Steve Coleman Archives Forum

Joined : 03 Apr 2006 Posts : 254 Localisation : Paris

This morning I listened to the Flint song from the dortmund March 20th, 1998 gig and it made me cry at some point.

there is so much intensity, the music went right into my head thru my ears and this simple melody had a huge impact on my behaviour and psychic mind for the whole day until now.

Reminds me that Music is something very special to me and it's awakening in me feelings that nothing, except love maybe, could give me.

This version is pure magic !
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Yeah!!!

You mentioned this concert (Dortmund) formerly. I really like it too and now I listened to it too.

Recently I really enjoyed the video with Afro-Cuba in Vienna 1997. I think: Maybe it is the best example of the connection between the different musics coming from Africa. Great atmosphere! I like to see the Cuban musicians and the dancer. I watched the “Elements of One”-DVD very often and so it is a bit like seeing old friends.

Most often I listen to the newest concert (Rhythm Edition) – really often.

I’m listening to “Invisible Paths: First Scatter” – nearly every day since I got it.

Before I got it I thought: Oh God, 60 minutes sax-solo! Heavy!

But now I love it. In fact I hear a complete band when I listen to these sax-solos. The drums are in his playing. The whole band is in his playing. I never heard something like that in such an intensive way.

I have liked his playing from the start (about 1990) and I always thought: There are really great musicians in his band but Coleman is on an extra high level. Now I can hear pure Coleman-playing – great!

When I listen closely to his solos I have to stop after a few tracks because this music stretches my head enormously. I read in a book: Gary Bartz and a friend of him watched Coltrane. The friend went out during Coltrane’s solo. Bartz asked him angrily why he went out. He said: He really loves Coltrane’s playing but it makes him high. It supercharges his electric circuit too much. So he sometimes must cool it down a bit.

As far as I can feel it: Steve Coleman’s playing has the greatest structural richness.

Joined : 27 Nov 2007 Posts : 3

Right now i'm listening to The Tao of Mad Phat.

Incessant crazy groove. Bring on the heat!!

Joined : 20 Apr 2006 Posts : 57 Localisation : Rome

Personnally I discovered Steve coleman's music with the tao of mad phat... so there is something special to me with that album... I love it !! So I'm listening at it right now too !!!

Joined : 03 Apr 2006 Posts : 254 Localisation : Paris

I have been listening to Fecundation: 070118 a lot.

I like the way he introduces the rythmic line(path) by clapping and chanting it, then plays it on the sax, then solos around it, and plays it again, and concludes with, I think, the symmetrical opposite of that original line.
Very nice. You can imagine that rythmic line played on the drums as SC plays on top of it.

Joined : 03 Apr 2006 Posts : 254 Localisation : Paris

Hi all,

yesterday evening, I as watching the Council of Balance at LaVillette in '99.

I almot had a shock when I saw Steve's sax solo on the "third Dynasty" type song.

In the video it started at approx the 15' mark, check this you wont believe it !
Watching the attitude also is fantastic, like a boxer he moves a lot on his legs and he is sending me direct uppercut with a few lines...got Damn Shocked

Visually it 's absolutly fantastic to see that and by his strong chorus he gives everyone in the baand some stamina cause both trumpet solos and especially Gary Thomas sax solo are briiliant !

That's weird I didnt remember this video so well, I totally forgot this strong Steve improvising moment.

Dim.
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Yeah, I really like that too! Smile

A similar solo: Rhythm Edition 2007, mark 1:12:00 (less body work but very rich in melodic aspects – as it appears to me).

In the LaVilette-Video the sound and the pictures are very clear. It seems that the time is over when Coleman was recorded by TV. Also new official CDs are very rare. Concerts are more and more rare. No word about him in media. He seems to disappear into the underground. Though his music is very, very strong today!

I can’t believe that because I expected that more and more people will realize that his music is on the level of Parker, Coltrane etc. …
Sorry for these dark thoughts! Crying or Very sad

Joined : 03 Apr 2006 Posts : 254 Localisation : Paris

Manfred,

Ill listen and watch the video you are talking about and comments later.
By the way, on the very few tapes I took with me here there is this Rhythm Edition concert in Paris.
I never had the ccasion to edit the 2nd set, Ill try to do it now.

About Steve TV exposure, well it's true that theses days there is not so much.

I guess it's mainly because as a whole, live music is not very well represented in TV's, at least in France. So as a matter of fact there is less Steve's than it used to be.

But it was like this in the past, try to get a TV program filmed during Gene Lake's period !!! impossible so far.

After all, that's one of the purpose of my work as an archivist, delivering some documents to fill a gap/hole.
Also I think for steve it's great because in this way he can keep in touch with fans all over the world even if he is not touring certain countries.

Remind me of our Romanian member (dont remember his name at the moment !), asking for a concert in Bucarest every now and then...with this site he can at least get an idea of what is going on with Steve's music thoses days .

the last "official" TV program featuring Steve is from Meldola in november 2004 !
As far as I know.

Dim.
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Thanks Dim for your wise words. – I grew up in a time (sixties, seventies) when many people expected that things are growing better. Some things did, others didn’t and some things got lost: For example: Some people in TV and Broadcast really pushed Coltrane. Maybe I always hoped a bit that something like that would happen with Steve Coleman. But times seem to have changed.

(By the way: I like the following song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKDgpxOHVhA&feature=related

To see the second set of the Rhythm Edition would be great – I know it! Smile

I’m also looking forward to the concerts with the Cuban drummers (1997). – Recently I read that Mario Bauza (a Cuban musician of the 1940-ties) told: “We always said that jazz was a great thing but the rhythm was very monotonous.” That is exactly what I felt when I was young. On a video Dizzy Gillespie tells how Chano Pozo explained his composition of “Manteca”: No walking bass! But a pattern on bass. – Right from the start this was an important aspect of my preference for Steve Coleman’s music: all these nested loops, patterns, cycles. I can’t see through them but I like to hear them. Not ALWAYS walking bass! Not ALWAYS simply running lines! Sometimes I like to hear them – but not always!

Thanks a lot for the many great concerts on the FTP!

Maybe it is a bit interesting for someone:

I found some very old recordings (from the 1930ies) and I’m astonished how much these old African American things seem to be connected with the presence. The following recording sounds like rap:
http://www.beacon.org/soundsofslavery/mp3/18-The-Man-Of-Cavalry.mp3
The following Ring Shout sounds like James Brown:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5759/

I fact these things are much older than from the 1930ies. They are recorded (by Alan Lomax) in very rural areas in the south where things obtained rather originally.

“They make music from nothing” (Steve Coleman about Kokayi and Tyshawn Sorey in Pro-Verb Trio)!

thanks manfred !! thoses songs are really great !!
i'm very surprised of the first song, the guy looks like is chanting a blues song, it's rap for sure maybe one of the first roots of it
the second one sounds like a blues song with quick rhythm of some gospel singing, really like it

In the following article a musician tells what he has learned from Steve Coleman:
http://www.stanfordjazz.org/newsletter/newsletter_jan08_notes.html