The free performance will feature vocalist Irene Aebi, Lacy's widow; fellow soprano saxophonist David Liebman; and NEC faculty, including pianist Danilo P_rez and trumpeter Ken Schaphorst. The program will include Lacy compositions, the music of Thelonious Monk‹a Lacy specialty‹and tributes written by NEC colleagues.

Lacy was one of the few great saxophonists to specialize in the soprano instrument, and is often credited with inspiring John Coltrane to take up the instrument. A pioneer of avant-garde "free jazz," he also played with Monk in the early 1960s and returned to the bebop master's music throughout his life. In the late 1960s, he left New York and eventually settled in Paris, where he lived until NEC offered him a faculty position in 2002.