Some elements were missing
Maybe it was the sheer fatigue from driving to Los Angeles from San Francisco before stepping onstage Tuesday at REDCAT. Maybe it was the freeway traffic jam that delayed their arrival until a half hour after the scheduled start time.
Whatever the cause, alto saxophonist Steve Coleman’s performance with his group, Five Elements, rarely achieved its usual high standard of inventiveness. As usual, Coleman performed without a break, other than the occasional brief pause between selections while the audience responded. Nor did he identify any of the material in the more than 90-minute presentation, although he frequently credited his various players. Presumably, several selections were drawn from a new Coleman album, “Lucidarium.”
Ninety minutes of unfamiliar music, in which a substantial portion of the time is devoted to stretched-out improvisation (mostly by Coleman), can make for a daunting listening experience. In his previous appearances, similar offerings have been fascinating, odyssean musical journeys, filled with epic twists and turns. This time, however, the voyage was too frequently hampered by an absence of propulsive energy or mired in turgid currents of improvisational repetition.
The ensemble’s front line -- Coleman, trumpeter Jonathan Finlayson and vocalist Jen Shyu -- took most of the written lead passages. And in a few wildly bop-tinged lines, the dense timbres produced by trumpet, alto saxophone and voice were fascinating. More often, the efforts to produce spontaneously generated ensemble segments flailed around randomly before settling upon rudimentary riffing.
Coleman, one of the founders of Manhattan’s iconoclastic M-Base group of the mid-’80s, was at his best during exchanges with drummer Dafnis Prieto. But the evening would have had a far more appealing musical balance if he had offered more of his solo space to Finlayson, Shyu, pianist Craig Taborn and bassist Yunior Terry -- all of whom spent long stretches watching Coleman’s improvisational excursions.
Coleman and the Elements will return Friday, hopefully as a more rested, less traveled band of players.
*
Steve Coleman & Five Elements
Where: Roy and Edna Disney/ CalArts Theater at Disney Hall, 631 W. 2nd St., L.A.
When: Friday, 8:30 p.m.
Price: $12 to $24
Info: (213) 237-2800
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