Home » Jazz Musicians » Steve Lehman

Steve Lehman

Described as “a state-of-the-art musical thinker” and a "dazzling saxophonist,” by The New York Times, Steve Lehman (b. New York City, 1978) is a composer, performer, educator, and scholar who works across a broad spectrum of experimental musical idioms. Lehman’s pieces for large orchestra and chamber ensembles have been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), So Percussion, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, the JACK Quartet, the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the Talea Ensemble. His recent recording, Mise en Abîme (Pi, 2014) was called the #1 Jazz Album of the year by NPR Music and The Los Angeles Times. And his previous recording, Travail, Transformation & Flow (Pi, 2009), was chosen as the #1 Jazz Album of the year by The New York Times.

The recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, Lehman is an alto saxophonist who has performed and recorded nationally and internationally with his own ensembles and with those led by Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Meshell Ndegeocello, and High Priest of Anti-Pop Consortium, among many others. His recent electro-acoustic music has focused on the development of computer-driven models for improvisation, based in the Max/MSP programming environment. Lehman’s work has been favorably reviewed in Artforum, Downbeat Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wire, and on National Public Radio, the BBC, and SWR.

As a Fulbright scholar in France during the 2002-2003 academic year, Lehman began researching the reception of African-American experimental composers working in France during the 1970s. His article in the journal Critical Studies in Improvisation, “I Love You with an Asterisk: African-American Experimental Composers and the French Jazz Press, 1970-1980,” is based on his Fulbright research. More recently, Lehman has published writings and presented lectures on a wide range of topics, including jazz pedagogy, rhythm cognition, and European notions of American experimentalism. His current scholarship, including a forthcoming contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music, examines the overlapping histories of spectral composition and jazz improvisation.

Lehman received his B.A. (2000) and M.A. in Composition (2002) from Wesleyan University where he studied under Anthony Braxton, Jay Hoggard, and Alvin Lucier, while concurrently working with Jackie McLean at the Hartt School of Music. He received his doctorate with distinction in Music Composition from Columbia University (2012), where his principal teachers included Tristan Murail and George Lewis.

Lehman has taught undergraduate courses at Wesleyan University, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, New School University, and Columbia University, and has presented lectures at Amherst College, UC Berkeley, The Berklee School of Music, The Banff Centre, The Royal Academy of Music in London, and IRCAM in Paris, where he was a 2011 research fellow.

Fieldwork: Thereupon

Read "Thereupon" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
August 27, 2025

Early in his recording career, pianist Vijay Iyer formed his most compelling group, Fieldwork. The initial album release, Your Life Flashes (Pi Recordings, 2002) broke new ground and put down the roots from which everything Iyer has created in 20-plus years has grown and flourished. Iyer's recording career began in 1995 with Memorophilia (Asian Improv). The ensuing 30 years have seen more than a score of albums from the pianist in a leadership role as well as dozens ...

Album Review

Steve Lehman Trio and Mark Turner: The Music of Anthony Braxton

Read "The Music of Anthony Braxton" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
March 28, 2025

Anthony Braxton has long had a reputation as being one of the most abstruse and forbidding musicians of the jazz avant-garde. Whether it is his impossibly esoteric notation systems, or the bizarre instrumentation he sometimes features on his recordings--his Composition No. 19 (For 100 Tubas) being just one example--one must tread carefully when engaging this unique musical mind. Hence it is a pleasure to encounter saxophonists Steve Lehman and Mark Turner joining forces for a tribute to the maverick composer. ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steve Lehman, Nels Cline, Satoko Fujii & Hobbs/Shanko

by Maurice Hogue
March 24, 2025

It's not easy to find a more accomplished figure in creative music than Anthony Braxton. Alto saxophonist Steve Lehman knows that, and he honours his one-time mentor with a bristling new live album, The Music Of Anthony Braxton, destined for 2025 best-of lists. This recording is a reminder of Lehman's fearlessness. There are other excellent new releases in this episode: Dream A Dream from Satoko Fujii's Tokyo Trio, The Depression Tapes from the duo of altoist Jim Hobbs & bassist ...

Building a Jazz Library

Steve Lehman Attraverso lo Specchio di Braxton

by Giuseppe Segala
March 3, 2025

Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner The Music of Anthony Braxton Pi Recordings 2025 L'apertura di pensiero e l'impulso esplorativo di Anthony Braxton hanno stimolato non solo la folta schiera dei musicisti da lui direttamente coinvolti, come nel caso di Steve Lehman. Tra i grandi artisti che per propria iniziativa hanno scelto di confrontarsi con lui, ci piace ricordare Max Roach, del quale riportiamo le parole, in occasione delle registrazioni e dei concerti in ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steve Lehman Trio + Mark Turner play the music of Anthony Braxton

by Hobart Taylor
February 26, 2025

Steve Lehman Trio and Mark Turner honor the music of Anthony Braxton, also a new collaboration between Sylvie Courvosier and Mary Halvorson and the latest from James Brandon Lewis.Playlist Muneer Nasser Quintet “Polka Dots and Moonbeams" from Blue House Session (Self Produced) 0:00 Host Speaks 9:42 Julia Hülsmann Quartet “Under The Surface" from Under The Surface (ECM) 11:13 Pulse “Wheeler Musings" from Pulse (New Focus) 16:34 Sun Mi Hong “ Heart Stone" from Fourth Page Meaning of a ...

Radio & Podcasts

Steve Lehman, Betty Bryant, J.D. Allen and More

by Hobart Taylor
October 16, 2024

This week we feature artists who performed at Los Angeles' Angel City Jazz Festival, Steve Lehman, Kris Davis, Mauricio Morales, Jenny Scheinman and Elsa Nilsson. We also feature new music from saxophonist J.D. Allen, Betty Bryant, and welcome an avant-garde ragtime offering by Welsh pianist Joe Webb.Playlist Steve Lehman Orchestre National de Jazz “Los Angeles Imaginary" from (PI) 0:00 Jenny Scheinman “Ornette Goes Home" from All Species Parade (Royal Potato Family) 5:43 Host Speaks 15:15 Kris Davis “Run ...

Album Review

Steve Lehman & Orchestre National de Jazz: Ex Machina

Read "Ex Machina" reviewed by Mark Corroto

by Mark Corroto
September 9, 2023

Does Ex Machina settle the long-standing debate about whether saxophonist Steve Lehman is human or a replicant. Lehman and his approach to music may remind one of Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford in Blade Runner (1982) a movie adaptation of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick; Deckard was tasked with hunting and destroying humanoid replicants i.e. robots. The film never answers the question viewers might have as to whether Deckard is actually a replicant himself. ...

Interview

Interview | Steve Lehman

Source: Ars Nova Workshop
March 10, 2011

On Friday, March 11, Ars Nova Workshop’s three-day Composer Portrait: Fieldwork series begins. Following interviews with drummer Tyshawn Sorey and pianist Vijay Iyer earlier this week, today we share a conversation with saxophonist Steve Lehman. Lehman’s 2009 recording Travail, Transformation, and Flow was praised for creating a dialogue between spectral harmony and jazz—the daring work rightfully earned a spot on numerous critical year-end lists, including the top position in New York Times’ Best Jazz Albums category – and proved the ...
read more

171

Radio

The Jazz Session #105: Steve Lehman

Source: Michael Ricci
November 5, 2009

Saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman makes use of spectral harmony on his album Travail, Transformation and Flow (Pi Recordings, 2009). The result is a carefully crafted and emotionally engaging exploration of the physics of sound, played by a group of musicians who are seeking new ways to make improvised music. In this interview, Lehman offers a crash course in spectral harmony; discusses his compositional style and why he chose the particular musicians on the album; and talks about the influence ...
read more

176

Performance / Tour

Steve Lehman Live in New Haven and Remembering James P. Johnson

Source: See! Hear! by Richard Kamins
October 6, 2009

Hard to believe it's been 7 years since Steve Lehman graduated from Wesleyan but not surprising when one sees how busy he's been. The alto saxophonist and and composer has studied with Jackie McLean, Anthony Braxton, Jay Hoggard, Ron Kuivila and George Lewis, has taught in Paris and is currently working on a Ph.D (as well as teaching) at Columbia University in New York City.He leads his own ensembles and has recorded for CIMP, Clean Feed, and Pi ...
read more

128

Recording

Steve Lehman Octet's 'Travail, Transformation, and Flow'

Source: Michael Ricci
July 5, 2009

Call what saxophonist Steve Lehman does a variation on “math-jazz," with apologies to the time signature-hopping sub-genre that rose out of the mid-'90s indie rock scene.

Though nothing from this album will ever be confused with Don Caballero, Lehman makes the seemingly counterintuitive choice to introduce computer analysis into jazz in the hopes of greater exploring of spectral harmony between instruments.

What this involves is a whole lot of mind-scrambling physics and deep thought concerning frequency relationships and microtonal overtones, ...
read more

141

Performance / Tour

Finding an Asymmetrical Pulse with a Jagged Rhythm

Source: Michael Ricci
June 10, 2009

One misperception about jazz, insidious enough to be shared by many of its proponents, is that the music adheres to a rigid code. But like any language, jazz accommodates mutation; it’s subject to the whims of usage. That doesn’t mean the music must respond to every new signal, but it does mean there’s still a place for substantive innovation. Steve Lehman, a studiously intense alto saxophonist and composer, brought these issues to the fore at Le Poisson Rouge on Monday ...
read more

204

Website

AAJ Celebrates Steve Lehman's New Release with Two Reviews and a Free Download

Source: Fully Altered Media
June 8, 2009

Alto saxophonist Steve Lehman's Travail, Transformation, and Flow is his most fully-realized album to date. AAJ is celebrating the June 9, 2009 release of his new octet album with two reviews and a free downloadable MP3 track from the album: Read Mark F. Turner's insightful review, up at AAJ today;

Download “Echoes," the opening track on Travail, Transformation, and Flow, also available via Lehman's Musician Profile, Take Five Interview and the CD review pages;

You can also read Troy Collins' ...
read more

113

Performance / Tour

Steve Lehman Quintet CD Release Celebration on January 12, 2008

Source: All About Jazz
December 30, 2007

Ars Nova Workshop is pleased to announce the CD release celebration of On Meaning (Pi Recordings), the highly anticipated new recording from Steve Lehman's critically acclaimed quintet. Widely regarded as one of today's bracingly original young composers, Lehman combines groove-oriented musical content with highly contrapuntal, asymmetrical, and non-repetitive structural devices. Imagining his music in this way, Lehman creates elaborate formal works that remain rooted in the physicality of live performance and the visceral nature of urban rhythm.

STEVE LEHMAN QUINTET ...
read more

140

Performance / Tour

Chris Jentsch (Mon) Steve Lehman QNT (Tue) Soul of the Blues (Wed) Gnu Vox (Thurs) Ben Allison QT (Fri) & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services
January 22, 2007

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe Mon Jan 22 8:30PM 21 CENTURY SCHIZOID MUSIC PRESENTS: CHRIS JENTSCH (Chris Jentsch, guitar and compositions;John Mettam, drums;Chris Lightcap, bass;Dan Willis, reeds) SET 1 30 Minutes for Guitar, Drums, and Tape ...
read more