STEVE COLEMAN

STEVE COLEMAN
WEAVING SYMBOLICS (2006)
320 KBPS

The occasionally severe American alto-saxist Steve Coleman is the man who invented the m-Base tag to describe the influential New York jazz/avant-funk movement of the late 1980s. He's recently been energising his enigmatically counter-melodic, dynamically narrow ensemble music with adventurously Latin-funky grooves - and Weaving Symbolics, despite its title, develops that inviting vein. An ambitious double-CD with a big cast and a movie of Coleman playing a Charlie Parker tribute and explaining his work, it might contain a shade too much contemporary-classical vocal gymnastics and long, entwining group improv for regular jazzers - but it's full of surprises, stunning playing, and an idiomatic breadth that reflects contributing sessions conducted in Brazil, New York and Philadelphia. The classically-trained Taiwanese singer Jen Shyu is a remarkable presence, so are star flautist Magic Malik and two terrific trios involving Coleman. The merging of Coleman's impassive, pattern-twisting approach with jazz brass and the rhythms and sonics of a Brazilian percussion section ends up almost vivacious. Coleman is a formidable contemporary-jazz brainiac, but he can appeal to the feet, too.

Disc 1
1. Ritual Solo (Aether)
2. Tehu Seven
3. Tetragrams
4. Circle Weaving Thirteen
5. Ritual Duo (Water)
6. Gregorian
7. Unction
8. Triad Mutations
9. Ritual Trio (Air)
10. Li Bai
11. Triad Mutations (1)
12. Interview

Disc 2
1. Ritual Trio (Earth)
2. Tehu Six
3. Glyphs In Motion
4. Triad Mutations (2)
5. Ritual Septet (Fire)
6. Numerology
7. Trirams
8. Circle Weaving Eleven
9. Improvsed Duet