Byard Lancaster

Who was Byard Lancaster?

Byard Lancaster was a jazz saxophonist and flutist.

He attended two colleges, one of them for music, before eventually deciding to pursue an education at the Berklee College of Music, then moving to New York. In the city, he participated in loft jam sessions which included saxophonist Archie Shepp and drummer Elvin Jones. In 1965, he recorded Sunny Murray Quintet with the album's eponymous musician in New York, performed in the Parisian Actuel festival with him in 1969, and has continued to work in the drummer's groups throughout his career. By the 1970s, Lancaster had played with musicians such as McCoy Tyner, Khan Jamal and Sun Ra, as well as some outside of the jazz idiom, including Memphis Slim and Johnny Copeland. Near the end of his life he performed regularly with cellist David Eyges, and recorded as a leader and sideman for Creative Improvised Music Projects. He died of pancreatic cancer on August 23, 2012.