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This summer, baritone saxophonist Josh Sinton brings a special version of his Steve Lacy repertory ensemble, Ideal Bread West, to the Bay Area, performing with several West Coast musicians in a series of concerts showcasing Lacy's compositions.

On August 8, Sinton will perform with Seattle-based musicians Paul Kikuchi on drums and Geoff Harper on bass in an 8 pm concert at The Jazzschool in Berkeley; on August 10, the quintet performs at Bluesix in San Francisco for an 8.30 show. Joining the core trio for this special series of concerts are Bay Area jazz musicians Phillip Greenlief, tenor saxophone, and Jorrit Dijkstra, alto saxophone.

Sinton met Lacy in 2002 while attending the New England Conservatory, and began studying with him until Lacy’s untimely death in June of 2004. That same summer, Sinton moved from Boston to New York City, where he started organizing jam sessions to play Lacy’s compositions. After six months, he found a core group of musicians with which he could continue investigating the implications of Lacy’s work. Another six months later — in December of 2005 — the newly-formed ensemble, calling themselves Ideal Bread, performed its first show at Barbes in Brooklyn, New York.

Since then, Sinton’s group has recorded its eponymous debut, "The Ideal Bread" (available from KMB-Jazz) and garnered much critical praise. The CD was named "Best Debut of 2008" by the Village Voice’s Critics’ Poll, and "Best Tribute" of 2008 by AllAboutJazz New York. Ideal Bread has continued to play regularly throughout New York City for the past three years, appearing at venues such as the Cornelia Street Café, Zebulon, and the Douglass Street Music Collective.

The two Bay Area concerts in August are part of a 10-day tour of Ideal Bread West. The concert at the Jazzschool is billed as "Facets of an American Artist: Steve Lacy the Composer." Lacy was the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship (also known as the "Genius" grant).

Lacy began his career at the age of 16, playing Dixieland music with older musicians before he became involved with the avant-garde jazz scene, performing on pianist Cecil Taylor's debut album, "Jazz Advance" (1956), 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.

Lacy's most enduring relationship, however, was with the music of Thelonious Monk, and recorded the first album to feature Monk compositions exclusively ("Reflections," released on the Prestige label in 1958), and briefly played in Monk's band in 1960.

A widely respected figure on the European jazz, Lacy lived in Europe throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s. He returned to the United States in 2002, where he began teaching at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.

Over the course of his long career, Lacy's compositional style became one of signature simplicity, often built from a single questioning phrase repeated several times. He also collaborated with an extraordinary range of musicians, from traditional jazz to the avant-garde to contemporary classical music, and based many of his compositions on the works of celebrated authors such as Robert Creeley, Samuel Beckett, Tom Raworth, Herman Melville, Brion Gysin and other Beat-era writers. He also composed musical settings for the Tao Te Ching and haiku poetry.

For tickets or more information, visit the websites for The Jazzschool and Bluesix.