Monterey 2011: Steve Coleman and Five Elements
Sunday, 7:30 p.m. — Garden Stage
Steve Coleman. Photo © Patricia Magalhaes
The best avant-garde jazz is often that which effectively combines the cerebral and the physical, challenging the mind with new ideas but still speaking to the essential connection between music and movement.
Saxophonist Steve Coleman and his adventurous quartet is bridging that space easily before a sparse but attentive crowd in the dark chill of the Monterey night. Drummer Jim Black’s herky-jerky rhythms, like an automaton with a stuck cylinder somewhere, support percolating interactions between Coleman and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson. The two horn players toss and combine improvisational lines with the dexterity of jugglers, crossing paths to form intricate patterns over Matt Brewer’s mathematically complex bass lines in a clomping, clockwork motion.
Much of this music carries an oblique geometry. At some times, Coleman’s melodies have a parabolic feel, gently reaching out and doubling back upon themselves while Finlayson’s counterpoint juts out at sharply defined angles: a curious correspondence to his rigidly vertical stance when not playing. At other moments, the sax hops about while the trumpet sticks to a sort of rhythmic drone. Throughout, Black and Brewer engage in a constant redefinition of the space, pushing out here, pulling in there until it’s impossible to tell straight from curved: all parallels must converge.
But there’s an earthy quality to all this as well. It doesn’t take much effort to hear the bluesy tone lurking in Coleman’s playing, and it’s difficult to avoid getting caught up in the oddball rhythms. This isn’t an easy sound for the uninitiated to get into, but once you’ve found the right internal frequency, it’s the most natural thing in the world.
Filed Under: MJF/54 - 2011
