Theory of Everything: Steve Lehman Octet's Travail, Transformation, and Flow

That’s about all anyone needs to know about spectral theory and more than is needed to enjoy Travail, Transformation, and Flow. What it means in terms of the actual sound of the album is that Lehman uses a broad variety of instrumental timbres in his octet. His alto meets tenor sax, trumpet, trombone, tuba, vibes, bass, and drums, essentially a big band in a small package. It also means that the eight tracks on the album develop very slowly—with frequent repetition and lots of sustained notes and resonances. The album’s strength lies in timbre and harmony: The few melodies Lehman does compose are redundant and not very interesting. The closing “Living in the World Today” is the only melody that’s particularly memorable—and Lehman didn’t write it.

The most prominent sound on Travail is the vibraphone of Chris Dingman, whose four-mallet attack allows him to play chords, which reverberate, often for several seconds, after he strikes. Dingman could be the music’s harmonic frame all by himself, but Lehman frequently fuses the vibes with Jose Davila’s tuba so that together they sound like one pretty but alien ax, as on “Alloy” and “No Neighborhood Rough Enough.” An even neater trick happens on the short “Dub,” where the vibes fade out as trombone and trumpet fade in, using a close-but-dissonant harmony that makes the first sound seem to morph into the second. On most albums these would seem like minor touches, but on Travail, Transformation, and Flow, it’s a great deal of the point: by making notes and voicings inseparable from each other, Lehman blurs the boundary between arranger and composer and establishes relationships between sounds that should clash