Sonic Language of Myth: Believing, Learning, Knowing [Import]

Sonic Language of Myth: Believing, Learning, Knowing [Import]

ASIN: B00000IOOK

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This is a new plateau for Steve Coleman, perhaps the most restless and intrepid explorer of the potentials of jazz that we now have. More so than on his previous recordings, Coleman here attempts a unification of his research into the music and ideas of Africa, India, and especially ancient Egypt, with its philosophy of holism. But whatever the source of his inspiration or the meanings this music holds for Coleman (or the listener for that matter), it comes across as his most organic and provocative work to date. There are his usual funk-as-abstraction rhythms, his signature zigzag modernist saxophone lines, and buzzing collective improvisation, but there is also a complex use of singers, an expanded horn section (with guests Ravi Coltrane and Greg Osby), and a string section to frame the front line. There's also a new openness here, a willingness to drop melodic lines and let those incredible rhythm and bass patterns shine through (on "Procession"); or conversely, to drop the rhythm section to focus on the rhythmic figures working through the horn lines (as on "Gate"); and meanwhile, tonality is often toyed with and sent off on gentle angles (on "Seth," for example). This is serious music, with much to hear on each listening, but also a deeply physical music, pulsing with its own form of swing, and offering pleasure at several levels. Anyone serious about jazz in our times must come to terms with Steve Coleman. --John F. Szwed

From Jazziz
Altoist Steve Coleman has brewed his own musical language. Working with a core rhythm-team of drums (Sean Rickman), electric bass (Anthony Tidd), and congas or tabla (Miguel Anga Diaz), the results are seamless. They weave zigzagging themes through a tricky grid of meters, creating a restless, glittering mosaic. The bass sounds funky, giving the music an urban throb, but it's so tightly wound into the rhythm that the push is chill and linear. A string of guests bring variety. Stefon Harris' vibraphone broaches freakish Dolphy territory. On Seth, there's striking use of voices -- dramatic, semi-spoken sprechstimme by Rosangela Silvestre combined with straight classical bel canto from Erik Charlston. Precession was written with Henry Threadgill in mind and references his ever-rising intervals. Ravi Coltrane and Craig Handy contribute tenor, but everyone's working so hard on Coleman's tricky metrics, there's not much room for individual expression. Even the leader's sax lines are laid down with the precision of a printed circuit. The charge that Coleman's tight structures dampen spontaniety is not new. His ambition is certainly laudable. His learned appeals to myth-sciece recall Sun Ra. However, his pragmatic understanding of oppositions is different from Ra's dialectic, which drove extremes to their limits. It is less Coleman's rigor that is at fault, than his reasonableness, his even-toned liberalism. Generated by a system rather than inhabited by the musicians, Coleman's music becomes gray. one ends up respecting it rather than loving it.

Sonic Language of Myth: Believing, Learning, Knowing,Steve Coleman & Five Elements,Bmg Int'l,Free Funk,Jazz,Jazz Music,M-Base,Pop,Post-Bop

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Jazz Music

Jazz Music