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Beyond All We know


Even if things are running well my feeling is not content with the so called reality and calls for stimulation and more "beauty". I feed it as well as I can ... among other things with music, imaginations, images, stories ...

(To say it more in detail)

From my point of view one's relation to the environment constantly floats around between harmony and deathly antagonism. A lot of knowledge, cleverness, and energy is necessary to act effectually in this relation. But even if that works well those abilities do not suffice. It needs imagination, meaning, aspiration to keep motivation and vitality going. I have to bring more color into the so called reality, I have to connect reality with my self in a creative way, and I have to settle down in the spaces beyond rationally ascertainable things in a positive way. I can carry on that as far as it is necessary to avoid despair. But I also can cultivate those extensions of experience beyond a simple reality to increase spiritedness and to realize the innate ability to experience in a higher degree. That provides also a bit more independence from the offerings of the environment so that just these spheres outside reality may encourage a rational relation to reality. Complex music can stimulate and increase the mental functions - feeling, mind, intuition - exquisitely like moving in nature and sports improve vitality. Music never consists only in tones. The tones are combined with manifold imaginations, stories, social aspects etc. For the effect of music it is irrelevant whether they are true in a simple sense. Music has to accord with my inner reality. It has to answer my referring to outside world in a way that transcends what everyday life offers of gratification. The great diversity of music corresponds to the many different requirements. Creative Jazz inspires to intensive activity, to mobility in many respects and so it provides a special mental and emotional vitalization ...)

... for example with the fantasy of a bright world at the Nile beyond the known time into which Steve Coleman's song "Beyond All We Know" guides. An impressive version of this song you can hear at the beginning of the recording of the concert 16/09/03 Venice, Biennale Festival (according to the recommendation in the archives you should raise the bass level). The bright and fantastic sounds bring to my mind some impressions when I as a child watched the wonderful ceiling paintings in baroque churches which illustrate a window to heaven - with an enchanting light, gorgeous figures and impressive scenes. They provide a look-out to a better and glamorous world, a real "ray" of hope. - Another special atmospheric tune of this CD is "Wheel Of Nature": At first it is recommended to observe Ramon Garcia Perez playing the congas. Thereafter Jen Shyu and Ramon Garcia Perez (later coming along from the back) create a fantastic atmosphere with their voices.

One day before that concert the band played in Rome: 15/09/03 Auditorium Parco della Musica, Rome Italy. One of the CDs of this concert begins with another version of "Beyond All We Know". In the course of the tune a sequence of the song's melody is constantly repeated and builds a pattern to which the band creates an enchanting atmosphere. Then a heavy groove breaks out, the mentioned pattern is going on, and when moreover the melody of the song is repeated in my ears the harmonic friction is a little too sharp and I avoid to another recording ....

With the mentioned groove another element has come to play: a mighty, dark, pushing pulse - impressive for example in the version of "Beyond All We Know" of the concert 25/07/04 Bari, Italy, which you can hear on the DVD 42:17 minutes after the beginning (up to 49:00). The enormously pulsating motion brings to my mind the seeming paradox title "Peace Warriors" (a tune by Ornette Coleman). Don Pullen challenged with the tune "Warrior" to a permanent struggle against destructive forces for the purpose of a more peaceful, loving consciousness. Also the pugnacious beauty of the "Great Black Music" (AACM etc.) and the atmosphere of departure for example in Leon Thomas "Pharaoh's Tune (The Journey)" come to my mind. In the present circumstances such ambitions seem to be futile but at least the music answers them.

Even more than all those impressive sounds I admire what the second track of 16/09/03 Venice, Biennale Festival shows: a floating, intensive improvisation by Steve Coleman with an impressive logical progression which is like a bright stream of loops and curves, ups and downs, ingenious and elegant motions which create a highly complex "dance of melodic-lines" - with a special (not exactly describable) disposition, an individual manner which is comparable with Louis Armstrong's humanity and nativeness, Charlie Parkers' raising to a flight of a bird, Miles Davis' melancholic pride, John Coltrane's powerful pursuit and his dignity. In my discretion Steve Coleman's style is characterized by: a to-be-in-balance, an easiness in the play with challenging things, an equilibrium in spite of enormous intensity, a profound lightness, brightness, and flexibility, an intelligent naturalness - a "charm of spiritedness".

Jonathan Finlayson's trumpet playing is perfectly in line with this manner - often with an astounding effect of his low-key manner, his exciting breaks, and then again with rapid elegant motions and a relaxed floating coolness. On the CD 01/11/02 Stadsschouwburg, Nijmegen, Holland, his playing is very impressive in the both (merging) tracks after "Beyond All We Know" (also because he got more volume than the other wind instruments). The atmosphere is like a sunbeam. Above all the brilliant Sean Rickman on drums creates wonderful waves on which the soloists ride. - The following track with Ramon Garcia Perez's chant is dragging on a bit like a calmative siesta and fades to "Law Of Balance": The rhythm of this tune brings to my mind a Reggae-feeling and I imagine a singer of the roots-Reggae-group "Culture" dancing with an expression of grounding connection when Steve Coleman plays with the rhythm.

My feeling sticks out much challenging music because it likes animation. But if not also something like beauty comes ongoing about it feels betrayed. Optimal is a fine balance between exciting complexity and satisfying instinctiveness for example like in the version of "Figit Time" of the concert 25/07/04 Bari, Italy (55:25 minutes after the beginning of the DVD): It is a pleasure to feel the bass of Yunior Terry with its mighty, tight, but at the same time warm and mellow sound (I have raised the bass level a bit to approximate it to the live-sound). Dafnis Prieto seems to play on drums less structures of beats than directly motions, a complex rolling and gliding. At first he keeps rather low-key in this tune so that above the pulsation of the bass a clear space is created in which Steve Coleman's lines appear very clearly. Each tone seems to be suitable, coherent, logical, melodious - with a spirited sound like a voice. Soon after the beginning of his solo it brings Henry Threadgill to my mind for a moment but in his own manner. Quickly the flow of the melodic-lines becomes so intensive that it produces a kind of ascension. In an exciting manner Coleman keeps the flow nearly steadily in this status and so he pushes intensity even up to a still higher level. - After this "altitude flight" for Jonathan Finlayson the point of departure is difficult but he stokes intensity and perpetuate it in his own, defensive manner.
From my point of view it is not easy to follow all that fascinating improvisations, to really feel their motions, and to keep attention focused on them. Moreover the rhythm-section often produces an enormous intensity which is not answered by hot, sharp, dramatic sounds and this creates a strong tension which emphasises the motions of the melodic-lines. The undermentioned tune "9 to 5" is a good example for that. - In a concert in Vienna Geoffroy de Masure used in his trombone solo a bit of a dramatic show and clownery to answer to Sean Rickman's intensity and a big part of the audience was grateful for that although it was not good for the music.

Whereas Jen Shyu gives an understanding of the emotionality of that music and enriches the music at the same time. Often parts of her improvisations appear in my memory still one day later - with her wonderful sounds, the melodic motions which blend in Steve Coleman's music so harmoniously, and with a combination of highly developed artistry of singing and a stirring naturalness. Also with her gestures and elegant motions she communicates the music. When she sings "... so beautiful" in front of the accompanying sounds of the wind instruments in this version of "Figit Time" it expresses my feeling about this music so accurately that I am deeply moved.

The next, slow tune with a kind of autumn mood ("Mist And Counterpoise") is an impressive example of her artistry. At first Tim Albright's solid, relaxed floating trombone solo sounds very fine. Finlayson's and Coleman's solos are very atmospheric, and thereafter it is a great pleasure for me to hear and see Jen Shyu's wonderful improvisations.

Then it is a bit terrifying how Steve Coleman and his band (now added the 3 Brazilian percussionists) increase tempo and intensity from the fading ballad up to an ecstatic "9 to 5". The rhythms are so tight and massive that at first I felt like standing in front of a wall. Then in the course of the tune a helpful imagination appeared in my mind: I regarded the bass as a spinner, as a gravitation center with an enormous iron core which gyrates a bit eccentrically with an infernal speed. It moves around and throws around all things nearby - slivering and cracking (the sound of the percussion!). In my imagination Steve Coleman dances on and around this monstrous rotating thing with an absurd daredevilry and unreal agility. With this fantasy I got a better approach and by and by a bit of feeling for that very complex, and overwhelmingly dynamic structures. From my point of view those high energy things of Steve Coleman's music provide another kind of an experience of a "Beyond All We Know", a kind that sometimes is a bit terrifying but also so much more impressive. It is exciting to expand into these spaces.

Manfred Mayer - April 2005.

 

Why it is so good to be here

Since about 15 years, Steve Coleman's music provides me with the greatest musical experience. I'm not a musician but by means of my feeling I have developed an approach to a lot of music. For some time I frequently heard Charlie Parker, the second Miles-Davis-Quintet, John Coltrane, and Steve Coleman in this specific order to find out what is the reason for my preference for Steve Coleman's music and whether I can justify to regard him as one of the most important musicians in jazz-history.
What makes him outstanding is firstly the seriousness of his music, the incorruptness to commercial things and the ongoing effort for further development. His music is "as serious as your life" (that is the title of a book about the so called "avant-garde" scene). But Steve Coleman's music is also full of pleasure. He speaks by means of those special qualities of Afro-American music which from New Orleans to James Brown and Rap have inspired people all over the world: swing, groove, good sounds. I can understand those who restrict their music to a Bop-Continuum because they love the magic of this tradition too much to exchange it for things like "art" or a belief in progress. I can understand those who want to hear the beats and sounds of the presence in their music. And also those who find all this things of pleasure too skin-deep and who go regardless into those spheres where elementary experience is possible. An Experience that may be precious because it is rare in modern every day life. But the pleasure in sounds, rhythms, and motion is nothing else than a special kind of an elementary experience. - Steve Coleman's music brings all that together! This is, in my opinion, fascinating and outstanding.
Already the CD "Rhythm People" (1990) gave me the impression of something exceptional. The dark but not gloomy sound of the band on its own fascinated me: like velvet, floating and at the same time powerful, urban and at the same time natural, heavy like a dark gemstone and full of elastic motion. Every further CD appeared with a new own character but I have heard this specific sound in modified forms over and over. For example, in the combination with Yunior Terry's heavy warm bass and the drums of Dafnies Prieto: like a soft elastic ground in the wood, a dark fishpond with wild motion therein, an energy from the deep ...
Hiking in woods and mountains (often in free floating conversations about contexts in life), Steve Coleman's music and also some statements of him have often crossed my mind in a very vividly way. One day I took the CD player with me, sat down in the garden of a restaurant on a mountain pasture with a wonderful view, and heard Steve Coleman's music. It was great! The music seemed to speak in the same language as the beauty of nature. - The human sensation is evidently adjusted to produce a feeling of elementary beauty in a natural environment (the original habitat): the wind touching the leaves, the sunshine, the voices of the birds, the mighty peace of the mountains ... That has nothing to do with aesthetics or dramatics. I don't know much about religious doctrines but I remember something from my school days: God saw everything that he had made, and indeed IT WAS GOOD! (Christian genesis). The beauty of nature consists in an IT-IS-GOOD that is not further describable and needs no explanation. If there is something of this beauty in music it sounds "musically".
Though Steve Coleman's music is often challenging I experience this certain naturalness and "musicality" in it especially in his own saxophone playing. Once I watched a deer run across a very steep slope through the wood. Its fast reactions and very elegant jumps fascinated me and the motions of Steve Coleman's melody lines crossed my mind.
A musician explained to me: "Coltrane played his heart out of his breast and painfully laid it open" - in fact a terrible picture. This dramatics seemed to be the primary reason for the musician's great respect for Coltrane. Before I listened to Charlie Parker's music, I had read those tragic stories about the chaos in his life and his "ingeniousness". But then I definitely could not find something like parking garages, dust bins, or ingenious madness in his music. Nevertheless, a cry, a desperate struggle is a significant part of the expressivity of those masters. In contrast, Steve Coleman's sound appears balanced, with coolness, without striking dramatics, never ugly, but also never beautified, always intensely alive, and varying subtly. He sounds GOOD in the sense I tried to describe in relation to nature. It needs an intuition for that sounding-good, for the "musicality" of his playing to appreciate it right. A sense of dramatics doesn't suffice. Of course also Parker's and Coltrane's music had got those qualities but in Steve Coleman's music, in my opinion, they are more essential. His playing shows how good life can be: if its intensity is highly increased, if the mental mobility is merged with feeling, and if a wonderful multidirectional balance is reached, so that things float in an easy way and the abovementioned magic of nature appears. With this Steve Coleman adds something substantial to the previous highlights in Jazz history.
As a youngster I was fascinated about Brazilian and Cuban music and for me the kind of rhythms in Jazz often was too straight-lined, too much like going, running, hopping although they are performed and alternated very artfully. In the seventies my view changed after I had seen, for example, Hannibal Marvin Peterson with Tabor Michael Carvin on drums, Ronald Shannon Jackson in Ornette Coleman's Band, and some others. I especially like complex rhythms with circulating motions like in African and Afro-Cuban music. Steve Coleman's music contains the most exciting rhythms of this kind in the range of Jazz. - I often remember a statement of Manu Dibango (saxophonist from Cameroon): "The people in Africa don't listen to music, they dance it. They listen by their feet." (he laughs). Even more than on sound, my musical experience depends on the feeling of motion in music. I have got a preference for Jazz because the improvised dance of the melody-lines in a dialog to a rhythm section fascinates me the most. I have read that the "higher" brain functions are largely build up upon the sense of body motion and in this connection I see the Jazz improvisation: a highly intelligent music conjunct with body feeling. When I hear Jonathan Finlayson screwing upwards in cool curves, disappearing behind the clouds, and suddenly whizzing down with elegant dynamics I experience his motions like a giant leap of Michael Jordan at the same time striking out and throwing the ball perfectly into the basket. You can feel the motion even if you only hear some music coming out of loudspeakers. This is astonishing! - When you realise Jazz as "dancing in your head" (title of an Ornette Coleman CD), Steve Coleman's music is the present culmination: No other group has such wonderful rhythmicity and nobody dances so marvellously like Steve Coleman.
I think that the most fascinating part of nature can be created between persons - as love, other affectionate relations, or as an intensive, satisfying communication. Jazz has generated a lot of this, for example, the magic of a free, not conducted collaboration that reaches more than the sum of all contributions. - Also in this respect Steve Coleman's music is outstanding. He initiates an intensive communication in many different directions, not only in relation to the rhythm section. For example, he creates with Jonathan Finlayson and Jen Shyu a bright web of artfully interwoven melody lines in which each voice saves its individuality. Quite a few musicians in Steve Coleman's groups have developed their individual creativity at a very high level. But at the same time the Five-Elements-bands have been highly integrated with the distinctive character of Steve Coleman's music. - All of this is, from my point of view, a result of Steve Coleman's outstanding communicative ability.
The most of Steve Coleman's Cds are separate balanced masterpieces which are very rich in ideas, challenging, and satisfying in many ways. But to get a complete view of his music you have to add his live music with its often exciting intensity and spontaneity to his CDs. Of course, in live music there are also less inspired episodes, limited sound quality, troubles with mixing, and other disturbances . But all this together provides a very concrete and authentic view that corresponds to the directness and vitality of Steve Coleman's music. The most of us cannot hear his music in a concert more than a few times. Therefore, Dimitri's archives are very important for the reception of this wonderful music. They are a medium that helps to find a way to a lot of really great performances which otherwise would get lost in irretrievable moments. The videos of the archives provide with additional impressions which are also precious. I read in a book that Cecil Taylor, by his own account, couldn't understand some of the motion sequences in Charlie Parker's music until he sat at Charlie Parkers feet at Birdland and could not only hear but also see him playing. The visible things are a valuable completion in Jazz. It is a pleasure to see Sean Rickman's superb style, the "musicality" of Jen Shyu's gesture and motions, and many other details of that interplay which creates this great music.

Manfred Mayer.