Snake Out

Liner Notes

"This is a joy. Lacy and Mal Waldron are both graduates of the Thelonious Monk school of music - they know well the use of dissonance, space, and humor, and both have an inbred rhythmic undertow. Lacy's twisted-ribbon solos are particularly pungent, overlaid on Waldron's dense, funky, chordal cushion. There is a merry, gay feeling to the session. Waldron happily chords his heart out, using a repetitive bass like a salsa band, and Lacy works his splendid variations on little fragments of phrases.

Lacy's playing here is voice and bluesy and open - on Waldron's Case of Plus 4's, the sopranoist growls and oinks and chirps and barks over the pianist's jack hammer chords. There is an intensity here reminiscent of Eastern musics - Waldron's playing is spirited and deliberately trancelike. The album is all of a piece, well integrated, and the whole thing swings like crazy.

The delights in these discs are endless. The pungent Monk interpretations, Mal's rumbling, rubato piano (he frequently makes you feel like getting up and dancing); the ripe beauty of Lacy's tone and the perfect logic in his playing; the way each man displays his notes like a chef displaying his catches of the day - with pride and confidence; the absolute joie de musiqueLee Jeske (excerpt from liner notes - October 1986)