Byard Lancaster

Byard Lancaster was an internationally recognized jazz musician and avant-musical explorer. Adept on most saxophones, he was also a fine flutist and bass clarinetist. His hard, edgy tone wove modal and polytonal statements around more conventional melodic sources inspired by blues, R&B, and gospel. After stints with Sunny Murray, Larry Young, and Bill Dixon, Lancaster made his leader debut with 1968's It's Not Up to Us. He worked with Sun Ra and McCoy Tyner, and co-founded avant jazz-funk collective Sounds of Liberation with Khan Jamal for 1973's seminal Live at Macalester College. In 1979 he released the avant-jazz-funk cult classic Funny Funky Rib Crib. During the '80s he played with Ronald Shannon Jackson and Doug Hammond, but also began a decade-plus tenure with bluesman Johnny Copeland. Between 2000 and his death in 2012, Lancaster recorded several albums with Jamal's quartet, and on his own for CIMP, including 2005's Pam Africa.