On Meaning

about this album

Saxophonist and composer Steve Lehman is one of those new breeds of contemporary musicians. As a jazzman he's played with everyone from Vijay Iyer to Dave Burell. He's studied with both Jackie McLean and Anthony Braxton, and recorded a handful of records as a leader or co-leader; he is a Fulbright scholar and has taught in Paris. His album titles -- like this one -- sound like the titles of doctoral dissertations: Demian as a Posthuman, anyone? All of that said, Lehman could throw down on the horn and write some exciting music for a band that makes it spark and fire. Chris Dingman on vibes, Drew Gress on bass, drummer Tyshawn Sorey (who nails all kinds of breakbeats in this set), and trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson work with Lehman's alto in scattering post-bop notions off a wall filled with tough new vanguard tricks, but which are all kept in tight rein by the compositions themselves. While these tunes don't exactly sing, they can and do swing, in places. In others they scatter, punch, kick, and dart here and there at a moment's notice, sometimes quicker, sometimes slower. Themes like that of the title track juxtapose thematic constructions and taut melodic invention along several planes at once in a metonymic manner -- it's not a long, single line in linear horizontal fashion, but in linear fashion, period, using all the referents of what came before for what comes after. The vibes add both color and punch the rhythm section, as well as act as a melodic extension of three diff

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tracks

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Artificial Light

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On Meaning (feat. Steve Lehman, Tyshawn Sorey, Drew Gress, Jonathan Finlayson & Chris Dingman)

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On Meaning (Pi - 2007)

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ArtificialLight

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Manifold