STEVE LEHMAN — Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn ‎: The People I Love (review)

STEVE LEHMAN — Steve Lehman Trio + Craig Taborn ‎: The People I Love album cover Album · 2019 · Avant-Garde Jazz Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
snobb
After a three year gap, one of the most most interesting sax player of today's American creative jazz scene Steve Lehman returns with "The People I Love" album. Same trio as on 2012 "Dialect Fluorescent" is improved with another new generation leader - pianist Craig Taborn.

Radically different from Lehman last studio work - electronics and rap filled "Steve Lehman & Sélébéyone"(2016), this new album represents his return back to jazz roots, possibly Lehman's most jazz-rooted album to date. Framed with "Prelude","Interlude" and "Postlude" - three short acoustic sax/piano duets with Taborn, "The People I Love" contains Lehman's usual dry but warm take on some of his older compositions and some covers too. Most unusual between chosen covers is "qPlay" from Brits IDM duo Autechre - fully acoustic minimalist composition with melancholic tune and repetitive rhythmical structure.

Another cover is a knotty energetic take on Swiss-based American guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel two decades old song "A Shifting Design". Lehman's own "Echoes" is combined to one piece with Jeff "Tain" Watts' mainstream "The Impaler"(originally - with Branford Marsalis on tenor sax and Wynton Marsalis on trumpet). Lehman's "Curse Fraction", originally recorded with quintet in 2007,here sounds much relaxed,minimalist and even melancholic.

Taborn's addition (for the first time ever) gives some warmness and better balance for the usually scientifically perfect Lehman band sound, the choice of material looks like a successful step too. More intimate than Lehman's bigger bands, this quartet offers best from both Lehman and Taborn music in one place.
Share this review

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

The Vinny Golia Quintet 2024 : Almasty Avant-Garde Jazz
VINNY GOLIA
Buy this album from MMA partners
Anaconga RnB
CITRUS SUN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Shoot For The Moon Pop/Art Song/Folk
DAVINA AND THE VAGABONDS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Timeless Post-Fusion Contemporary
DAVID BENOIT
Buy this album from MMA partners
Nothing Pop/Art Song/Folk
LOUIS COLE
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Songs My Mom Liked EPK - Anthony Branker
ANTHONY BRANKER
js· 5 hours ago
Jean-Pierre (feat. Darryl Jones)
BILL EVANS (SAX)
snobb· 16 hours ago
Magic Box
CHRISTOPHE MARGUET
snobb· 16 hours ago
The Peacocks
ANTOINE DRYE
js· 21 hours ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us