The Jazz Project - Album 82: Steve Coleman And Five Elements - "The Tao Of Mad Phat: Fringe Zones"

                 To further my understanding of Jazz, I'm listening through Jazzwise Magazine's "The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook The World". Each album is presented with my stream-of-consciousness thoughts for each track, my general thoughts of the album as a whole, and any relevant information I can capture about the album. Also included is my drink of choice while taking the album in. Thank you for joining me on my journey to [partial] Jazz enlightenment.

Album 82
Steven Coleman - The Tao Of Mad Phat
Drinking: Black Tea

Photo credit: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/15/The_Tao_of_Mad_Phat.jpg

1. "The Tao Of Mad Phat": This track begins as a saxophone solo that goes on for several minutes. It's soulful and flowing, full of great licks. The full band joins in and it's one of the funkiest things I've heard in a long time. It's like one part Jazz and one part Funk are jammed into a blender and violently jamming the two styles together into a wonderfully blended mesh of delight. The slap bass is particularly excellent. It's hard not to bounce your head to this hard-hitting groove. While bouncing the groove I look up "Tao" and according to the Oxford Dictionary, its a noun meaning "the absolute principle underlying the universe, combining within itself the principles of yin and yang and signifying the way, or code of behavior, that is in harmony with the natural order." I suppose the album/title track would suggest that Jazz and Funk are the yin and yang, with music being the underlying principle? Perhaps, but the band's control of rhythm and the fiery improvisation on this track is quite incredible. Between the seven and eight-minute mark, it reduces to a prolonged soloing session between the artists that isn't quite as cohesive as the beginning, but it still grooves super hard. The guitar solo around 9:30 and 10:00 is so good, but just under that layer is some incredible drumming. My mind is taken to an inner-city street market, with many different voices calling out to attract viewers and customers. There's an organic nature to the scene the music is painting. We enter a section around the 13-minute mark that maintains many of the rhythmic elements from before but with a much darker tone to the music. The saxophone returns to playing over the band as it closes. So delightful, and such a great track. 
   
   
2. "Alt-Shift=Return": This song opens with some harsh yet funky guitar chords over a walking bass and some popping drums. The music is almost computer-like, or perhaps like a cash register. Whatever it's trying to emulate it fully gripped my attention. It's like the rhythm section is the computer and the brass is what's happening on the screen. A different take, the rhythm section is the shop and the sax is the shopkeeper greeting and ringing out customers. There's a strong repetitive nature to this song that carries at least through ~2:50. Something changes each repetition, and it's only noticeable over time and I'm not catching what it is, which is slightly frustrating. All the elements from the start are there, but it's different as well. Very intriguing, frustrating isn't the right word. I enjoyed this track, but something about the mechanics of this track truly eluded me. 
   
   
3. "Collective Meditations 1 (suite): Changing Of The Guard": I immediately looked up if Kamasi Washington referenced this in any way, but nothing came of that search. this song is frantic, angular, but so full of shred. Rhythm notes and chords are jabbing into the air as the piano has a very off kilter solo, but my gut says it was entirely the plan to paint the music this way. This almost sounds like a riot or a fight. Not a relaxing track, but captivating. 
   
   
4. "Collective Meditations 1 (suite): Guards On That Train": We seamlessly segue into this new song. There's a theme of guards to the titles. This track also maintains a frantic pace, but the walking baseline grounds it and brings some fluidity to it. Additionally, the angular piano lines are gone. This train is going a million miles an hour. Is the band the guard? Is it the old styles of Jazz? If this is all improvisation, I'm stupid impressed. 
   
   
5. "Collective Meditations 1 (suite): Relax Your Guards": Easily the shortest song on the album with a run time of 36 seconds. It operates at a slower pace, with a strong sense of swagger, but the jabbing piano returns for a brief moment. At roughly 15 seconds it goes into this slower funky jam. A quick but enjoyable snippet. 
   
   
6. "Collective Meditations 1 (suite): All The Guards There Are": This song carries the swagger the previous track carried with it and feels a bit more like classic Jazz with a hint of Funk hanging in the background. It's a fast-paced track without the frenetic feeling from the earlier fare. My head is telling me the guards are the musicians, and they're trying to cobble a band together in the musical narrative. 
   
   
7. "Collective Meditations 1 (suite): Enter The Rhythm (People)": This song starts with the same hard funk drums and bass with some seriously menacing chords from the keys. Maybe this is a battle of the bands situation, maybe not. The bass solo around 1:10 is odd, with a tone you don't hear often, but it's an enjoyable solo. This song leaves me feeling perplexed. It takes a small stylish shift at ~2:20 that loses some of the menace and is a big shift from most of the earlier material. Ultimately I left this song feeling lost. 
   
   
8. "Incantation": "Incantation" starts with a strong Coltrane vibe to it. The funky backbone feels very Tom Waits-like and I'm loving it. There's a strong back-alley vibe to this solo, like a group of neighbors playing in the street. Meditation is the word I want to use to describe this, but the rhythm section sounds like it has a stronger intent than a meditation. Incantation was a good choice for the title of this song. There's a big change at ~2:20, it's sultry, somber, and a little nostalgic in sound. Perhaps the incantation has been completed? Maybe the cost was too great? 
   
   
9. "Laid Back Schematics": A fun duet between the sax and bass. Keys slowly enter the mix creating a layering effect. It's hard not to bob your head to the music. This is one of the few tracks where you can hear band members talking. The song is a nice change of pace from the overall album. The layers keep coming and going until it all comes together around 3:10. There is a fun groove to the sax solo that plays over the jam around 3:50. Not my favorite solo on the album, but it fits the mood of the song well. This feels like another meditation or jam, it lacks any real narrative feeling to it. Sounds like it's fun to play in though. Admittedly this is the first song where I'm actively waiting for it to end. Stick around for the bass solo at the end though, it's worth the wait. 
   
   
10. "Polymad Nomads": This clocks in at over 10 minutes in length, so saddle up! Solid rhythm to the intro. It feels like it's building to somewhere, though it may not, given the nature of other tracks on the album. A minute and a half in there's a duet passage with the bass and keys that is pretty great. The rhythm is still vamping on that first passage. At roughly 3:15 the drums start shaking free of the meditation and change up the overall vibe of the track. A trumpet cuts in and starts soloing over the mix, and it feels good to hear some fresh instrumentation hit the sonic landscape. The trombone solo is excellent. About halfway through the song and we are still vamping around this moment. Brass has a nice passage at ~5:20 that breaks up the feeling a bit. This is a fun jam session, but beyond the fun of listening to musicians do their thing there doesn't feel like it offers anything else. That being said, this would make for a great show in a live setting. It has a solid end making for a pretty solid track overall. A journey for sure. 
    
    
11. "Little Girl On Fire": A beautiful piano opens this track with a very classic Jazz sound. Full and somber, with little flourishes of licks tossed in. It's so good. Where has this been all album? I get a Herbie Hancock vibe from the piano performance. The sax joins in around 1:20 with a soulful solo that is also excellent. It all washes over you like a memory, intangible yet sweet, real yet elusive. Drums and bass join in around 3:10, and it's masterfully done. Such a great sounding band. It walks the line of feeling old and new, classic yet fresh. It cannot be stated enough, the drums on this song are so good! It makes me want a cocktail and a cigarette. The piano solo around 4:50 is delightful. This is such a dynamic piece. It piques my interest that they'd open the album in such a contemporary manner and close it with such a classic soundtrack. Perhaps that is to make the album inline with the idea of Tao. I'm going to take another moment to say that the drums are so good! This sounds like night time on the streets, cold yet tantalizing, with cold drinks and hot nights. Some of the structure gets lost around 10:40, but the soloing makes up for it. The Funk kicks in super hard at roughly 11:55, and the song breaths in new life. It's a great, yet jarring, change up. The band is going at it so hard, and push to dial up the Funk even more. The slap-bass work is mind-bendingly good. This song could act as a history piece, taking the listener from classic Jazz to Modern Funk. Perhaps that was the point. 

Overall Thoughts: This album was quite the journey. I liked a lot of it, I loved some of it, and a few tracks left me watching the clock. Overall, I think you should certainly check out this album if not for the first and last track. There is some incredible musicianship on this album that you shouldn't miss.

Info: This album was released in 1993 through the Novus label and produced by Steve Coleman. It features Steve Coleman on alto saxophone, piano, and vocals, Andy Milne on keyboards, David Gilmore on guitar, Reggie Washington on bass guitar, Gene Lake on drums, Roy Hargrove on trumpet (track 10), Josh Roseman on trombone (track 10), Matt Garrison on bass guitar (track 10), Kenny Davis on acoustic bass (tracks 8 and 10), and Junior Wedderburn on percussion (tracks 8 and 10).