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Steve Lantner
He is known for his originality, energy, versatility and a style that places melody and harmony back on the improviser's palette alongside texture, velocity and abstraction.
Part of his pursuit is to find a new language that embraces the deep traditions of Jazz without picking one side or the other in its dichotomy--to establish a style that embraces the breadth of all the developments at our disposal.
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Steve Lantner: Given - Live In Munster
by John Sharpe
What is called free jazz can cover a very wide spectrum of creative music, not all of which is as unfettered as the name implies. At the most basic level, choice of instrumentation is a clear limitation, while pre-agreed moods or written heads may further reduce the possibilities. On Given, the second release by Boston-based pianist Steve Lantner's quartet, the two predetermined elements were that the players use the intervallic structure 0146 (a four-note series such as ...
read moreSteve Lantner Quartet: Given - Live In Munster
by Glenn Astarita
Pianist Steve Lantner possesses the uncanny and, in certain respects, enviable manner to triumphantly fuse free-jazz elements with microtonal inferences and the twelve-tone system. With a superb support structure in place featuring a wonderful foil in multi-reedman Allan Chase, Lantner's quartet presents a study in contrasts, all enhanced with its radiating contrapuntal maneuvers and synergistic group-centric dialogues.
Recorded live at the International Jazzfestival in Munster, Germany, the musicians project lucid imagery as they brew and then recycle an ...
read moreSteve Lantner Trio: What You Can Throw
by Troy Collins
Seamlessly integrating divergent threads of musical history into a singular style, Boston-based pianist Steve Lantner has established himself as an artist to watch. His third trio recording and fifth as a leader, What You Can Throw is definitive--a swinging maelstrom of lyrically disjointed melodies and abstruse rhythms.
Lantner is joined by his regular rhythm section, featuring Joe Morris on upright bass and Luther Gray on drums. Heavyweights of the Boston free jazz scene, Lantner, Morris and Gray have ...
read moreSteve Lantner Trio: What You Can Throw
by Chris May
There are times, during the loping, rollicking New Routine" which opens this album by pianist Steve Lantner's trio, that it sounds, and even more emphatically, feels like you are listening to one of pianist/composer Thelonious Monk's great trios of the early 1950s--shades of Blue Monk," Bemsha Swing" and Little Rootie Tootie" jostle, accommodate and morph into each other, fresh-hewn and vigorous. The Monkish traces extend beyond the off-kilter theme and Lantner's exploration of it, in which consonance and dissonance constantly, ...
read moreSteve Lantner: An Introduction
by James Taylor
Steve Lantner's current run of creative output may be below the radar, but the quality of his recordings is off the charts. His debut as bandleader came in 1997 alongside longtime cohort/violist/violinist Mat Maneri in an adventurous set of duets that had Lantner playing both acoustic piano and a synthesizer set ninety degrees apart [Reaching (Leo)]. Lantner furthered his exploration of microtonalities on Voices Lowered (Leo 2001), where he played two pianos tune ¼ pitch apart alongside Joe Maneri and ...
read moreSteve Lantner Quartet: Paradise Road
by James Taylor
Three tracks and 56 minutes deep, Paradise Road is a workout--for listener and artists alike. The moods range from caffeinated and frenetic to thoughtful and subdued, with each member of the quartet holding the spotlight for a moment and none outshining the other. Steve Lantner's compositions bring together the best of the American and European avant-garde. A comparison to Matthew Shipp would be justified, as the two seem to associate with the same circle of friends (Mat ...
read moreSteve Lantner Quartet: Paradise Road
by Troy Collins
Recorded live at the Skycap Festival in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Paradise Road is the debut recording of pianist Steve Lantner's new quartet. Lantner's trio, last heard on Blue Yonder (Skycap, 2005), featured the energetic pianist accompanied by Joe Morris and Luther Gray, on bass and drums respectively. The spirited trio is now a quartet, augmented by saxophonist Allan Chase, well known for his turbulent excursions in Rashied Ali's Prima Materia project.
Unedited, the concert consists of three lengthy pieces, ...
read moreA Steve Lantner Summer At Outpost 186 In Cambridge (MA)
Source:
Chris Rich
Since Steve Lantner is the only Outpost 186 artist to actually lay out his entire season schedule in a grown up and timely manner, it is only fair that we at the Outpost call attention to this fact. And what a season it is. July is a twofer with his usual Tuesday slot given to a solo. These can be all over the map and generally reflect his inspirations of the moment. Look for it on July 23rd at the ...
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A Dispatch from Steve Lantner.
Source:
Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
Mr Lantner works an acoustic piano like a trumpeter working different mutes. Of all the exemplary pianists who are regulars at the Outpost, Steve is the only one to really open the thing up, literally. He removes all removeable covers so the thing can really resonate getting into its sonic quintessence. He doesn't want a single potential sonic nuance to be hemmed in by cabinetry. And the best part is he always puts it impeccably back together exactly the way ...
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Steve Lantner Quartet: "Given - Live in Muenster" on Hatology
Source:
All About Jazz
Steve Lantner Quartet Given - Live In Muenster with Allan Chase - saxophones Joe Morris - double bass Luther Gray - drums Hatology 663
Given – Live In Muenster, is the Steve Lantner Quartet’s second effort. Its sax-piano-bass-drums line-up invites weight against the measure of classic albums like Misterioso, Black Fire, Giant Steps, and Saxophone Colossus on the one hand, and thousands of rote quartet recordings on the other. Lantner’s contribution falls ...
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Firehouse 12's 2008 Fall Jazz Series Begins Tonight
Source:
Improvised Communications
New Haven's Firehouse 12 will kickoff its fourth annual Fall Jazz Series tonight with a two set performance by the Steve Lantner Trio. Led by pianist/composer Steve Lantner, the longstanding group features New Haven native Joe Morris on bass and fellow Bostonian Luther Gray (Rob Brown, Taylor Ho Bynum, Joe Morris) on drums. Its third CD, What You Can Throw (hatOLOGY 641), which includes reworkings of music by Anthony Braxton and Ornette Coleman as well as original material, was released ...
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Steve Lantner Trio: "What You Can Throw" on Hatology 641
Source:
All About Jazz
Steve Lantner Trio: What You Can Throw Steve Lantner - piano; Joe Morris - double bass; Luther Gray - drums Hatology 641 I'm still surprised when I hear new jazz, and Steve Lantner plays it, reconstituting and reinventing the tradition. First hearing this trio, you'll be struck by its sheer kinetic joy, its ability to swing and to drive in ways that are central to jazz, without simply repeating some specific events in that tradition. The ...
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Pianist Steve Lantner Interviewed at AAJ
Source:
All About Jazz
Steve Lantner's current run of creative output may be below the radar, but the quality of his recordings is off the charts. His debut as bandleader came in 1997 alongside longtime cohort/violist/violinist Mat Maneri in an adventurous set of duets that had Lantner playing both acoustic piano and a synthesizer set ninety degrees apart [Reaching (Leo)]. Lantner furthered his exploration of microtonalities on Voices Lowered (Leo 2001), where he played two pianos tune pitch apart alongside Joe Maneri and Joe ...
read more
Steve Lantner's radiantly novel approach contains the stuff that provides the earmarks for a fruitful career....No doubt, Lantner is an inventor who pushes his craft to the limits....Essentially, they investigate the free zone but perform with the refinement and elegance of a seasoned and well-disciplined jazz piano trio. This wonderful outing should not slip into a state of secrecy! Compulsory listening! ~ Glenn Astarita - All About Jazz, 7/18/02
Blue Yonder is a tour de force for Boston-area pianist Steve Lantner. His range is vast, covering most strains of jazz-based improvisation as well as an unusually broad knowledge of techniques lifted from European-derived art music. He swings like a madman and abstracts like a mutha. Throw in a huge imagination, and you've got a tremendous piano player. ~ Chris Kelsey - JazzTimes