Search - Steve Coleman, 5 Elements :: On the Edge of Tomorrow

EXCELLENT

William R. Nicholas | Mahwah, NJ USA | 01/14/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Despite the retro-Marsales bregde, there are people taking the long ago gauntlet of Taylor Coltrane and Ornette Coleman and bringing it into our era. Steve Coleman-no relation-is one of those.



Actually, I am only half right--Steve Coleman's music has a lot of the dissnonce of free jazz, but itself it is not free jazz. In a way you could compare it to the way Mingus used free passages as a small part of his big mosaic; except Coleman brushstokes his dissonent layers on top of a modern, blistering funk, filled with heavy, poping bass and electric keybords. But even the dissonence seems written



With its odd meters and chord changes, this is among both the most complex jazz and complex funk you will ever hear. It is actually not that far removed from Ornette's Prime Time, but is even more layered and heavier on electronics.



If you know Casandra Wilson from her popular torch albums, she is here too, working as an avant-chantuse. Her voice is plain and strong as she adds her consise interjections to Coleman's peices.



Excellent modern music."