| The Box Set | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Live album by | ||||
| Released | 2003 | |||
| Recorded | 1972–1985 | |||
| Genre | Free jazz | |||
| Label | Ayler Records aylCD-036-040 | |||
| Jimmy Lyons chronology | ||||
| ||||
The Box Set is a five-CD album, most of which was recorded live, by saxophonist Jimmy Lyons. It was recorded at a variety of locations from 1972 to 1985, and was released in limited quantities by Ayler Records in 2003. [1] [2] The album includes a 60-page booklet featuring photos and essays on Lyons by Ben Young and Ed Hazell.
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| The Penguin Guide to Jazz |   [3] |
| Tom Hull – on the Web | A− [4] |
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz called the album "oddly moving," and commented: "The sheer bulk of material is less impressive than the doggedness of Lyons's search for a sound that led the alto saxophone on from Charlie Parker's innovations... and towards a new freedom of expression... it was... Lyons's sympathetic merging of personalities with others... that made him such a quietly compelling figure." [3]
In a review for JazzTimes , Bill Shoemaker referred to the album as "a triumph," and wrote: "There is no more direct route connecting Charlie Parker to the '60s and its ongoing aftermath than Jimmy Lyons." [5]
Rex Butters, in an article for All About Jazz , remarked: "While the tapes were recorded casually without thought of commercial release, the performances themselves override any quibbling over sound quality... Priding itself on the quality of its unissued live performances, Ayler has added a valuable entry to the Jimmy Lyons discography." [6] In a separate All About Jazz review, Clifford Allen wrote: "this is an excellent resource. One can more clearly understand the singular impact of Lyons' voice separated from his usual pianistic foil, and one can also see the importance of that foil to Lyons' development. Five different contexts give both the Lyons scholar and the curious onlooker a varied program of material to sift through, and suffice it to say, Jimmy Lyons is more firmly cemented in jazz history because of this set." [7]
Writing for One Final Note, Joe Milazzo stated that the album represented "some of the strongest music Lyons ever made," and noted that Lyons "seems an inexhaustible font of ideas not so much because the content of his solos, phrase by phrase, well-defined note by well-defined note, is so remarkable. It is because Lyons knows that it is not just the individual ideas themselves, but how they interface with each other that matters. All tissue is connective tissue, in a sense. What is so amazing is that this breakneck processing of melodic variations, tightly organized but separated utterly from any sort of harmonic foundation, is the foundation of Lyons' approach. Lyons departs from a point that most musicians would consider a destination: his instrumental virtuosity really is a manifestation of self-knowledge." [8]
Critic Tom Hull wrote: "Lyons' selflessness may have been the secret of the Cecil Taylor Unit's success. Without naming anyone, Taylor once said, 'It's rare to find musicians who are loyal and protect you and give you space to be yourself. You learn to value them highly and to give them the same space they give you.' The Box Set was specially designed for fans who care as much about that space." [9]
In an article for Dusted Magazine, Derek Taylor remarked: "None of Lyons' solo recordings incorporate piano and the same holds true for six-plus hours of music issued on this sumptuous five-disc Box Set by Ayler Records. Proof of his talent and creativity, Lyons' melodic and harmonic facility makes the absence hardly noticeable. His compositions actually work better without a chordal anchor to ground them, and there are plenty of examples in this set that bear this claim out." [10]
A review at the Tangents web site stated: "this is an unmissable document of a truly outstanding jazz man in fine company and, for my money, the 'box of the year'." [11]
Disc 1, track 6 by Thelonious Monk. Disc 4, track 5 by Karen Borca. All other compositions by Jimmy Lyons.
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Karen Borca is an American avant-garde jazz and free jazz bassoonist.
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Something in Return is an album by American jazz saxophonist Jimmy Lyons and American jazz drummer Andrew Cyrille. It was recorded in February 1981 at Soundscape, New York City, and released by the Black Saint label in 1988.
Jump Up / What to Do About is a two-LP live album by Jimmy Lyons and Sunny Murray. It was recorded on August 30, 1980, at Jazz Festival Willisau in Switzerland, and was released by Hat Hut Records in 1981. The album was reissued on CD in 1994 and 2012 with the title Jump Up, omitting "What To Do About," the sole track by Murray, and adding another by Lyons. On the album, Lyons and Murray are joined by bassist John Lindberg.
Push Pull is a three-LP live album by Jimmy Lyons. It was recorded on May 6, 1978, at the Collective for Living Cinema in New York City, and was released by Hat Hut Records in 1979. The album was reissued as a double-CD package in 2016 by Corbett vs. Dempsey. On the album, Lyons is joined by bassoonist Karen Borca, cellist Munner Bernard Fennell, bassist Hayes Burnett, and drummer Roger Blank.
Red Snapper: Paul Murphy at CBS is an album by drummer Paul Murphy. It was recorded in June 1982 in New York City, and was originally released privately with limited distribution before being reissued by Cadence Jazz Records in 2003. On the album, Murphy is joined by saxophonist Jimmy Lyons, trumpeter Dewey Johnson, bassoonist Karen Borca, and pianist Mary Anne Driscoll.
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