Findings #1: Steve Lacy's Book 'H' of 'Practitioners'

This week I wanted to highlight a rather obscure set of compositions written by Steve Lacy in 1983 that I’ve been checking out called the “Book of “Practitioners”. I think Steve describes them best in his book ‘Findings’:

"These pieces were written (‘83) for my own use, as exercises and studies for the saxophone… they also contain many of the characteristic ‘licks’, which comprise the language that I use, in the different kinds of improvisational musics that I perform in… Each is a portrait of, and an homage to, a distinguished practitioner of a particular art, to each of whom I owe a debt of gratitude, for their instruction and inspiration The form is constant: after a brief introduction, evocative of the personality of the subject, a series of repeated patterns unfolds in strict sequence, until the portrait is complete, then the introduction returns, leading to the improvised middle section, which is based on the mode implicit in the introduction. When this section has been filled to the brim, the main set of motifs returns, thus completing the picture.”

When one digs into the scores (the music for Book ‘H’ are available in ‘Findings’ in both concert pitch and Bb) you quickly find out that these compositions aren’t your average saxophone etude. Few of the six compositions can be performed on soprano saxophone without a strong grasp of at least the first two or three (depending on your horn) altissimo notes, with several of the pieces reaching as high as G# above the standard high F# (or F). Often phrases will encompass the entire range of the horn from low Bb into the altissimo within the span of just a few bars. Anyone who has spent any time listening to or learning Steve Lacy’s music will immediately recognize a few characteristics of his style, namely intervallic phrases and a liberal use of repeats. Lines are regularly comprised of only two or three different intervals spun out across the range of the horn. Often lines will span the entire range of the horn in as short a span as one or two bars and are regularly repeated between two and four times such as the following example from 'Hubris' that is repeated three times at various dynamics:

It may not look like much but when practiced in context with all the necessary repeats these lines can be punishing and will show you exactly where your embouchure needs more work! This may well be baseless speculation on my part but many of the melodies in Practitioners resemble various exercises in Nicholas Slonimsky's 'Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns'. If anyone has worked through that book you'll recognize the wide, sometimes symmetrical, and non-tonal shapes that make up most of the book.

(Check out the book for a full explanation of terminology)

Historically it would be plausible that Lacy would have worked from Slonimsky as he was a friendly with Coltrane who was (likely) introduced to the book by his teacher Dennis Sandole. I don't have any proof of this particular transmission of information but it is something that I return to as I study Lacy's music as well as Slonimsky. Maybe some day I'll have to go deeper on this possibility and see if it holds water. We'll see!

Like many of his records “Hocus Pocus” is a tad rare but luckily there is a YouTube playlist consisting of all 6 compositions in Book ‘H’ which can be found here. There are several other excellent interpretations of not only Book ‘H’ but of two other books he wrote; ‘W’ written later in 1983, and ‘P’ written between 1985-86, by saxophonists Josh Sinton (Book ‘H’), Jon Raskin (Book ‘W’ and Book ‘P’), and clarinetist Ben Goldberg with pianist Michael Coleman (Book ‘H’). While I’m not going to go in depth reviewing all these recordings you can check out a great feature on Sinton’s and Raskin’s records over on the excellent Free Jazz Blog which goes into more depth on these recordings.

Let me know what you think of these compositions and if any of you have spent any time studying them, I recommend any serious soprano enthusiast find a copy of 'Findings' and give some of these a try!