By Melina Paris, Music Columnist
A double billed concert with Steve Lehman and Georgia Anne Muldrow at REDCAT, CalArts on Feb.4, presented both esotericism and consciousness in music. It was a sonic excursion, rooted in the wind of Steve Lehman’s alto sax followed by the sage expressions of Georgia Anne Muldrow.
Lehman is a recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2014 Doris Duke Artist Award. He is an alto saxophonist, composer and musical scholar. Muldrow comes from a musical family. Her father is the late jazz guitarist, Ronald Muldrow and her mother is Rickie Byars–Beckwith, the musical director of Agape Spiritual Center in Culver City. Muldrow is a poet, singer, producer and conga player.
Both Lehman and Muldrow stand as original and innovative voices in experimentalism and jazz. This concert was only a piece of the broad range urban of voices in various artistic mediums showcased at REDCAT this season.
Lehman’s Esotericism
Lehman opened, seated only two feet from the audience, offering an up close look at his method with his laptop, electronic board and his alto sax. He briefly explained his process first, then blew various phrases into his instrument as he operated an interactive system called Manifold. His works incorporate detailed programming, live processing, and computer-driven improvisation.
The system began matching and expanding the resonance from his sax with string sounds to start. The strings became more specific, with recognizable instrumental sounds of the sitar going into keys then expanding further. Simultaneously, Lehman was playing the scales on saxophone.
This symbiosis evolved into other sounds, drums, various percussion and keys again. Lehman was playing sounds through keys and drum beats more so than songs. He sprinkled in a little bass and clap along with sound bowls from Manifold. He engineered sounds from low to high repetitions, to ongoing instrumental blends into the next reverberation.
Everyone was vibing to the music as Lehman’s expressions with his system and his sax lifted the audience. The second half became more experimental with musical overlaps, more unfolding and vocals in different languages. It became even more fluid with sounds of water, waves and even static, as Lehman blew straight ahead jazz riffs on his sax. This was a journey in sound with Lehman at the helm.
Muldrow’s Consciousness
With about 30 albums, some in multiple versions, Georgia Anne Muldrow is celebrated in soul, rhythm and blues, and hip-hop. She is sought after for her distinctive vocal style, rhythmic production and complex songwriting.
Entering with a big smile, which she kept all night, Muldrow sang a welcome and thank you to the audience. She was backed by flowing jazz from her five-piece band, including Lehman on sax and a DJ.
Muldrow’s musical pedigree is apparent and she’s funky, even while she scats. Just as you’re opening to the groove they’re giving, Muldrow lays down some knowledge. In a positive tone, she sang about how Africans, the first people on earth, were taken away to a strange land and lost their names.
“But I’ll tell you something about God makes me see my children and instantly, a chemical reaction in my brain will save me from my daily rage,” she said.
Her voice is big, strong and expressive. She also preaches through her repertoire about where we come from, respect, love and humanity and even ideas that some may not or will not hear.
The groove’s deep bass, rolling melodies and cymbals and drums conjured a cool meditative pace. She said it was the first time they sing this song for the “black mother.”
“Do you understand what I’m speaking about?” Muldrow asked, referencing the black mother.
Then answered:
“The black clouds, that’s the black mother. It has to come from deep somewhere. It’s why black folks use music to survive.”
She went deeper.
“A black woman is your mom,” she said. “A black man is your father. That’s why some want to hide it and why they’re killin us.”
Muldrow shares her love, while conversing with her audience. She praises the artists who have come before her such as, Max Roach and her spiritual mentor, Alice Coltrane.
Muldrow’s deep, hip-hop and vibrational music is fluid and experimental. She delivers her grace and she wraps it in wisdom.
“I beg you to invest in what’s real,” she said in a very soft voice. “Don’t die no slave. Put all of God’s nature first. God don’t want no slaves, God wants to see God.”
Details: www.redcat.org