Scott Fields Ensemble - Songs of Steve Dalachinsky

personnel:

Steve Dalachinsky, lyrics
Scott Fields, composition, electric guitar
Barbara Schachtner, voice
Annette Maye, clarinets
Melvyn Poore, tuba
Eva Pöpplein, electronics
Norbert Rodenkirchen, flutes
Florian Stadler, accordion

cd tracks:

release information:

This suite of six songs premiered in Cologne, December 2016, three years before Steve Dalachinsky passed away. His widow, Yuko Otomo, wrote the liner notes for this release.
Steve and Scott met at a festival in New York where Steve was serving as MC. He was rummaging through the merch table and had an Elliott Sharp solo CD in his hand. Scott pointed to a stack of Sharp-Fields CDs and told him that Sharp was great alone but with Fields magic was made. Not until 45 minutes later, when Steve stepped up to introduce the band, did he realize that the stranger flogging Sharp-Fields recordings was Scott.
Steve was either forgiving or forgetful. Several years later when Scott wrote to ask for permission to set his poetry, he agreed readily without mentioning the prank. Scott told Steve that his intention was to distinguish this music from the performances for which he was known: spoken word over free jazz, often completely improvised. Scott thought that Steve had that genre nailed down. Steve sent dozens of poems and left it to him to choose. Steve couldn’t attend the premiere but he did see a video compilation of the performance.