Steve Lehman

Saxophonist, composer, educator, and bandleader Steve Lehman is a forward-thinking musician who offers a rigorously individual, culturally expansive conception of jazz. 2001's free-leaning Structural Fire won critical notice and included incendiary trumpeter Roy Campbell, Jr. 2005's Demian as Posthuman balanced groove-oriented compositions with electroacoustic production. 2009's Travail, Transformation & Flow was the first fully realized exploration of spectral harmony in jazz. 2014's Mise en Abîme incorporated live electronics and a custom-built vibraphone, playing three radically re-imagined Bud Powell compositions. On 2017's Sélébéyone, Lehman drew inspiration from jazz, Senegalese rap, underground hip-hop, and live electronics, in an expression of global urban experimentalism. A slightly smaller version of Sélébéyone issued Xaybu: The Unseen in 2022. The following year he collaborated with Orchestre National de Jazz on Ex Machina, followed by The Music of Anthony Braxton in 2025.