Bmg Int'l
1993
The Tao Of Mad Phat <Fringe Zones>
About This Album
Steve Coleman's achievement in creating a musical environment for serious improvising that sets aside acoustic, swing-based rhythms for electric, funk-influenced ones that don't fall prey to repetitive fusion formulas is one of the great creative accomplishments in jazz over the last 20 years. The Tao of Mad Phat, recorded live in the studio before a small invited audience in an attempt to capture the looseness and ambience of the Five Elements' live performances, may be the ideal entry point to sampling that criminally underrated feat. Coleman's studio recordings with the Five Elements are impressive but sometimes suffer from a daunting density that disappears here, largely thanks to drummer Gene Lake. His licks provide the springy, more-bounce-to-the-ounce launching pad that is essential for a group that improvises off rhythmic impulses more than chord cues. At times ("Incantation"), the groove sounds something like the Meters' drums-bass tandem of Ziggy Modeliste and George Porter stretching out jazz-wise while guitarist David Gilmore and keyboard player Andy Milne adroitly tackle the tough task of fitting in their lines without cluttering things up. The Tao of Mad Phat isn't 100 percent live, since the tracks fade in and out and were recorded at three different sessions.
Track List (try tracks 1,2,3,4,6,7,8 and 9)

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