"There have been at least two major streams of thought in this music that many people want to call 'Jazz.' There are those artists who seek to define their work in terms of a particular aesthetic that is already in existence. And there are others who are involved in an activity which, by its very nature, involves pushing a given form of expression beyond accepted limits. I call this latter position the 'creative path' or 'creative extreme' because this path is followed by very few, and is an extreme position. The creative extreme is also a tradition–and in the so-called Western nations this position has been occupied by people as diverse as Beethoven, Bartok, Parker and Coltrane. It is this tradition of the creative extreme that I choose to align myself with and, doing so, define this music as a living and growing form of expression."
Steve Coleman sees his music as a sonic symbolic form of communication describing the nature of the universe. A passionate researcher, as well as an improviser/composer, Coleman has traveled to Egypt, India, Ghana, Senegal, and Cuba in search of the cultural contexts that have produced the civilizations preserving highly developed and expressive forms of modulated vibration. Whether he's creating computer models based on the precession of the equinoxes, the motion of clouds, the flight pattern of honeybees or amplifying such disparate sources as Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Santerķa, and Kemetic cosmology, he is assuredly moving forward the sonic science and spiritual practice of the African Diaspora.
 
  The single most important thing that you can do to develop a more sophisticated musical ear is to work on melody and rhythm memory. The following exercise will help with melody memory and eventually allow you to enjoy listening to music with improved perception for melodic detail. This is the familiar song that little children sing when expressing one-upmanship while playing a game with friends. The syllables are expressed in relative pitch (and height) to each other.
    If any of you are musicians or have a musical instrument at hand you can use the following pitches:
1
 2
3
4
5
 
 
nah
 
 
nah
 
 
nah
 
 
nah
 
 
naaah
 
1
 2
3
4
5
 
 
D
 
 
C
 
 
C
 
 
A
 
 
A
2
1
3
 4
5
 
 
5
4
3
2
1
 
 
2
1
2
3
 
 
 
2
1
3
 
 
 
 
2
3
2
3
4
 
 
2
1
2
1
3
3
2
 
Assume that the five syllables are numbered 1 through 5. Try memorizing the pitches (and the corresponding numbers,) then try singing them in these sequences.
...and any other combination that you can think of.

Try this with a friend: Sing one of the above pitch orders and have the friend tell you the corresponding numbers. In this case the person singing should try to 'hear' the melody in your head and memorize the corresponding numbers before you sing it. Also try using different rhythms.


  Born 1956, Chicago, Illinois

Lives in Allentown, Pennsylvania

1971-74 Private saxophone studies with Alvin Lawson and Jimmy Ellis

1974-76 Illinois Wesleyan University (music major)

1976-77 Chicago Music College, Roosevelt University (music major), saxophone studies with Robert Black

1978-85 On the job studies with Thad Jones, Sam Rivers, Doug Hammond, Cecil Taylor, etc.

1993-98 Private studies during travels in Ghana, Egypt, Senegal, Cuba, India and Brazil

1994-96 Private studies in philosophy and cosmogony with Thomas Goodwin (San Francisco)

2000 Research sabbatical at University of California, Berkeley; India, Cuba, Haiti


 
  1999 The Sonic Language of Myth, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, BMG/RCA Records
  1998 Genesis, Steve Coleman and The Council of Balance, BMG/RCA Records
  1998 The Opening of the Way, Steve Coleman and Five Elements, BMG/RCA Records
  1996 The Sign and The Seal, Steve Coleman and The Mystic Rhythm Society in collaboration with AfroCuba de Matanzas, BMG/RCA Records
  1995 Steve Coleman Live in Paris at The Hot Brass Club, Steve Coleman with Mystic, Metrics & Elements, RCA
  1995 Myths, Modes and Means, Steve Coleman and The Mystic Rhythm Society, RCA/Novus Records

 
  1999 Commission from L'Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique (Ircam)
  1997 Arts International Grant, for work in Senegal
  1996 Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Fund
  1995 National Endowment for the Arts Commissioning Grant

 
  http://www.m-base.com
  http://cnmat.berkeley.edu/~mbase/