Saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman continues to break down musical boundaries on his new octet release, Travail, Transformation, and Flow, on PI recordings.
Lehman's new work uses a compositional concept called spectral harmony, a concept trail blazed by experimental composer Tristan Murail. Spectral harmony bases its musical structure on overtones, using computer spectral analysis to chart sonic relationships.
PI recordings calls this release “...the first fully realized exploration of spectral harmony in the history of recorded jazz.” In fact, this release shares many of the characteristics of another Steve Lehman release also on PI Recordings, Damian as Posthuman.
The music on the disk is one part free jazz and one part DJ culture floating in a rich wash of tonal experimentation. Tyshawn Sorey delivers a barrage of club influenced beats over which Steve Lehman and the other members of the octet (Mark Shim on tenor saxophone, Drew Gress on bass, Jonathan Finlaysonon trumpet, Jose Davila on tuba, Tim Albright on trombone, and Chris Dingman on vibraphone) deliver jazz that is organic and funky, amid diaphanous compositional structures that are often based on one single repeated note. Whether this innovative music will be influential or not remains to be seen. For all the potential it has for opening doors, it sometimes seems to close just as many; it's hard to see how the subtle tonal interplay that is successfully produced here could be achieved with a more complex compositional approach.
Tim Madison – MuzikReviews.com Contributor
Ocotber 5, 2009
For Questions Or Comments About This Review Send An Email To info@muzikreviews.com