The passionate sound of Lacy's quintet- Steve Lacy on soprano sax, Jean Jaques Avenel on double bass, John Betsch on drums, Irene Aebi on vocals and George Lewis on trombone- here interpret the poems of several prominent beat writers. Included is Jack Kerouac's "Wave Lover," William S. Burroughs "Naked Lunch," Allen Ginsberg's "Howl," Gregory Corso's "The Mad Yak" among others. Each song represents a a poet from the beat era, or pre-beat (Rexroth), or anti-beat (Spicer). All the artists represented were known to be jazz fans, and all rocked the boat in their own particular way.

Lacy and Aebi knew many of the artists represented and have a strong connection both to the individuals and to the period they represented. In the extensive liner notes they explain that this work was a labor of love. Little wonder as Lacy, like so many beat writers, was an iconoclast, an avant-gardist in a time that such departures from traditional jazz were viewed with suspicion and dislike. It's difficult to comprehend that listening to this release: for "avant-jazz," the music swings hard, is exuberant, moody, and deeply expressive, while still being complex and compositionally fascinating. There can be no question that the subject matter inspired both Lacy and Aebi. The quintet is in great form, Lewis playing some incredibly lyric and technical solos, Betsch supportive and constantly finding unusual ways to work with and around the beat, and Avenel creating a solid and interesting harmonic basis for the pieces.

Still there's something a bit out of step in this release. Aebi is an incredible singer with great control and expressiveness, and she is clearly an important part of the quintet's sound. She also sings in a classic style that often makes it difficult to understand what she's singing, and it may take several listens to come close to the underlying words of a song. In the context of The Beat Suite this seems somewhat ironic considering that the beat writers more often worked to blast down the walls of academic, classical culture. Kerouac's voice was plaintive; Ginsberg howled in the voice of the uncommon New Yorker; Burroughs drawled his stories slowly to capture the interest of the listener the better to shock them. Aebi's vocal style instead seems to put a wall up between the words and the listener in the name of style. It's hard to imagine the original writers reading the material in the style of her interpretations, sometimes because of the pace the songs take, at other times for the affectation she adds.

Lacy says in the notes that "this is highfalutin' material" and he wasn't kidding, but many may scratch their heads as to why. Still, The Beat Suite is an excellent addition to the burgeoning Lacy catalog. Any music with the passion, intricacy and lyricisim of this work demands to be heard!