Byard Lancaster/Steve McCall/Sylvin Marc

Byard Lancaster
Mother Africa/Love Always
Souffle Continu Records FFL CD 095

Paris was a popular destination for American Jazz musicians in the early 1970s. One who made the trek was tenor/alto saxophonist/flutist Byard Lancaster (1942-2012) who had worked with Sunny Murray and Buron Greene and was able to record a series of widely different discs in the French capital. US and Mother Africa/Love Always are fine examples of his ideas. A trio date with AACM member drummer Steve McCall (1933-1989), the first from 1973 takes its cues from Free Jazz and Free Bop, while the second, recorded a year later mixes Jazz with tranches of World Music and R&B.

Interestingly enough these discs feature local electric bass players, who had both played with Gallic Free Jazz keyboardist Jef Gilson, who organized the sessions and plays on one track of the second disc. US’ Madagascar-born Sylvin Marc later worked with Didier Lockwood and Eddy Louis, while Mother Africa/Love Always’ Jean-François Catoire played with similar groups later in the decade as did drummer Jonathan Dickinson. Two Americans are also on the latter session conga drummer Keno Speller, who was on Lancaster’s first LP and would continue with Rock and Jazz; and trumpeter Clint Jackson III who recorded with Khan Jamal.

Betraying his more traditional roots on US, Lancaster moves among Ecstatic Jazz of the time, more restrained Free Bop and dips into R&B affiliations at the end. When the last style arrives McCall reverts to a backbeat, Marc intensifies his bass thumps and Lancaster provides some biting bar-walking riffs. Vocalizing timbres alongside gentling puffs characterizes Lancaster’s flute work on “Flore”,  with drum rattles and cymbal snaps backing leading up to transverse mouthpiece bites.

Meanwhile US’ centrepiece is “Mc Call All”, the over 21-minute Free Jazz track that begins the set. Playing alto, Lancaster confirms his distance from first generation New Thingers by interjecting lyrical interludes within the extended high energy track. With Marc’s tolling bass as anchor, the saxophonist creates an array of reed feints, flatulence and freneticism, pivoting to tongue stops, miultiphonic expressions, horizontal cries, split tones, circular breathing and melismatic screams. Often he uses prestissimo, altissimo or even higher pitches. Throughout McCall crashes and beats all parts of his kit, though both rhythm players follow the saxophonist’s lead when he slows down to briefly dip into more balanced  meditative expressions.

When it comes to Mother Africa/Love Always however, it’s Jackson who sometimes diverts the tunes away from ethnic and free form variations into motifs that are slower, more horizontal and melodic, Sometimes he brings the saxophonist along. Other times Lancaster uses altissimo runs and growling scoops to encourage the trumpeter’s move towards gritty triplets and slippery note bending. With Jackson’s regular preference for portamento development and bass string hand pumps, conga slaps and drum press rolls, it’s often the saxophonist’s back-and-forth reed buzzes and inner horn yells that preserve the experimental focus.

Besides including Gilson’s brief  responsive piano comping, “Love Always” emphasizes the band’s light and dark duality, with Rock-like current prominent via drum claps, relentless electric bass pumps and doubled horn harmonies. Yet during the evolution, mellow trumpet ripples are met by equivalent slurs from the saxophonist with tremolo song-like flutters pushing the performance towards simple story telling.

“Mother Africa (in three parts)” is probably the strangest cut. That’s because separated by brief silences, the performances appears to be subsequent takes of the same theme elaborated in three different tempos, each speedier than the previous one. Initially animated with conga slaps, bass string ratchets and thick drum parts, a simple, bouncing and linear melody is developed. The second sequence ups the tempo, stops and starts while balancing on prominent bass guitar stops and jagged trumpet triplets. Additionally reed screams weave in-and-out of the narrative. A bowed bass line and elevated grace notes from Jackson that turn almost Latinesque characterize the third sequence until reed spetrofluctuation and hard percussion wallops reprise the original theme. Distracting throughout are audible snatches of dialogue between the musicians and the control room. If two out of three takes were rehearsals, why include them at all?

Overall though these discs – and others recorded by Lancaster in Paris –  add paragraphs to international Jazz history at that time. Some fine sounds are captured, but so are some aural missteps.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing: US: 1. Mc Call All 2. Flore 3. John III 4. Us 5. Just-Test

Personnel: US: Byard Lancaster (alto and tenor saxophones and flute); Sylvin Marc (electric bass) and Steve McCall (drums)

Track Listing: Mother: 1. We The Blessed 2. Mother Africa (in three parts)  3. Love Always*

Personnel: Mother: Clint Jackson III (trumpet and bells); Byard Lancaster (alto saxophone and voice); Jef Gilson (piano)#; Jean-François Catoire (bass and electric bass); Jonathan Dickinson (drums) and Keno Speller (conga drums and bells)