The Tao of Mad Steve Coleman

Hanging around in New York City in the early 90's had it's advantages. I mean I have met and hung around some pretty cool people. I met John Zorn, Matthew Shipp, Branford Marsalis, and others. I became friends with people like Marc Ribot, Don Byron, Thomas Chapin, Ron Miles, and my favorite cool dude and fellow birthday man Steve Coleman. Steve is one of the coolest cats in the world. He is full of energy that just is very addictive and is also a man with great respect.

Here is a cool story about Steve and I. Back in my community college years I took a class on the Harlem Renaissance. We went to New York for a visit of Harlem. I got to see what Harlem was famous for and how it impacted our United States. A period of wonderful creativity that should be talked about more in our history books. I passed the class with flying colors. Two years later the same professor was teaching my mother and her best friend. The trip came up again, I wanted to go. The professor called me and told me that I should go, because the areas I knew from the first time I could take some of the group to those areas while the other half of the group could go to other locations and we could meet up. I was honored and flattered. We were in New York just getting off the bus and coordinating or plan for the day. I was telling the teacher that I have two musician friends who live in Harlem when I said that I remember calling one of them the day before our trip telling him that I should be in the area around 10am. "We are meeting at the Shomburg Center on Malcolm X Blvd so if you want to meet up that's where I will be." The bus dropped us off right in front of the center. I looked around and walking down the street was none other then Steve Coleman. He waved and came running toward the bus.

My professor was asking if I knew him. She was a bit nervous thinking that the man running was looking for a bus to catch to go uptown or something. I told her not to worry he is a friend from way back. He came over and introduced himself. He told the class that he was a musician here in Harlem and wanted to give us a tour of the area. After the tour he told us that some of the musicians he plays with will meet up and they will play for a bit at the center. I was quite impressed. Steve has done cool things in his life but nothing ever like this. He invited me to the studio once for rehearsals for a four night stand in Paris, but this was great because everyone could hear his talent.



Let me tell you more about Steve Coleman the musician. He is a talent and a wonderful sax player who started the M-Base collective which includes people like Cassandra Wilson, Greg Osby, Robin Eubanks (yes Kevin brother from Leno's band) M-Base stands for: macro-basic array of structured extemporization. It was popular in the mid-80's to early 90's. I got turned on to him from a friend who recommend the album I am going to talk about. The Tao of Mad Phat is one of the funkiest albums in the jazz. Steve himself played on a Dave Holland album with Kevin Eubanks so his credentials were all there.

It was recorded mostly live in the studio. You can hear him talk with some friends and rest of the band when they are creating this wonderful stuff. It's very funky improvisation. I got it as a suggestion from a friend who liked him too. I heard about his stuff with Dave Holland right after High School. That stuff was amazing and did not sound like jazz at all. I am sure that's where he got his ideas from.



What makes this album my pick is the fact as I said he was live in the studio and since I am a friend of his I might as well share a story about him as well. The album is full of funk and jazz. It's also a hard to find album. If you do get I suggest you listen to it start to finish. In a way there is a story because he tells it his way. It is a treat to hear and after hearing it I am sure you will be a Steve Coleman fan too.