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Steve Coleman (born 20 September 1956) is an American saxophone player, spontaneous composer, composer and band leader.
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Coleman moved to New York in 1978 and has
lived in the NY area since that time. Although he has led several
groups over the years, his main group 'Steve Coleman and Five Elements'
began in 1981 and is still active today.
He was one of the founders of the so-called M-Base movement, has lead
several groups, and has recorded extensively. Initially influenced by
saxophonists Charlie Parker, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Chicago
legend Von Freeman and Bunky Green, Coleman has performed and recorded
with Thad Jones, Sam Rivers, drummer Doug Hammond, Cecil Taylor, Abbey
Lincoln and Dave Holland. He has incorporated many elements from
folkloric music from the African Diaspora fused with musical ideas
influenced by ancient metaphysical concepts. He has stated that his
main concern is the use of music as a language of sonic symbols used to
express the nature of man's existence.
Coleman's work around 1990, such as Black Science, is unusual for its
indefinite meter. He achieves this by having each instrumentalist
playing in a different meter, generally itself irregular such as 7/4 or
11/4. The resulting music has a funk feel to it, but with a freedom
from the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic predictability of funk. This
distorted likeness to popular music brought Coleman new audiences which
he was not averse to seeking, as described in an interview in Down Beat
Magazine where he mentions himself telling club owners who wanted punk
(or some other popular genre), "That's what we play." A highlight of
this period, the recording The Tao of Mad Phat (fringe zones), recorded
with a studio audience, moves closer to conventional funk by using
regular meters while still retaining Coleman's imaginative use of
melody and harmony.
Coleman does not agree with using categories to describe music today,
in particular he does not use the term jazz. Preferring a more organic
approach to music he uses the term Spontaneous Composition. According
to Coleman there extends back into ancient times musicians who have
attempted to express through music the various visions and realities
that they perceive, and for him this is the driving force behind many
of the ‘so-called’ innovations in music (and indeed in
other fields as well). He feels that the various tools and fields of
inquiry that people have used (physics and metaphysics, number,
language, music, dance, astronomy, etc.) are all related and present
one holistic body of work. The various forms that his music assumes are
not only intuitively inspired by but intuitively and logically
determined by the human perception of ‘The Great Work’
(i.e. the creation of all Nature by the Universal Mind). Although this
may seem a lofty goal, it has occupied the minds of humans for
millennia.
One of the primary methods that Coleman uses to create his music is
linked to two concepts: Sacred Geometry (the use of shapes to
symbolically express natural principles), and Energy (the potential for
change and change itself in physical, metaphysical and psychic
phenomena, including Life, Growth, etc.). Coleman uses various kinds of
musical structures to symbolize the Sacred Geometry and specific kinds
of musical movement to reference the various states of Energy. In any
event the concept of Change seems to be central to his theory. He has
stated that it is the Change between the various musical structures
that is the important element, not the structures themselves. In this
he disagrees with many musical theories currently being taught in
institutions of higher learning. Coleman believes that it is through
the Spontaneous Composition of forms that these ideas can be most
readily expressed, regardless of external stylistic appearances. A
frequent statement of his is “it is the movement that is
important”.
These ideas, although rare, are not new in music. There have been
musicians from virtually every culture that have worked in these areas,
as is documented in the earliest writings on music. Musicians as
diverse as Johann Sebastian Bach, Béla Bartók and John
Coltrane have stated similar ideas.
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