# Photos: Two very different groups that flag up both the breadth of Steve Coleman’s output … Video

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/10/27/photos-two-very-different-groups-that-flag-up-both-the-breadth-of-steve-colemans-output-video/
- Published: 2017-10-27T22:44:42+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**As Britain attempts what seems like an ungainly improvisation out of Europe, American
artists more adept at the art are thankfully still finding a way into the old continent.**

With his residency in this well-appointed restaurant in the vast cultural centre
of La Villette in Paris extending for no less than two weeks, Chicago alto saxophonist-
composer Steve Coleman appears a cipher of a more worthwhile politics against the
backdrop of Brexit and Great Britannia, be it an ally of rulers or an enemy of rules.

The double-bill this evening features two very different groups that flag up both
the breadth of Coleman’s output and the depth of his artistry. Yet the intensity
of the audience reaction reflects the substantial impact he has made in France since
the late 1980s, which was duly enhanced by the memorable Hot Brass sessions of the
mid-1990s. He is very much a known quantity here. Numerous workshops and master 
classes have strengthened his ties with local musicians and the fact that there 
is more or less a French version of one of his latest ensembles, Natal Eclipse, 
underlines as much. As the new album _Morphogenesis_ makes clear the band is both
a departure from and reinforcement of core Coleman principles. The absence of drums
lightens the overall palette, yet there is a momentum and intricacy in the horn 
scores that bear the hallmarks of the leader’s approach to writing and arranging.
Melodies are often very rhythmic with phrases that move from lengthy, fluid undulations
to more contained, terse lines, that underline the long-held love Coleman, whose
alto solos throughout the set are as pithy as they are potent, has of all things
staccato as well as allegro. There is both a beauty and austerity in the work, but
the input of the French players joining Coleman, and fellow Americans trumpeter 
Jonathan Finlayson and electric pianist Matt Mitchell, is sadly marred by a mix 
that leaves their contributions close to the edge of silence. The clarinet, in this
instance played by Catherine Delaunay, is virtually swallowed whole by the other
reeds, which is a great shame as the instrument has a key timbral role on Morphogenesis
insofar as it brings a gauzy, malleable character to the ensemble voice. Having 
said that, Selene Saint-Aime’s often spare, distilled basslines, sometimes hingeing
on no more than two pitches, are very effective insofar as they lend a pleasing 
floating, gliding quality to the music.

![ColemanRap](https://i0.wp.com/jazzwisemagazine.com/images/OCT2017/ColemanRap.gif?
resize=640%2C427)

If Natal Eclipse is air then The Metrics are earth and fire. The group with close
to three decades of history has seen personnel changes, yet its conceptual substance
remains unchanged: an exploration of rhythm with a hard edge in terms of sound, 
particularly low frequencies. The combination of Sean Rickman’s drums, with those
tinder dry offbeats on the snare and Anthony Tidd’s imperious drive on the bass,
is not so much a solid foundation as a kind of endlessly revolving, if not rotating
floor for material whose structural complexities are not incompatible with the ability
of the band to move the crowd. Originally The Metrics toured with a dancer called
Laila and within minutes of their arrival those hovering at the bar are loosening
up and getting down. In odd meters. The head spun numbers games or difficult-to-
spot start and endpoints in the life cycle of a phrase may stem from Coleman’s artful,
mathematical mind yet there is no absolute break with what might pass for popular
culture. Whether you call it blues, funk or hip hop, the inventions of black music
beholden to Coleman’s hometown of Chicago and his adopted city New York are really
a part of his wider vocabulary insofar as these genres present priceless raw materials
in both rhythm and timbre. We hear the ghosts of James Brown and Maceo Parker and,
most importantly, the living spirit of Kokayi, one of the three MCs from the original
Metrics ensemble, who frankly steals the show on many an occasion. Largely unknown
beyond his work with Coleman and Andy Milne’s Dapp Theory, Kokayi is arguably one
of the most dynamic and creative rappers in contemporary hip hop, yet to assign 
him solely to the genre would be a mistake. His brilliance lies in the unforced 
ease with which he shuttles between rapping and singing, so that his voice becomes
a mighty, all-terrain vehicle, which is particularly effective for Coleman’s music
given its tendency to cross the line between what might be called swinging and grooving.
The sound soars upward to gospelised soprano and also dives deep into burly baritone
sub-sonics, a dark, dense wedge of tone that commands the whole venue. Coleman ends
the evening singing a few lines, which, in turn, act as a springboard for the rest
of the band. The building blocks are gradually, but decisively, assembled and enriched.
As with many Coleman pieces counterpoint is prominent, and the interlocking, weaving
and criss-crossing of patterns, their hypnosis engineered by the metronomic precision
of the drums and bass, in particular, once again elicits a new burst of energy from
the dancers. All of which makes for a fascinating debate about music for head, heart
and feet. The dividing lines between the serious and the funkulous are brilliantly
blurred.

![Coleman](https://i0.wp.com/jazzwisemagazine.com/images/OCT2017/Coleman.gif?w=640)

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