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Steve Coleman in Paris, July 2004
Steve Coleman in Paris, July 2004

Steve Coleman, born September 20, 1956 (1956-09-20) (age 51), is an American saxophone player, spontaneous composer, composer and band leader. Events 451 - The Battle of Chalons takes place in North Eastern France. Year 1956 ( MCMLVI) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The saxophone (commonly referred to simply as sax) is a conical- bored transposing Musical instrument considered a member of the Woodwind Musical Improvisation is the creative activity of immediate Musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental A composer (literally meaning 'one who puts together' is a person who creates Music, usually in the medium of notation, for Interpretation and Performance His music and concepts have been a heavy influence on contemporary jazz.

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Biography

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Coleman moved to New York in 1978 and has lived in the NY area since that time. Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. 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 led several groups, and has recorded extensively. M-Base (short for " m acro' -b' asic a rray of s tructured e xtemporization" is a concept of how to create modern Music 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. Theodore Walter "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7 1930 in New York City) is an American Jazz tenor Saxophonist Earl Lavon Freeman Sr (born October 3, 1922 in Chicago Illinois) is a Hard bop Tenor saxophonist. Bunky Green is a Jazz musician and educator Born April 23, 1935, he was raised in Milwaukee Wisconsin USA where he played the alto Saxophone For the New Orleans music historian see Tad Jones. Thaddeus Joseph Jones ( March 28, 1923 – August 21, 1986 Samuel Carthorne Rivers (born September 25, 1923, in El Reno Oklahoma) is an American Jazz musician and Composer. Doug Hammond (born December 26, 1942) is a Free funk / Avant-garde jazz Drummer, professor composer poet and producer from Tampa Cecil Percival Taylor (born March 15 or March 25, 1929 in New York City) is an American Pianist and poet Abbey Lincoln (born Anna Marie Wooldridge on August 6 1930 in Chicago Illinois) is a Jazz Vocalist, Songwriter, and Actress Dave Holland (born October 1, 1946) is a British Jazz Bassist and Composer who is a significant representative 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 asymmetric 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. Funk is an American musical style that originated in the mid- to late-1960s when African American musicians blended Soul music, Soul 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. Down Beat is an American Magazine devoted to "jazz blues and beyond" to indicate its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively " 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. Jazz is an American Musical art form which originated in the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States Preferring a more organic approach to music he uses the term Spontaneous Composition. Musical Improvisation is the creative activity of immediate Musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental According to Coleman there extends back into ancient times a tradition of 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. Sacred geometry is Geometry used in the design of Sacred architecture and Sacred art. In Physics and other Sciences energy (from the Greek grc ἐνέργεια - Energeia, "activity operation" from grc ἐνεργός Life is a state that distinguishes Organisms from non-living objects such as non-life and dead organisms being manifested by growth through Metabolism ). 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. Musical Improvisation is the creative activity of immediate Musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental 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. WikipediaWikiProject Composers#Lead section.2 This article is written in British English including maximised use of "-ise" Béla Viktor János Bartók (March 25 1881&ndashSeptember 26 1945 was a Hungarian Composer and Pianist, considered to be one of the greatest

Recordings

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Further reading

External links

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