"The Big Apple Crème de la Crème." - Robert Christgau dean of American rock critics
"Big Lazy, the elegantly gritty instrumental trio led by the extraordinary guitarist Stephen Ulrich, plays stunningly beautiful music that evokes everything from truckers' romps to the haunting film scores of Bernard Herrmann." The New Yorker
“Old-school Twang meets gritty Hollywood-soundtrack…every Big Lazy song seems to be its own movie soundtrack. Ulrich’s blend of mid-century Americana, cinematic sweep, and a dash of the experimental is exciting and refreshing." Vintage Guitar Magazine
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Big Lazy has flourished for over two decades in New York’s downtown music scene, playing their singular brand of noir and twang from iconic NYC clubs - Tonic, The Knitting Factory, Barbès to the The Museum of Modern Art. Simultaneously gothic and modern, noir and pastoral, Big Lazy’s music conjures images from big sky country to seedy back rooms with deftness and a cinematic clarity. With sparse instrumentation (Stephen Ulrich - guitar, Yuval Lion - drums, Andrew Hall - bass) the trio forges a new American music from archetypes in Rock, Jazz and the Avant Garde.
The debut album Amnesia (1996) was featured in NBC’s Homicide: Life on the Street. Critics hailed the bands inventive mixture of spaghetti western and noir soundtrack music as ‘Crime Jazz’. Further national exposure followed with a live performance broadcast on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Big Lazy’s music can be heard in numerous radio, film and TV programs.
Big Lazy founder Stephen Ulrich is the composer for the HBO series Bored to Death and the art forgery documentary Art and Craft. In 2021 he was commissioned to compose 30 pieces for the iconic radio program This American Life. In 2023 Barbes Records released Ulrich’s solo album Music from This American Life. He is currently working on a new commission for TAL.
The band’s seven releases include collaborations with NYC luminaries Marc Ribot, Steven Bernstein and Mick Rossi (Philip Glass Ensemble) and Charlie Giordano (E Street Band). Big Lazy’s filmic music continues to evolve and their legendary live shows have landed them bookings at venues as varied as Jazz a Vienne, Opéra de Lyon, UCLA’s Royce Hall and The Whitney Museum of American Art.