The Rent [Live]

The Rent [Live]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com's Best of 1999
This recording, an invigorating, unedited two-set performance by the Steve Lacy Trio, simply crackles with life. Set before an adoring crowd, Lacy and company respond by turning in a white-hot set that careens from Monk covers to poetry recitals to scorching solos. The crowd, of course, loved it. So did we. --S. Duda

Amazon.com
Recorded in its entirety and without interruption (set 1 fills the first disc, while the second set is contained on disc 2), The Rent precisely captures the brilliant, in-the-moment creative lightning of live jazz music. With Lacy's reputation as an angular, minimalist player, the overflow of emotive blowing and chatty interplay between artist and audience may come as something of a surprise, but there is Lacy answering questions, announcing tunes, and even reciting poetry. The crowd responds enthusiastically, and after the first tune (Monk's "Shuffle Boil"), the connection between performer and audience is cemented. From there things just get better. Lacy and longtime bandmates Jean-Jacques Avenel (bass) and John Betsch (drums) manage to increase the stratospheric level of their playing and still engage the audience as the evening rockets forward. While Lacy isn't gifted with a set of iron lungs, his music has never been about power. Lacy's strengths come from his ability to direct and articulate his speed-of-light idea flow. On The Rent he is remarkably precise and nimble as he darts from idea to idea only to return just in the nick of time to nail the chorus. Lacy's tone is unfailingly accurate and, even in the midst of the most demanding passage, remarkably consistent. No note is wasted. There is no filler. This is the Steve Lacy Trio at its absolute finest. Straight, no chaser. --S. Duda

The Rent [Live]

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Jazz Music: The Rent [Live]

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