Disc of the day: 13-07-09

Steve Lehman Octet: Travail, Transformation and Flow (Pi Recordings PI30)
Sometimes album titles tell you nothing – in this case it says a lot about the music within. There is evidence of  great labours, sometimes a struggle, to achieve what we hear which transforms both jazz itself and maybe us, the listeners, along the way. And there is a great flow to the music – a stream, sometimes near a deluge, of both compositional and improvisational ideas.

Fans of the younger New York musicians like Vijay Iyer and Stephan Crump as well as longtime travaillers working to find a new musical language like Henry Threadgill will be familiar with this kind of sound and operating structures within the music. But it’s more common to hear it these days in small groups – duos or trios – and you have to go back to Threadgill to hear a bigger ensemble working in this vein.

It’s truly wonderful stuff with that fresh, cold shower quality that re-opens to the eyes.

Lehman leads on alto, with Mark Shim on tenor, thereafter there is no doubling of instruments: one trumpet (Jonathan Finlayson), one trombone (Tim Albright), one vibraphone (Chris Dingman), one tuba (Jose Davila), bass (Drew Gress) and drums (Tyshawn Sorey).

The inclusion of the last named will have some eyes widening further – Sorey is like a force of nature, and possibly the most exciting drummer currently on the scene. His ability to blend hip-hop, swing, bop, free and everything else into a coherent but constantly swirling flow is something to hear.

The inclusion of tuba as well as bass gives great movement to the bottom end, too.

Not so much soloing – more ensemble playing and interaction – and that lovely feeling that you have no idea where composition ends and improv starts. This is music that is hugely, exuberantly adventurous while still keeping something for the safer listener to hold onto, and its appeal is much broader than just the avant jazz one, I would suggest. It’s funky as hell as well.