The Squid's Ear Magazine


Lehman, Steve / Craig Taborn: The People I Love (Pi Recordings)

Saxophonist Steve Lehman's trio with drummer Damion Reid and double bassist Matt Brewer is expanded with pianist Craig Taborn for an album of Lehman originals and compositions by Autechre, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Kirkland, and Jeff "Tain" Watts, plus three duo recordings between Lehman and Taborn; intricate cutting edge jazz made effortless and exuberant!
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Steve Lehman-alto saxophone

Matt Brewer-double bass

Damion Reid-drums

Craig Taborn-piano


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UPC: 808713008227

Label: Pi Recordings
Catalog ID: Pi 82
Squidco Product Code: 28234

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2019
Country: USA
Packaging: Digipack
Tracks 1-5 and 7-10 recorded at The Samurai Hotel, in Astoria, New York, on May 14-15, 2019, by David Stoller.

Track 6 recorded at Jeff Parker Studio, in Altadena, California, September 17th, 2018, by Steve Lehman.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Hailed by The New York Times as "a state-of-the-art musical thinker" and "a quietly dazzling saxophonist," Steve Lehman has built a career creating innovative, uncompromising music that packs a visceral wallop. His signature alto sound - searing with emotional intensity and crystal clear articulation - has been featured in high-profile partnerships with Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, and Bennie Maupin. But at just 40-years-old, his greatest musical achievements have been his many critically-acclaimed, groundbreaking projects, which have run the gamut from Senegalese hip-hop (Selebeyone (Pi 2017)) to French spectral music (Travail, Transformation and Flow (Pi 2009), Mise en Abîme (Pi 2014)). With his latest album, The People I Love, Lehman revisits his jazz roots, presenting his take on the classic alto saxophone quartet tradition. It's a modern day referendum on the possibilities for that time-worn configuration for 2019 and beyond.

Much has been made of Lehman's early apprenticeships under Jackie McLean and Anthony Braxton. While those references continue to remain essential, there are other figures who also loom large: "As far as the classic alto saxophone quartet, Bird, and then of course all the records Jackie McLean did with Cedar Walton and McCoy Tyner are really big for me. And then Anthony Braxton and his "Willisau" quartet with Marilyn Crispell. But also Kenny Garrett's "Songbook" group. That's kind of the blueprint I was working from, before trying to put my own stamp on it and move it forward."

The title for The People I Love comes from a 2010 interview with vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson, a longtime friend and collaborator of Lehman's primary mentor, Jackie McLean:

When I was younger, I thought music came first. And now that I've gotten older, I realize it's only a reflection of the images of the people I love and being with God.

Longstanding musical partnerships and close friendships have always been at the center of Lehman's recordings. And the music on The People I Love is no exception. 2019 marks the 10-year anniversary of Lehman's trio with drummer Damion Reid (Robert Glasper Trio) and bassist Matt Brewer (SF Jazz, Gonzalo Rubalcaba), and their telepathic interplay and stop-on-a-dime maneuvers define the feeling of the album from start to finish. Their debut recording, Dialect Fluorescent (Pi 2012), was voted to the Top 10 spot in the NPR Jazz Critics Poll. Since then, the musical relationship between the three has only become more profound and wide-ranging. Lehman has added pianist Craig Taborn--whom the New York Times Magazine describes as "one of the best jazz pianists alive" and "an ethereal genius"--to this mix. He and Lehman also share a deep musical connection that is over a decade old. "Craig is one of the most brilliant musicians of his generation. We've been friends for a long time; played duo in acoustic and electronic settings, and talked for hours about everything under the sun. I don't think there's anyone out there more in sync with my overall musical aesthetic."

The Lehman "stamp" often comes in the form of compositions that can seem impossibly complex, but there's something new here: This isn't music that makes hay out of difficult execution or an unusually demanding practice regimen. On the contrary, even the most intricate and involved passages on The People I Love feel effortless and of a piece with a larger expression of emotional intensity. "Ih Calam & Ynnus," for example, may be a meticulously crafted minefield of shifting meters and changing tempi, but it's Lehman and Taborn's emotional soloing that ultimately carries the day.

Much of the repertoire on The People I Love is designed to make a bold statement about the state of modern Jazz in 2019. New classics by Kurt Rosenwinkel ("A Shifting Design") and Kenny Kirkland ("Chance") from the 1980s and 1990s take the place of tried and true standards. And Lehman and his quartet apply a glitchy, modernist sheen to "The Impaler" by Jeff "Tain" Watts just as easily as they re-imagine "qPlay," a piece of 2000-era electronica by Autechre. Lehman also revisits several works from his own repertoire, including "Curse Fraction" and "Beyond All Limits." His composition "Echoes", originally recorded on Travail, Transformation & Flow (New York Times #1 Jazz Album of 2009), is reconfigured here, and features a handful of virtuosic piano gestures that cascade in and around Lehman's piercing alto solo.

The album is punctuated by three duo improvisations between Lehman and Taborn, who manage to interact in a way that feels authentic and heartfelt while staying utterly contemporary. And here again, Lehman makes a statement; demonstrating intimate familiarity with 60 years of experimental saxophone vocabulary - from Eric Dolphy and Anthony Braxton to Arthur Blythe and Evan Parker - and making a compelling case for its integration into a modern-day concept of the classic alto saxophone quartet album.

The People I Love is a record that bears witness to a new openness in Lehman's music. Unedited rehearsal tapes ("A Shifting Design") and joyous laughter at the end of a take are all left on the track - inviting the listener to take a look behind the curtain at where the music comes from. The result may be his most mature artistic statement to date."-Pi Recordings


Artist Biographies

"Described as "a state-of-the-art musical thinker" and a "dazzling saxophonist," by The New York Times, Steve Lehman (b. New York City, 1978) is a composer, performer, educator, and scholar who works across a broad spectrum of experimental musical idioms. Lehman's pieces for large orchestra and chamber ensembles have been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), So Percussion, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, the JACK Quartet, the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, and the Talea Ensemble. His recent recording, Mise en Abîme (Pi, 2014) was called the #1 Jazz Album of the year by NPR Music and The Los Angeles Times. And his previous recording, Travail, Transformation & Flow (Pi, 2009), was chosen as the #1 Jazz Album of the year by The New York Times.

The recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award, Lehman is an alto saxophonist who has performed and recorded nationally and internationally with his own ensembles and with those led by Anthony Braxton, Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran, Meshell Ndegeocello, and High Priest of Anti-Pop Consortium, among many others. His recent electro-acoustic music has focused on the development of computer-driven models for improvisation, based in the Max/MSP programming environment. Lehman's work has been favorably reviewed in Artforum, Downbeat Magazine, The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wire, and on National Public Radio, the BBC, and SWR.

As a Fulbright scholar in France during the 2002-2003 academic year, Lehman began researching the reception of African-American experimental composers working in France during the 1970s. His article in the journal Critical Studies in Improvisation, "I Love You with an Asterisk: African-American Experimental Composers and the French Jazz Press, 1970-1980," is based on his Fulbright research. More recently, Lehman has published writings and presented lectures on a wide range of topics, including jazz pedagogy, rhythm cognition, and European notions of American experimentalism. His current scholarship, including a forthcoming contribution to the Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music, examines the overlapping histories of spectral composition and jazz improvisation.

Lehman received his B.A. (2000) and M.A. in Composition (2002) from Wesleyan University where he studied under Anthony Braxton, Jay Hoggard, and Alvin Lucier, while concurrently working with Jackie McLean at the Hartt School of Music. He received his doctorate with distinction in Music Composition from Columbia University (2012), where his principal teachers included Tristan Murail and George Lewis.

Lehman has taught undergraduate courses at Wesleyan University, the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, New School University, and Columbia University, and has presented lectures at Amherst College, UC Berkeley, The Berklee School of Music, The Banff Centre, The Royal Academy of Music in London, and IRCAM in Paris, where he was a 2011 research fellow.

Beginning in September 2016, Lehman will join the music faculty at The California Institute of the Arts."

-Steve Lehman Website (http://www.stevelehman.com/bio)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Matt Brewer was born in Oklahoma City but spent most of his youth in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Born into a musical family, Matt was surrounded by music from an early age, both his father and grandfather being jazz musicians, and his mother an avid music lover and radio DJ (who, even before Matt was born, would play classic jazz albums for him). After graduating from the Interlochen Arts Academy, Matt attended the inagural class of The Juilliard Jazz Program and studied with bassists Rodney Whitaker and Ben Wolfe. After spending two years at Juilliard he decided to leave school to make time for his busy touring schedule. Since then he has worked with artists such as Greg Osby, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Lee Konitz, David Sanchez, Terence Blanchard, Antonio Sanchez, Vijay Iyer, Adam Rogers, Steve Coleman, Dave Binney, Aaron Parks, Jeff "Tain" Watts, and many others. He recently recorded his second album as a leader on the Criss Cross Jazz label. He is an adjunct faculty member at The New School, and has been a frequent guest artist/teacher at the Banff Center."

-Matt Brewer Website (http://mattbrewerbass.com/biography/)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Damion Reid hailing from West Covina, California a city east of Los Angeles. He is the son of well-respected bassist and astute operatic singer and teacher. By the age of three, Damion was already playing in church. It was around the age of twelve that Damion began being mentored by the world-renowned drummer Billy Higgins. During these formative years Billy's spirit for life and music was deeply seeded in Damion's fertile mind. Seeing Damion's ability to grasp the music both, analytically and conceptually it wasn't long before Billy invited him to be a part of his drum collective. As he began to mature musically he found himself frequenting Billy's club "The World Stage," learning and playing with the likes of Billy Childs, George Bohanon and Oscar Brashear.

As Damion continued to cultivate his love for music through his high school years, he managed school life with professional obligations. Damion graduated High School and made the move to Boston, Massachusetts New England Conservatory of Music where he spent time with Cecil McBee, Danilo Perez, Fred Buda and George Russell as well as his musical peers. It was while in Boston between the years of 1998 and 1999 that he received the prestigious Alan Dawson scholarship. He then was accepted into the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California. Soon finding himself trekking to New York City to attend The New School. He then began performing and touring alongside Greg Osby, Terence Blanchard, Robert Glasper, Steve Lehman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Jacky Terrasson, Ravi Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Marcus Belgrave, Lauryn Hill, Robert Hurst, Bilal, Meshell Ndegeocello, Jason Moran, Mark Shim, Mark Turner, Chihiro Yamanaka, Steve Coleman, Bunky Green and many others."

-Damion Reid Website (http://www.damionreid.com/damionreid.com/biography.php)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Craig Marvin Taborn (/ˈteɪˌbɔːrn/; born February 20, 1970) is an American pianist, organist, keyboardist and composer. He works solo and in bands, mostly playing various forms of jazz. He started playing piano and Moog synthesizer as an adolescent and was influenced at an early stage by a wide range of music, including by the freedom expressed in recordings of free jazz and contemporary classical music.

While at university, Taborn toured and recorded with jazz saxophonist James Carter. Taborn went on to play with numerous other musicians in electronic and acoustic settings, while also building a reputation as a solo pianist. He has a range of styles, and often adapts his playing to the nature of the instrument and the sounds that he can make it produce. His improvising, particularly for solo piano, often adopts a modular approach, in which he begins with small units of melody and rhythm and then develops them into larger forms and structures.

In 2011, Down Beat magazine chose Taborn as winner of the electric keyboard category, as well as rising star in both the piano and organ categories. By May 2016, Taborn had released six albums under his own name and appeared on more than eighty as a sideman."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Taborn)
3/13/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Prelude 1:41

2. Ih Calam and Ynnus 5:55

3. Curse Fraction 5:14

4. qPlay 4:25

5. Interlude 1:05

6. A Shifting Design 3:58

7. Beyond All Limits 7:53

8. The Impaler 5:12

9. Chance 5:31

10. Postlude 0:55

Related Categories of Interest:

Pi Records

Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Melodic and Lyrical Jazz
Quartet Recordings
Duo Recordings
Staff Picks & Recommended Items

Search for other titles on the label:
Pi Recordings.


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