Steve Coleman seems to be back at the forefront of the jazzscene, albeit with a new cd that was recorded almost four years ago. Maybe the explanation for his absence is the sad end of the French Label Bleu, for which Coleman recorded extensively the years before.
But the music of Harvesting Semblances and Affinities (on the excellent Pi Recordings) sounds very fresh, even if it had to wait a couple of years to be released. This is a totally acoustic outing, but nevertheless the musical atmosphere is very reminiscent of the funk of the electric version of Five Elements. Very dominant are the wordless vocals of Jen Shyu. Her voice is used as an extra instrument, and I can imagine some people will be irritated by the special flavour of it after a while.
Coleman's alto sax is liquid as ever with his bittersweet sound recognisable as ever. But the real star of the recording may be Tyshawn Sorey. He is beyond doubt the most talked about drummer of the moment, but even four years ago his style was spectacular, as proves this recording.
Bass player is Thomas Morgan (another young talent) and the excellent trombone of Tim Albright is also very prominent in the group sound.
The compositions are inspired by Ramon Lull, a Spanish writer and philosopher of the 13th (!) century, with a special intrest for mathematic and statistics. Coleman's compositions may be structured according to his principles - refers to it in the liner notes - and the music sounds indeed tightly structured. But hasn't this been Coleman's signature since many years?
Peter
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