Jazz Articles about Steve Coleman

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Steve Coleman and Five Elements: Weaving Symbolics

by Jeff Stockton
February 8, 2007

Philosopher, conceptualist, theoretician and supremely original alto saxophonist Steve Coleman has issued more than twenty albums over the last twenty years under his own name, all of which helped perpetuate his notion of the M-Base (macro-basic array of spontaneous extemporization) collective. Less a musicians' club than a way of thinking about music creation, Coleman and his band employ M-Base to combine structure with improvisation on Weaving Symbolics and deliver music that fuses funk, soul, world beat and jazz.

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Steve Coleman and Five Elements: Weaving Symbolics

by AAJ Italy Staff
May 29, 2006

Quattro sedute di registrazione, 10 formazioni differenti, 19 titoli, a loro volte suddivisi in 5 gruppi con cicliche ripetizioni, fissati su 2 CD, aventi 2 B-sides per altrettanti DVD. Elogio ed egemonia dei numeri? Non proprio, ma risulta innegabile che i numeri, la matematica, il simbolismo e l’astrologia, rivestano un’importanza considerevole nella filosofia musicale di Steve Coleman. Certo, non tutto risulta chiaro nell’intervista/confessione riportata nei DVD, zone d’ombra si alternano a sprazzi illuminanti, ed i contorni di alcuni pensieri restano ...

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Steve Coleman and Five Elements: Lucidarium

by Rex Butters
October 21, 2005

Steve Coleman's latest tablet from the mountain top finds him back with a large group performing even larger conceptual compositions, augmented by voices and rappers. Besides group improvisations, Coleman also abandons pitch in places and continues to work within signature structures and rhythms. Gathering a stellar group of musicians while obsessively pushing himself and everyone else past imagined limits creates a uniquely inspired program of music fraught with meaning and melody.

His bright, warm alto sparks a brief quartet with ...

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Steve Coleman: Elements Of One

by Norman Weinstein
May 3, 2005

Steve Coleman Elements Of One Chod 2005

This 90 minute documentary by Eve-Marie Breglia about the saxophonist and composer Steve Coleman sets a benchmark for just how intellectually engaging a film portrait of a jazz musician can be. The film records a six year odyssey highlighting Coleman's career in the 1990s, concentrating on his travels in Cuba, Senegal, India, Egypt, France, and The U.S.

But before the musical travels commence, Breglia concentrates on Coleman's ...

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Steve Coleman: Lucidarium

by Norman Weinstein
September 16, 2004

Steve Coleman Lucidarium Label Bleu 2004

Jazz Composer and Performer as Philosopher...

These thoughts were triggered by the impossibility for me of reviewing the notable new album Lucidarium by Steve Coleman and his band, the Five Elements. Normally, someone who has spent over twenty years reviewing jazz albums would not make a big fuss in print about the inability to write an album review. In this instance, the feeling of being inadequate to the ...

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Steve Coleman and Five Elements: The Sonic Language of Myth

by AAJ Staff
August 1, 1999

The '90s have kept alto saxophonist Steve Coleman busy. Among his many projects, the Five Elements group represents some of his most coherent music. As opposed to groups like the Mystic Rhythm Society, his Five Elements group has always maintained a funkier edge and a deeper groove.The idea of the material on The Sonic Language of Myth, as Coleman articulates it, relates to symbolic representation of experience and such abstract concepts as resistance, renewal, and resurrection. As this ...

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Steve Coleman: The Sonic Language of Myth

by Jack Bowers
July 1, 1999

A lot of sound and fury here. Signifying what? Well, according to RCA Victor’s publicity department, The Sonic Language of Myth is “a philosophical journey in sound. Incorporating ancient philosophical, astrological and musical precepts into his compositional foundation, Steve Coleman presents his way of hearing and experiencing music.” And since these precepts are so ancient, who’s going to argue with him? Not I. I’m far more interested in the music itself. Is it Jazz? More or less. Does it swing? ...