Steve Lacy, John Heward

This live concert is perhaps one of the last recordings from soprano saxophone legend Steve Lacy. Lacy and percussionist John Heward first met in Paris in 1975. Though they remained in regular contact through the years, they did not actually play together until this concert in Montreal on 20 June 2003. Two months later Lacy was diagnosed with cancer, and died in June 2004.

Lacy suggested to Heward that he wanted to end this improvisation with the motif Recessional for Oliver Johnson, as a tribute to Lacy's long-time drummer. The motif appears toward the end of this set-long piece, and lasts until its conclusion. This concert was recorded at the “Suoni per il Popolo” festival at the Sala Rosa in Montreal, Canada.

John Heward is a Montreal-based drummer/painter/sculptor who has quietly become one of the world's leading percussionist working in the field of contemporary improvised music, new music, and avant jazz. He has played with music luminaries including David Prentice, Glenn Spearman, Malcolm Goldstein, Joe McPhee, Dominic Duval, Lisle Ellis, Paul Bley, and many others, who have sought him out during their Canadian sojourns. As Bill Smith of Coda put it, “John is one of Canada's foremost improvising percussionists.”

Steve Lacy, soprano saxophone
John Heward, drums, African bells, kalimba