Editing Steve Lacy (saxophonist) (section)

==Early life and career==
Lacy began his career at sixteen playing [[Dixieland]] music with much older musicians such as [[Red Allen|Henry "Red" Allen]], [[Pee Wee Russell]], [[Pops Foster|George "Pops" Foster]] and [[Zutty Singleton]] and then with [[Kansas City, Missouri|Kansas City]] jazz players like [[Buck Clayton]], [[Dicky Wells]], and [[Jimmy Rushing]].<ref name="AMG"/> He then became involved with the [[avant-garde]], performing on ''[[Jazz Advance]]'' (1956), the debut album of [[Cecil Taylor]],<ref name="VW77">{{cite book|last=Wilmer|first=Val|author-link=Val Wilmer|title=As Serious as your Life|year=1977|publisher=Quartet|isbn=0704331640}}</ref>{{rp|55}} and appearing with Taylor's groundbreaking quartet at the 1957 [[Newport Jazz Festival]]; he also made a notable appearance on an early [[Gil Evans]] album.<ref name="AMG"/> His most enduring relationship, however, was with the music of [[Thelonious Monk]]: he recorded the first album to feature only Monk compositions (''[[Reflections (Steve Lacy album)|Reflections]]'', Prestige, 1958) and briefly played in Monk's band in 1960<ref name="JL84">{{cite book|last=Litweiler|first=John|title=The Freedom Principle: Jazz after 1958|year=1984|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=9780306803772}}</ref>{{rp|241}} and later on Monk's ''[[Big Band and Quartet in Concert]]'' album (Columbia, 1963).