The Joan Miro Foundation Concert

Tracklisting:

01. Introduction by Steve Lacy 0:22
02. Shuffle Boil (Thelonious Monk) 3:00
03. Eronel (Thelonious Monk) 2:40
04. Evidence (Thelonious Monk) 3:48
05. Reflections (Thelonious Monk) 2:57
06. Misterioso (Thelonious Monk) 3:30
07. Work (Thelonious Monk) 2:44
08. Steve Lacy speaks 0:51
09. Art (Lacy-Melville) 4:19
10. Steve Lacy speak 0:44
11. ZA (Lacy-Schwitters) 2:44
12. Die Gazelle Zittert (Lacy-Schwitters) 2:52
13. One Day (Lacy-Schwitters) 2:21
14. Dome (Lacy-Schwitters) 1:13
15. Steve Lacy speaks 0:26
16. Avis (Lacy-Soupault) 2:49
17. Wish (Lacy-Picabia) 2:41
18. Steve Lacy speaks 0:31
19. Como é Triste Venecia (Lacy-Niccolai) 2:25
20. Steve Lacy speak 0:16
21. Jacks Blues (Lacy-Creeley) 2:11
22. Heaven (Lacy-Creeley) 2:00
23. Train Going By (Lacy-Creeley) 2:56

Total time: 50:24 min.


Recorded live at the Joan Miró Foundation, in Barcelona, on June 8, 1995

An original EDICIONES NOVA ERA release (1999)
Lyrics reprinted in the booklet.


Executive producers:
Joan Solsona & Antoni Robert


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Review:

"Recorded at 1999's Joan Miró Foundation benefit, this duet between soprano saxophone legend Steve Lacy and singer Irene Abei is exactly what it seems: a spare set of duets assembled for this particular concert. Lacy and Abei assembled poems from numerous poets of the 19th and 20th centuries and set about creating a context whereby music and word would be showcased together as interrelated entities. That they could exist apart was not a question worth entertaining, given the placement of a third party -- the poet -- between the singer and the song as played by an interlocutor (Lacy). The set begins innocently enough, with Lacy running through a short set of Monk tunes -- "Shuffle Boil," "Eronel," "Evidence," "Reflections," "Misterioso," and "Work."

As is customary, Lacy imbues the originals with his own sense of advanced harmonic displacement and sly detachment. His virtuosity reveals itself only in the breaks from the tunes' regular intervals as he slips from one key to the next, altering the cadence of solo responses and rearranging the tonic roots of whatever composition he is playing. This short set is a stunner. Lacy then speaks a brief introduction and introduces Abei, who joins him in setting the work of Kurt Schwitters, Phillipe Soupault, Francis Picabia, and Robert Creeley to music. And this is where the set falls apart. Abei is an art singer to be sure. Her melodic faculty is very developed and her timing is impeccable [...]"

Thom Jurek -All Music Guide