Lehman, Steve Octet / Travail, Transformation, And Flow
Album: Travail, Transformation, And Flow   Collection:Jazz
Artist:Lehman, Steve Octet   Added:Jun 2009
Label:Pi Recordings  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2009-06-14 Pull Date: 2009-08-16 Charts: Jazz
Week Ending: Aug 16 Aug 9 Aug 2 Jul 19 Jul 12 Jul 5 Jun 28 Jun 21
Airplays: 3 2 1 2 4 2 1 4

Recent Airplay
1. Nov 02, 2012: No Cover, No Minimum
Echoes
4. Oct 16, 2009: No Cover, No Minimum
As Things Change (I Remain The Same)
2. Dec 10, 2011: Music Casserole
Alloy
5. Aug 14, 2009: "In Your Ear ..." with Bug, passing glances and other memories
Alloy
3. Feb 25, 2011: No Cover, No Minimum
Echoes
6. Aug 14, 2009: No Cover, No Minimum
No Neighborhood Rough Enough

Album Review
Fo
Reviewed 2009-06-13
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

Track Listing
1. Echoes   5. Alloy
2. Rudreshm   6. Waves
3. As Things Change (I Remain The Same)   7. No Neighborhood Rough Enough
4. Dub   8. Living In The World Today (Gza Transcription)