This was my first trip to the Vortex this year. It was also Steve Lehman’s. In fact, this was his first ever UK date. Given that fact, and the acclaim his work has been met with in recent years, the Dalston venue was completely sold out. It was also sold out to a noticeably different crowd than usual; the average age can’t have been much more than 30. And rightly so, for the Steve Lehman Octet’s 2009 album Travail, Transformation And Flow combines some clever jazz arrangements and classical theory with more modern elements. Influences from hip-hop and electronic music feature strongly, with the superb drummer Tyshawn Sorey providing the precise, intricate, and even funky rhythmic frameworks which kept young heads nodding in this packed venue all evening. Read all about it over at The Liminal.
Recent Comments