Remembering Lacy’s Way

  I  

hatOLOGY will reissue a remastered version of the Steve Lacy Five’s 1979 effort, The Way.

The album features Lacy on soprano sax, Steve Potts on alto and soprano saxes, Irène Aebi on cello, violin and vocals, Kent Carter on double bass, and Oliver Johnson on drums. They recorded the album during a concert in Basel, Switzerland, on Jan. 23, 1979.

The title of the record comes from an old Chinese text written by Lao-Tzu. The music was composed starting in 1959, with each part of the album’s cycle a tribute to a jazz artist: “Existence” (dawn) for John Coltrane, “The Way” (morning) for Alberto Giacometti, “Bone” (noon) for Lester Young, “Name” (afternoon) for Charlie Parker, “The Breath” (evening) for Gil Evans and “Life On Its Way” (night) for Duke Ellington.

For more information, visit www.hathut.com



  • Sheila_Jordan_by_Mark_Sheldon_copy.jpeg

    Jordan was a dyed-in-the-wool bebopper whose formative musical experiences were with Charlie Parker.

  • DownBeat_palmieri.jpg

    “I don’t guess I’m going to excite you; I know I’m going to excite you,” Palmieri said in an August 1994 DownBeat feature.

  • Buster_Williams_by_Jimmy_Katz_copy.jpg

    “What I got from Percy was the dignity of playing the bass,” Buster Williams said of Percy Heath.

  • 02_Ryan_Truesdell_%28studio%2C_conducting%29%2C_photo_by_TODD_CHALFANT_lo_res.jpg

    ​“I love the place that fate or whatever has positioned me in Gil Evans’ life and legacy,” said Ryan Truesdell.

  • Don_and_Maureen_Sickler_by_Richard_Halterman_copy_2.jpg

    Don and Maureen Sickler serve as the keepers of engineer Rudy Van Gelder’s flame at Van Gelder Studio, perhaps the most famous recording studio in jazz history.