Songposts Vol. 1

Various Artists:

Songposts Vol. 1

When it becomes jazz song, the words come out dancing.

Steve Lacy (liner notes)

Recorded in 1987, 1990 & 1991

Georgia Ambros vocals (1) Mark Zaret piano (1) Pat Collins bass (1) Barry Elmes drums (1) Sheila Jordan vocals (2-3) Harvie Swartz piano (2-3) Paul Owen vocals (4-5) Mike Stryker piano (4-5) Ken Gottschall bass (4-5) Charlie Owen drums (4-5) Jeannette Lambert vocals (6) Reg Schwager guitar (6) Kiki Misumi cello (6) Michel Lambert drums (6) Michael White trumpet (6) Steve Lacy piano (7-8) Irene Aebi vocals (7-8) Cory Sobol vocals (9) Dave Young bass (9) Kate Hammet-Vaughan vocals (10) Paul Blaney bass (10) Graham Ord drums (10) Jay Clayton vocals (11) Kirk Nurock piano (11) Jeanne Lee vocals (12) Louise Cloutier (Eurydice) & Hugh Panaro (Hermes) vocals (13) Frank London trumpet (13) Marcus Rojas tuba (13) Myra Melford piano & synthetizers (13) Davey Williams guitar (13) Fred Hopkins bass (13) Thurman Barker drums (13) Anne Le Baron conductor (13) David Drazin vocals, synthetizers, piano & cornet (14)

Ind. Title Composer / Author Dur.
1/ Pardon the Old Cliché G. Ambros, M. Morell / G. Ambros 6:28
2/ Waltz for Debby B. Evans, G. Lees 4:11
3/ I've Grown Accustomed to Your Bass F. Loewe / A. J. Lerner 3:53
4/ Does She Know P. Owen 5:54
5/ You Know I Love You F. Glover / P. Owen 3:56
6/ Count the Days R. Schwager / J. Lambert 5:29
7/ Agenda Steve Lacy / J. Spicer 4:20
8/ All those Years Steve Lacy / B. Gysin 3:43
9/ Western Trilogy C. Sobol / J. Sobol 4:05
10/ The Oft Repeated Dream K. Hammett-Vaughan / R. Frost 5:10
11/ Continuities K. Nurock / W. Whitman 5:12
12/ Journey to Edaneres G. Hampel / J. Lee 8:51
13/ Eurydice Meets Hermes A. LeBaron, T. Davis / T. Davis 4:23
14/ The Photocopy Song D. Drazin 2:46

Tracks 7-8 digitally recorded in Vancouver BC, Canada, on June 28, 1991. Engineer: Selwyn Pullan
Digital transfer & mastering at McGill University Studios, Montréal, Québec (Canada). Engineer: John Klepko.

Producers: Greg Clarke & John Sobol.

Cover photo: Mike Dobel / Masterfile. Cover art: Paul Gott & Eric Smith / Studio Apostrophe.

Liner Notes

The CD you are holding is a collection of founteen contemporary jazz songs, performed by renowned and lesser known artists. With the exception of the two songs by the Sheila Jordan / Harvy Swartz Duo, which are both reinterpretations of well known tunes,all of the songs appear here for the first time on CD.

What is a contemporary jazz song? Well, the contemporary part is fairly straightforward. Contemporary means: " in the style of the present or recent times ". But what about the term " jazz song ". What is a jazz song? […]

Ezra Pound concluded his Treatise on Metre with this statement: " …we shall never recover the art of writing to be sung until we begin to pay some attention to the sequence, or scale, of vowels in the line, and of the vowels terminating the group of lines in a series."

In other words, learn to rhyme. Rappers rhyme with a vengeance, but they don’t sing. Or do they? What is a song anyway? Do songs have rules and axioms that transcend style? Yes, undoubtedly they do. But in today’s poetic and musical anarchy, each songwriter determines his or her own rules and is free to break them.The question then becomes: is this necessarily a bad thing ? […]

Steve Lacy has developed his own guiding principles. Are they personal or absolute? At least we know they work for him: "Dance is very important here, you can't ignore dance even if you're interested in words. Because they're born in the body. The dance is from the body and the word is in the mind, really, but you can't chop it up, you can't compartmentalize too much. Because the word is danced out. When it becomes jazz song, the words come out dancing."

The songs on this compilation cover a wide spectrum. Many of them are based on poems. These include The Oft Repeated Dream (Robert Frost), Continuities (Walt Whitman), Agenda (Jack Spicer), All Those Years (Brion Gysin) and Western Trilogy (John Sobol).

None of these poems were written to be sung, but they have been made to sing, and enhanced in the process. Such is the composer's art. The words have come out dancing. […]

John Sobol (excerpt from liner notes)