Steve Lacy, Scraps (side A)

1974 was the height of Steve Lacy's experimentation with chaos. Scraps features a 6 piece group wailing at (by Lacy's standards) full-bore. It's never skronky, aggressive, or harsh—it maintains Lacy's sense of subtlety and dignity no matter how cacophonous it gets. Lacy's fascination with Monk and his jazzy sensitivities, which were much more apparent in both his earlier and later work, are largely buried here amidst the activity. The short piece "Obituary", with Irène Aebi's flat, classically-informed vocals, provides an additional twist. The primitive crayon drawing on the cover, perhaps by a child, reflects clearly that Scraps is among Lacy's least austere.