Live At The Village Vanguard, Vol. 1 (The Embedded Sets)

Alto saxophonist Steve Coleman's 'Live at the Village Vanguard, Vol. I (The Embedded Sets)' is his first live release in over 15 years. It captures his band Five Elements in two joyous sets at the historic New York venue.

Unlike his two most recent releases, 'Morphogenesis' (NPR Critics Poll #2 album of 2017) and 'Synovial Joints' (New York Times #1 jazz album of 2015), both of which are highly orchestrated, Coleman's recent goal has been to perform as spontaneously as possible and yet still retain form and structure. The melody of "Embedded #1," for example, was composed in one extemporaneous moment, without any editing, and some pieces were composed live on stage at the Vanguard earlier in the week.

His ensemble has been able to achieve this instinctive ability as a result of a series of weeks-long residencies, where the musicians do community outreach to underserved communities by day and perform concerts by night. This has the added benefit of allowing the band to play together non-stop for weeks on end, helping to hone their telepathic intuition to a knife's edge. Coleman believes strongly that only constant and consistent performance as a unit will enable the music to fully blossom.

The musicians who appeared on stage, collectively have over 80 years of experience with Coleman's music and they tackle Coleman's typically intricate music with an effortless grace. The band's mastery over the cross-hatching rhythms, tricky counterpoint and percolating grooves, all inspired by the magical vibe of the Village Vanguard, is captured here at its absolute peak.

Personnel: Steve Coleman (alto saxophone), Jonathan Finlayson (trumpet), Miles Okazaki (guitar), Anthony Tidd (bass), Sean Rickman (drums)