Inzwischen gibt’s einen Nachruf auf Byard Lancaster (1942-2012):
http://www.philly.com/philly/obituaries/20120825_Byard_Lancaster__70__famed_Phila__jazz_musician.html
„He loved Albert Ayler, and he loved Coltrane, too,“ [vibraphonist Khan] Jamal said yesterday from his home in Center City. „But we followed our own path. He was a damn good player,“ Jamal said of his friend, with whom he most recently recorded on the 2009 album Impressions of Coltrane.
„He could do everything. From avant-garde to funk to straight jazz. And in music, you have guys who are takers and guys who were givers. He was a giver.“
Mr. Lancaster was a respected experimenter but also a crowd-pleaser, and his musical interests were broad. He carried business cards that read „From A Love Supreme to The Sex Machine,“ linking the epochal album by Coltrane to the funk of James Brown.
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In 2001 and 2003, Lancaster was arrested by SEPTA police for playing in Center City concourses. Both times he sued the agency for First Amendment violations, winning settlements of $15,000 and $18,000, respectively. In 2001, he told The Inquirer that street musicians bring „culture, vibe, and spirit“ to the city: „Musicians got to make a living, and everybody likes music. You can’t live without music.“
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As a child he studied piano, and, about age 7, began playing saxophone and flute, said his sister, a music teacher and ethnomusicologist.
„I knew Byard was going to be a musician when he was 3 years old,“ she said, recalling that at a family gathering, the boy got everyone’s attention, „then sang ‚Back in the Saddle Again,‘ that old Gene Autry song. I said, ‚Oh, he is such a show-off.‘ „
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #162: Neuentdeckungen aus dem Katalog von CTI Records, 8.4., 22:00; # 163: 13.5., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba