Byard Lancaster: It's Not Up to Us

[John L]

This 1968 Byard Lancaster session with Sonny Sharrock (g), Eric Gravatt (d), Jerome Hunter (bass), and Keno Speller (congas) was just reissued on Water Records (Water115).

I had never heard it before and bought it out of curiousity. I find the session to be rather uneven, but the high points are quite striking. Lancaster has a very personal approach to the alto based on a nuanced and highly lyrical use of bends and slurs. Sonny Sharrock and Eric Gravatt give very tasty support throughout. This one is staying in my rotation for a while.

Anybody else heard it?

Edited July 29, 2003 by John L

[brownie]

Loved the energy and the constant flow of ideas on that album when it came out

(was it in 1969?. And Sonny Sharrock was really bringing new sounds to the guitar.

Byard Lancaster was playing in Paris pretty often in the 60s and 70s. He still

does from time to time. Should go and check him out next time when he plays here.

[king ubu]

how's that one? just left it at a second hand store (picked up some Shepp, Brotzmann, Last Exit, Dexter). worth some?

ubu

[alankin]

I think "It's Not Up to Us" is from 1966. Byard also plays some very nice flute on several tracks.

I believe he goes to France about once or twice a year.

[brownie]

Gave a fresh listen to the Vortex LP. Outstanding music.

The back cover indicates a 1968 Atlantic Records copyright.

By the way, the cover was shot by that photography master Lee Friedlander as

was the backcover image of Lancaster.

Also while doing a search on Lancaster on the Internet, found this disturbing story:

http://citypaper.net/articles/011101/cb.ci...t.jazzman.shtml

Hope this has been settled and he is free to play his music on the streets of

Philadelphia.

[John L]

Thanks for that interesting link, Brownie.

Could it be that it was recorded in 1966 and released in 1968? The liner notes somehow neglected listing the recording date. Although the difference is only two years, they were important years.

[brownie]

The album was recorded in two sessions in late 1966 and early 1967. I checked the

Tom Lord discography and noticed that there were a number of unissued tracks.

Guess these don't appear on the CD reissue.

[John L]

Thanks!

[brownie]

About that Byard Lancaster album, The Lord lists the following:

December 18, 1966 session (Lancaster, Sharrock, Hunter, Gravatt)

- Garden of Prayer Unissued

- Last Summer Unissued

- Ghost Unissued

- Mr. A.A. Unissued

- Dogtown Unissued

- Satan Vortex 2003

- John's Children Vortex 2003

- Misty Vortex 2003

- Over the Rainbow Vortex 2003

- Hello Eric Vortex 2003

July 12, 1967 session (same musicians)

- Dogtown Vortex 2003

- Mr. A.A. Vortex 2003

- Peanut Unissued

- Hello Eric Unissued

- Traning Unissued

- It's Not Up to Us Vortex 2003

- Last Summer Vortex 2003

- Untitled (electric b solo) Unissued

- Untitled (guitar solo) Unissued

Quite a lot of material still in the can!

[alankin]

Also while doing a search on Lancaster on the Internet, found this disturbing story:

http://citypaper.net/articles/011101/cb.ci...t.jazzman.shtml

Hope this has been settled and he is free to play his music on the streets of

Philadelphia.

He won his lawsuit against the transit agency and they've promised not to harrass him for playing...

(He actually won two to lawsuits. The article is about the first one. Septa was stupid enough to arrest him again a year later. I went to his criminal hearing. The judge was rather amusing before he threw out the case.

[jazzbo]

I was really bowled over by this release, and it is a very great sounding cd on my system. Praises to Water, and here's looking forward to the Eddie Gales.

[The Mule]

I was lucky enough to snag this in the used bins and I think it's a GREAT record. Lancaster's take on "Over the Rainbow" alone makes it worth picking up.

[Pim]

https://www.superiorviaduct.com/collections/upcoming
 

apparently there’s a vinyl reissue upcoming

[colinmce]

Good news, both of those albums should always be in print.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, although I chafe at the overabundance of random-ass reissues, this and Black Woman have been OOP for far too long. Glad to see they're getting reissued.

[Pim]

Just listened again trough Spotify and this remains a special one to me. It’s pretty unique in its sound, not really comparable to something else I know. The sound of Superior Viaducts Nation Time is great. I’ll get this. 

Edited May 22, 2023 by Pim

[clifford_thornton]

I may have mentioned this before, but it took years for It's Not Up To Us to reach me. Had the record forever, but preferred his playing on other dates, notably with Sunny Murray, Bill Dixon, Burton Greene, et al.. But at this point I think it's a gem.

The unissued material is enticing. The Palms are also excellent... supposedly a session with Eddy Louiss was recorded for Gilson's label but remains unreleased. There's also that bevy of unreleased Dogtown dates that Lancaster reported to Mike Hames for the latter's discography book. Now there's a rare volume...

[unitstructures]

On 8/6/2003 at 1:33 AM, brownie said:

About that Byard Lancaster album, The Lord lists the following:

 

December 18, 1966 session (Lancaster, Sharrock, Hunter, Gravatt)

- Garden of Prayer Unissued

- Last Summer Unissued

- Ghost Unissued

- Mr. A.A. Unissued

- Dogtown Unissued

- Satan Vortex 2003

- John's Children Vortex 2003

- Misty Vortex 2003

- Over the Rainbow Vortex 2003

- Hello Eric Vortex 2003

 

July 12, 1967 session (same musicians)

- Dogtown Vortex 2003

- Mr. A.A. Vortex 2003

- Peanut Unissued

- Hello Eric Unissued

- Traning Unissued

- It's Not Up to Us Vortex 2003

- Last Summer Vortex 2003

- Untitled (electric b solo) Unissued

- Untitled (guitar solo) Unissued

 

Quite a lot of material still in the can!

Would love to hear that stuff sometime!

Glad they reissued this because the old copies were getting expensive, I think I paid about $50 for my original lp

[Eric]

Just bought the vinyl reissue on Superior Viaduct.  Wow - what a wonderful album!

[Pim]

10 hours ago, Eric said:

Just bought the vinyl reissue on Superior Viaduct.  Wow - what a wonderful album!

Still waiting for it to arrive here in Europe. No pre order avaible trough Amazon.

[mjazzg]

Honest Jons have it in stock. Is their postage to you prohibitive? Probably with the post-Brexit tax

[Pim]

5 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Honest Jons have it in stock. Is their postage to you prohibitive? Probably with the post-Brexit tax

Oh yes unfortunately it is.

[Rabshakeh]

6 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Honest Jons have it in stock. Is their postage to you prohibitive? Probably with the post-Brexit tax

In store? I may need to pay a visit.

[Eric]

10 hours ago, Pim said:

Still waiting for it to arrive here in Europe. No pre order avaible trough Amazon.

I bought directly from the Superior Viaduct website, fast shipping, albeit to the US.  Nice quiet vinyl BTW.

[mjazzg]

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

In store? I may need to pay a visit.

On their site, I forgot to look for it at KX on Friday 

Are these Super Viaduct reissues limited does anyone know?