Tag: Travail

From NYTimes.com:

One misperception about jazz, insidious enough to be shared by many of its proponents, is that the music adheres to a rigid code. But like any language, jazz accommodates mutation; it’s subject to the whims of usage. That doesn’t mean the music must respond to every new signal, but it does mean there’s still a place for substantive innovation.

Steve Lehman, a studiously intense alto saxophonist and composer, brought these issues to the fore at Le Poisson Rouge on Monday night. He was leading his octet, the same group featured on a staunchly contemporary new album, “Travail, Transformation and Flow” (Pi). As on the album, his compositions proposed a whorl of luminous dissonance and off-kilter propulsion, suggesting trace fragments of electronic dance music. They also recalled the more adventurous strains of 1960s postbop, in spirit if not in style.