M-Base Collective - Anatomy of a Groove
This impenetrable collage of jazz complexity is one of many Steve Coleman and chums' free recordings, available on the former's website at no cost. Coleman has an interesting and eloquent essay on why he gives away some music for free, something he implemented well before the ubiquitous free listening through streaming services. The harmonic language if it can be described as such, is clearly very logical and full of imaginative configurations of scales and dense polyphonies. One sometimes wonders if anyone in Steve Coleman's various outfits other than the drummers can actually keep pace with his esoteric jazz mind. Only he sounds totally at home in the settings he contrives. Other musicians, while doubtless extremely able, sometimes sound like they're only just about hanging on by the skin of their teeth. Not quite as desperate as the great Tommy Flanagan's respective crashing and burning on the original Giant Steps, but somehow more treading water than finishing the triathlon. And the music is at times gruellingly difficult. The slap bass that thwacks and twangs throughout many numbers hasn't aged particularly well, but it certainly has some energy. Coleman's lines though no doubt possessing robust underlying structures and pattern sound atonal for more than 50% of the time. It would be fascinating to hear what he would do with standards or perhaps with a big band. The rimshot snare is potent and sounds like it's been mixed by a rock producer. Perhaps it's only that other instruments needed a little more presence in the mix, more like the exquisitely recorded Beyond the Wall by Kenny Garrett. Busy additional percussion and the voice is not to my taste, but this is my prejudice and it takes a great deal to change my mind. Cowbell is rather overused on 'One Bright Morning', which sounds rather deformed or uncertain as to what style it wants to rest upon. Cassandra Wilson's? voice is bang on pitch but that extremely deep range from a woman is slightly unnerving at times. The final track Hormones, certainly sounds like the rush of biology taking control of the world. Lots of testosterone from the drummer certainly, whose cymbals must have needed some TLC following this abuse. This is one of the more coherent tracks on the album. The baritone sax solo has echoes of Wayne Shorter, before an effects-saturated guitar takes centre stage, matching the tonal palette of the drums very well. The motifs jump in and out very tightly from the horns. Piano has been a bastion of sanity through the whole record and finishes in this last solo with sensible and sophisticated language, perhaps helped by the fact that he can accompany himself to some degree and add some support to his improvised choices other members of the collective would never enjoy.