Zeilen von Herrn Geerken im „Jazz Podium“ las – seiner Expertise trauts ich in jenen Jahren blind, und verdanke ihm auch sehr sinnliche wie blitzgescheite Einführungen in das Werk von Sun Ra. Jahrzehnte später hatte ich noch einen kleinen Briefwechsel mit dem musikalischen Globetrotter, der auf seinen, mit dem Goethe-Institut verbandelten, Reisen durch die Welt manch obskure Trommelteile mitbrachte, und Marion Brown das eine und andere aus seinem Instrumentenkoffer schenkte – für die Sessions von „Geechee Recollections“. Klein ist die Welt. Und so waren diese beiden Platten heute (auf einer einzigen CD vereint) meine Reisebegleitung in der ersten Fahrt mit meinem neuen alten Toyota Yaris, ein Schnäppchen, keine Frage. Ich habe diese beiden Platten in meiner kleinen Hucke im Studentenheim in der Friedenstrasse gehört, später in Gerbrunn, Bergeinöden, wieder in Würzburg, in Daun in der Eifel, in Dortmund und Aachen. Ich lasse die Töne unbeschrieben. Den Drummer Steve McCall hatte ich in jenen Jahren ein al live erlebt im Pariser Theatre de Mouffétard, and der Seite von Byard Lancaster III, und zähle es zu meinen unvergesslichen Jazzkonzerten.
Norbert Ennen
Vista von 1975 ist auch sehr gut.