Lacy, Steve – Three – “N.Y Capers & Quirks ” – [Hat Hut]

In 1979, the top-selling jazz album of the year was Herb Alpert’s RISE. And the Steve Lacy 3 played a concert at Soundscape in NYC. Coincidence? You decide. But seriously, this Steve Lacy concert sounds as fresh now as the day it was recorded. I’ve always loved the jazz trio format, especially for free improv. (Three instruments are about all I can hear simultaneously without losing the plot!) And here we’ve got three first-class jazzbos: Steve Lacy on sax, Ronnie Boykins on bass, and Dennis Charles on drums. The conversation is freewheeling but not too noisy, experimental but grounded in melody. Proof once again that valuable music was being made in the 70′s…if you only knew where to find it.