A new body of work from Steve Coleman

Alto saxophonist Steve Coleman, architect of the M-Base sound, is to release a new album on April 21st.

‘Synovial Joints’ is arguably Coleman’s most ambitious project to date. His legendary Five Elements Group is at the core of the band which expands to 21 musicians called 'The Council Of Balance'. Members are drawn from jazz, Afro-Cuban, Afro-Brazilian and contemporary classical circles. The music on 'Synovial Joints' was based on ideas that reflect the processes, functions and rhythms of the human body. Coleman’s intention was to model individual elements of the musical composition on the physiological movements within the nervous, respiratory, cardiovascular and other systems of the human body, hence the title. He also explores a concept he calls “camouflage orchestration” inspired by listening to natural sounds recorded in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, where he spends parts of each year.

M-Base is a concept in music that came up in the 1980s from a collective of musicians including Coleman, Robin Eubanks, Cassandra Wilson and Greg Osby. It explores improvisation within structured and often complex polyrhthyms. Coleman also denies the term jazz for his music. In 2014 he received a number of awards including the MacArthur fellowship, Guggenheim fellowship, and the Doris Duke Performing Arts Award. He has just been awarded the 2015 Doris Duke Performing Arts Award, and is currently featured on this month's cover of the American Downbeat Magazine.

You can hear more from Steve Coleman's ’Synovial Joints’ with Chris Philips on The Blueprint and Mike Chadwick’s Cutting Edge, on Jazz FM.