Dear Jody

A golden sound on my dearly beloved baritone – thanks to you!

“Mission Possible!” says Prince Lasha, fearless band leader about the new JodyJazz miracle master mouthpieces.

At the SF Jazz festival my school mate Mr. Ornette Coleman wanted to examine the mouthpiece, and my band mate Mr Kidd Jordan, said to me, “You are so flexible it sounds like you’re playing your alto!” And I said “What an honor”.

The JodyJazz new technology has blown a new wind in my music and life.

I will close with this one note: Free at last
Free at last,
Free at last,
I’m feeling freer

Prince Lasha

William B. "Prince" Lasha (or Lawsha) was born September 10, 1929 in Fort Worth, Texas, the hometown of another free jazz pioneer, Ornette Coleman. Ornette Coleman was born a mere six months later, and both kids went to school together. They start on saxophone in their early teens (cca. 1944), in a school band which also produced great names as Charles Moffett and King Curtis. Lasha comes from a musical family : his uncle used to be an arranger for Count Basie in the 40's. His training years are somewhat similar to Sonny's : first forays into traditional, rural blues; first stints with dance orchestras, r&b, pop; only he is exposed to Parker at an earlier stage, and he and Coleman are already learning bop in high school. They form their first group in 1947. Their repertoire ranges from Louis Jordan tunes to Monk. They also work with the likes of Harold Land and Red Connors, the Godfather of modern southwestern saxophonists, who rounds off their education.

Having gained considerable experience, and a local reputation, he is to leave for New York, logically (whereas Coleman, oddly enough, joins a minstrel band, a circuit that will take him from the Mississipi to the West Coast - and legend). The venture proves to be short, though. He heads back to Texas, aiming at California where bop is veering to "advanced" directions more akin to his tastes. On his way to the West Coast he meets Sonny Simmons in Oakland - the year is 1954. From 1954 to 1960 they work together on and off. Their musical development, from be-bop to withdrawal of chord changes, is exemplary of the maturation at stake on the West Coast, which worked as a research laboratory before those very same players, Coleman, Don Cherry, Simmons, Lasha, imported the idiom they forged (barely consciously in the beginning) in New York, joining forces with local, but isolated individuals like Cecil Taylor for instance, or open-minded hard-boppers dissatisfied with the limitations of their art, like Dolphy, Coltrane or Rollins. (Yet they didn't necessarily share the same musical interests : Lasha and Simmons reluctantly stood away from the most radicals blow-out settings of the era, and rather stuck to traditional forms, a factor that may explain the frequent rejection of their music at subsequent stages of their careers. Too traditional for free music, too free for tradition...) It is significant that the cornerstones of early free jazz were recorded in Los Angeles in 1958 and 1959 : Ornette's Something Else !!! and Tomorrow Is The Question. Encouraged by such acceptance, Lasha and Simmons enlist Lester Koenig's services and record The Cry ! for Ornette's former label, Contemporary, in 1962. The record is highly influential and prepares a favorable ground for them on the East Coast.

From 1963 to 1965 Prince Lasha settles in New York. Along with Sonny Simmons (and Clifford Jordan on many occasions), he appears on seminal records, his own It Is Revealed, Eric Dolphy's Iron Man and Conversations, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison's Illumination !, the Bossa Tres' Jazz Tempo, Latin Accents, performs with Sonny Rollins, sits in with John Coltrane... Woody interludes created by Lasha's clarinet or Simmons' English horn, set against a deluge of multiphonics, are the trademark of this memorable front-line. But this partnership breaks up quickly (Simmons returns to the West Coast); Dolphy and Jordan follow Mingus in Europe; Rollins reverts to hard-bop; and Lasha doesn't really hook up with the new generation of freejazzmen that comes in the forefront in 1964, on the verge of the October Revolution in Jazz events and the radicalization of Coltrane's music. In 1965, CBS declines the release of a beautiful session with Herbie Hancock and Cecil McBee (Inside Story, finally released by Enja some ten years later) : Prince Lasha finds no "niche" for his music. Consequently, taking advantage of an engagement with the the Jazz Composers Orchestra in Hamburg, he relocates in Europe. He spends the end of the year 1965 in Kensington, England, teams up with local musicians (notably Stan Tracey), an experience which results in an underrated masterpiece, Insight, the perfect balance between classicism and the recent innovations. Again, not much work is available, and he returns to California in February 1966.

In spite of a brief reconciliation with Sonny Simmons, and renewed public and critical attention around the release of a second Koenig production, Firebirds (featuring Simmons, rising stars Bobby Hutcherson, Buster Williams, and Ornette's famous drummer, Charles Moffett), the increasingly unfavorable circumstances on the West Coast won't allow his career to take off again as he expected. Actually, Firebirds is to be his commercial swan song, and he will never again secure a contract with a major. Gigs with Joe Henderson and Harold Land keep his reputation alive. Though never a real working unit, the Firebirds are reunited for a one-time performance at the 1970 Monterey Jazz Festival, with the same formidable line-up present on the already three-year old album. Hadley Caliman replaces Simmons at Berkeley in May 1971. Now based in Oakland, Lasha will sustain various line-ups until 1975, for occasionnal appearances at the two aforementioned festivals. The May 1974 group with Ron Carter, Hubert Eaves and Kenneth Nash is immortalized on the record that launches Lasha's (who's name is now spelled Lawsha) legendary label, Birdseye : Live at the Berkeley Jazz Festival. In 1976, two more records are released through this input : both 1970 dates at Monterey and Berkeley, but they are poorly distributed and, as a consequence, sell poorly. Nothing will be heard from Lasha on record until 1983. - Nevertheless, these (especially the May '74 date, renamed Search For Tomorrow by Enja who makes it more widely available in the next decade) and his noted participation to a Michael White session for Impulse, Land Of Spirit And Light, will access cult status promptly and the flute-driven music subtly underlined by african percussions will help define the deep, spiritual jazz sound so popular nowadays.

Meanwhile, he had engaged on teaching and political activities. Allegedly involved with the Black Panthers, he will be ostracized like many others (starting with Simmons). He reportedly made a last attempt at touring Europe in the late 70's, before leaving his professional career aside and making a far more substantial living as a real estate agent throughout the 80's and the 90's.

However, he kept on playing and composing, and was seen locally in California and Texas (where trumpetist Dennis Gonzalez produced in 1983 And Now Music on his own Daagnim label, a strong effort featuring singer Webster Armstrong, and something of a nostalgia trip, packed with fond recollections of Dolphy, Monk, and achievements of the past, exemplified by two renditions of "Music Matador"), in 1980 in Italy (Pisa), in 1987 in France (at the Magnetic Terrace with his son, drummer Prince H. Lawsha), and from 1997 on with Odean Pope's various band, an association that will lead in 2005 to the release of his first album in 22 years, The Mystery Of Prince Lasha (thanks to Bob Rush and CIMP). As of 2005, Prince Lasha is enjoying a welcome ressurrection.