News & Updates — out-jazz

A happy birthday shoutout to free jazz reedsman Byard Lancaster, a dude who always had a funky side to him! He came out of Philly and spent some time in Boston before participating in the NYC free jazz revolution, playing often with drummer Sunny Murray. He worked with Elvin Jones, Archie Shepp, Sun Ra and Bill Dixon in the '60s, as well as releasing his own 1968 classic It's Not Up To Us album (with Sonny Sharrock). The '70s found him releasing a string of what are now "rare groove classics" for the French label Palm and others (with Khan...

Yet another great born on this day include the amazing vocalist/activist/songwriter/actress Abbey Lincoln. Her long career included tender ballads, fierce firespeak, protest music, screen acting and she was an inspiring presence on the scene for civil rights, creative music and powerful vocals. From rural Michigan, the early '50s found her singing professionally in Los Angeles and Honolulu. She made her first record in '55 and one with Benny Carter the next year. A string of classics with Riverside and Candid came after, including Abbey Is Blue and Straight Ahead. Starting in 1959 she worked with (and eventually married) Max Roach....

One of the great percussionists of the jazz-fusion era, Dom Um Romão was most notable as a member of Weather Report but was also a pioneering bossa nova musician. He started playing in Rio in the '40s and in the '50s formed the Copa Trio (with Dom Salvador) and helped launch the bossa explosion with Tom Jobim and João Gilberto. In the '60s he joined Sergio Mendes' band and started cutting his own albums. After a move to the US he replaced fellow Brazilian Airto in Weather Report in '71 and made several great records as a leader. He continued...

Brazilian percussionist Naná Vasconcelos was a steady figure in the world of experimental/improvised/"ethnic" jazz for decades. His work with Codona, Don Cherry, Egberto Gismonti, Milton Nascimento and others show a great contribution, especially in bringing the berimbau into a progressive jazz context. Born in Recife, he came from a musical family and participated in samba bands as a teenager and started playing in professional groups in his early 20s. Early appearances included recordings and performances with Os Mutantes, Gato Barbieri, Nascimento and Herb Alpert. In the mid-'70s, he made a great trio album with Perry Robinson and Badal Roy (Kundalini)...

Happy birthday to the world's greatest soprano saxophone artist, Steven Lackritz aka Steve Lacy. Polish-American and born in NYC, Lacy played in dixieland bands before helping launch the out-jazz revolution. He played early on with Pee Wee Russell, Jimmy Rushing, Gil Evans and others before joining Cecil Taylor's group, with their first album appearing in 1956. Lacy's 1958 album Reflections was the first all-Thelonious Monk program on an album. One of the planet's deepest diggers into the catalogue of Monk, the great composer of whom Lacy used to work with in the early '60s, he went on to produce several...