STEVE LEHMAN OCTET: Travail, Transformation, and Flow
Pi, 2009

AVANT-GARDE – Wow! In this project, Lehman, who already has a reputation as one of the heaviest guys on the scene, merges jazz with concepts of spectral music – a methodology in which the composer employs computers to analyze, discover and exploit previously hidden relationships between sounds.

This opens up exciting new possibilities for advanced harmony – at times the spectral arrangements can make multiple instruments sound like one (from another world), or slur their characteristics of attack and decay into bizarre backwards-sounding effects. You have to remind yourself it's being played live.

Although spectral music has been around a while, it is largely unexplored in jazz, where the rhythmic and improvisational skill of the musicians gives it a particular vibrancy. Lehman really makes it work, setting slicing horn solos against oddly patterned backgrounds, while Tyshawn Sorey’s fabulous drumming – which frequently sounds machine-produced, it’s so fast and precise – provides a continual kick in the pants. This CD will be on a lot of people’s Top 10 for 2009.

Steve Lehman - alto sax
Mark Shim - tenor sax
Jonathan Finlayson - trumpet
Tim Albright - trombone
Chris Dingman - vibraphone
Jose Davila - tuba
Drew Gress - bass
Tyshawn Sorey - drums

* * * * * | Fo’s Picks: ALL

1. 4:26 – bright shimmering chords burst over skittery rhythm, alto sax hops
2. 4:48 – horns snake through strange vibraphone pattern, gets fast & knotty
3. 3:47 – splinters combine into fractured groove, “inverted” horn sounds
4. 1:45 – cinematic: fast bass & drums, slurring horns with vibe punctuation
5. 10:09 – Steve Coleman feel: starts with casual air & trombone solo, two-way horn chatter brings it up; saxes and drums maintain a low boil
6. 5:36 – hallucinatory: atmospheric drums, warping horn tones, quiet spaces
7. 6:14 – similar to #1 but with lots more emphasis on the drums and sax
8. 3:17 – dense, crumbling interpretation of a GZA hip-hop track! Very cool.

[ Fo ] 06/13/09