Byard Lancaster obit

Byard Lancaster, Jazz Alto Saxophonist, Dies at 70

 

He was not on the list.

Byard Lancaster, 70, the Philadelphia jazz musician who earned an international reputation as an avant-garde musical explorer in the 1960s and 1970s, died of cancer Thursday, Aug. 23, at KeystoneCare in Wyndmoor, according to his sister, Mary Ann Lancaster Tyler.

In the decades that followed his early fame, he became a local institution, playing saxophone and flute on the streets, in subway concourses, and at clubs around the city.

Mr. Lancaster played alto, soprano, and tenor saxophones, as well as flute, clarinet, and piano. In the '60s he toured Europe with the Philadelphia free jazz drummer Sunny Murray, and he recorded as a leader as early as 1966, displaying his improvisational skills on his album It's Not Up to Us.

He attended two colleges, one for music, before attending the Berklee College of Music. He moved to New York City and participated in jam sessions which included saxophonist Archie Shepp and drummer Elvin Jones.

In 1965, he recorded Sunny Murray Quintet with the album's eponymous musician in New York, performed in the Parisian Actuel festival with him in 1969, and continued to work in the drummer's groups throughout his career. By the 1970s, Lancaster had played with musicians such as McCoy Tyner, Khan Jamal, and Sun Ra, as well as some outside of jazz, such as blues pianist Memphis Slim and blues guitarist Johnny Copeland.

Near the end of his life he performed regularly with cellist David Eyges and recorded as a leader and sideman for the record label Creative Improvised Music Projects

Discography

As leader / co-leader

1968: It's Not Up to Us (Vortex)

1972: Live at Macalester College (Dogtown) as the J. R. Mitchell/Byard Lancaster Experience

1974: Us (Palm) with Steve McCall, Sylvain Marc

1974: Mother Africa (Palm) with Clint Jackson III

1974: Exactement (Palm) with Keno Speller

1977: Exodus (Philly Jazz)

1977: Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (Vol 2) (Casablanca/Douglas, Knit Classics) as Flight To Sanity

1979: Funny Funky Rib Crib (Vendémiaire/Palm)

1979: Documentation: The End of a Decade (Bellows)

1979: Personal Testimony (Then and Now) (Concert Artists)

1988: Lightnin' Strikes! (Black And Blue) with David Eyges

1992: My Pure Joy (Black Fire)

1993: Worlds (Gazell)

2000: Byard Lancaster Trio (Soultrane)

2001: Philadelphia Spirit in New York (CIMP) with Odean Pope, Ed Crockett, J.R. Mitchell

2003: The Out Cry (Lancaster) as Crockett, Mitchell & Lancaster

2005: "A" Heavenly Sweetness (Isma'a, Discograph)

2005: Pam Africa (Spirit Room)

2006: Soul Unity (Heavenly Sweetness) as Thunderbird Service

2006: Ancestral Link Hotel (Spirit Room)

As sideman

With Arcana

 

Arc of the Testimony (Axiom, 1997)

With Big Youth

 

A Luta Continua (Heartbeat, 1988)

With Change of the Century Orchestra

 

Change of the Century Orchestra (JAS, 1999)

With Cool Waters

 

Cool Waters (NCM, 1993)

With Johnny Copeland

 

Copeland Special (Rounder, 1981)

Jungle Swing (Verve, 1995)

Texas Party (DeAgostini, 1996)

Honky Tonkin' (Bullseye, 1999)

With Bill Dixon

 

Intents and Purposes (RCA Victor, 1967)

With David Eyges

 

The Arrow (Music Unlimited, 1981)

Crossroads (Music Unlimited, 1982)

With fONKSQUISh

 

Useless Education (Promo Preview, 2008)

With Doug Hammond

 

Folks (Idibib, 1980)

With Kip Hanrahan

 

Coup de tête (American Clavé, 1981)

With Ronald Shannon Jackson

 

Eye on You (About Time Records, 1980)

Nasty (Moers Music, 1981)

With Khan Jamal

 

Infinity (Stash 278, 1984)

Cubano Chant (Jambrio, 2000)

Black Awareness (CIMP, 2005)

Impressions of Coltrane (SteepleChase, 2009)

With Dwight James

 

Inner Heat (Cadence, 1983)

With Bill Laswell

 

Jazzonia (Douglas, 1998)

Moody's Mood for Love (Douglas, 1998)

Sacred System - Nagual Site (Wicklow/BMG, 1998)

Operazone - The Redesign (Knitting Factory, 2000)

Method of Defiance - Inamorata (Ohm Resistance, 2007)

With Garrett List

 

American Images (Horo, 1978)

Fire & Ice (Lovely Music, 1982)

The New York Takes (Carbon 7, 1998)

With Geoff Leigh and Frank Wuyts

 

From Here to Drums (No Man's Land, 1988)

With Byron Morris and Gerald Wise

 

Unity (EPI, 1972; Eremite, 2017)

With Sunny Murray

 

Sunny Murray (ESP Disk, 1966)

An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker) (BYG, 1970)

Charred Earth (Kharma, 1977)

Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions (Vols 1 and 5) (Casablanca/Douglas, 1977; Knit Classics, 1999)

With Robert Musso

 

Innermedium (1999, DIW Records)

With Errol Parker

 

Graffiti (Sahara, 1980)

With Odean Pope

 

The Ponderer (Soul Note, 1990)

With Vito Ricci

 

Postones (Creation Production Company, 1983)

With Sounds of Liberation

 

New Horizons (Dogtown, 1972)

Unreleased (Columbia University 1973) (Dogtown, 2018)

With Pierre Van Dormael, David Linx and James Baldwin

 

A Lover's Question (Label Bleu, 1999)

With Marzette Watts

 

Marzette Watts and Company (ESP-Disk, 1966)

With Larry Young

 

Heaven on Earth (Blue Note, 1968)