| I have a vivid memory of the time I first met Steve Lacy in Milan: I had finally the opportunity not only to know but to perform with one of the myths of the avant-garde scene of the time.
As hermetic and polite as his music, Steve was the man who, with his phrase "play what you feel" tore down the curtain that separated my technique from my creativity.
Clangs was the fruit of a number of concerts and two weeks we spent together, sometimes talking, sometimes just simply in silence, a silence nonetheless already thick with references and interpretative codes. Those concerts were the first that Lacy had played in Italy for several years, and from then on he began to tour more and more often, to the point where his genius has been fully acknowledged all over the world.
The structure of his music, though at times incredibly advanced, goes back to the old jazz idiom of theme/ solo/theme, features that Lacy has always kept uppermost in his mind when composing. On Clangs too, it is Lacy's themes which serve as the guiding thread for a series of duets that investigate timbral relationships, the fragmentation of melody, and abrasive, provocatory noise.
The running order of the CD is different from that of the LP and is closer to the original concert program. The disc includes Ducks, which for reasons of length was not included on the album version.
Recorded live in concert in Casarsa (Udine, Italy) February 20 1976. |