News & Events Amherst College Faultlines Festival to Feature the Steve Lehman Trio in Concert Oct. 4

September 9, 2009
Contact: Sara R. Leonard
Concert and Production Manager
413/542-2195

AMHERST, Mass. – The yearlong Amherst College music festival Faultlines: Mapping Jazz in the 21st Century will continue on Sunday, Oct. 4, with a concert by the Steve Lehman Trio (featuring Lehman on alto saxophone, Matt Brewer on bass and Damion Reid on drums) at 4 p.m. in the Cole Assembly Room of the college’s Converse Hall. Immediately following the performance—which is free of charge and open to all—Lehman will hold public discussion at the same location.

Described by The Wire magazine as “one of the most exciting saxophone voices on the current scene,” Lehman is known equally as a visionary composer and has been lauded by The New York Times as “perfectly ultramodern.” Also named a “rising star” on the alto saxophone in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 by the Downbeat Magazine International Critics Poll, Lehman is a former student of both Jackie McLean and Anthony Braxton, and has performed and recorded throughout the United States and Europe with his own ensembles, as well as with those led by Anthony Braxton, Dave Burrell, Meshell Ndegeocello, Mark Dresser, Vijay Iyer, Oliver Lake and High Priest of Anti-Pop Consortium. His most recent recordings as a leader include Travail, Transformation & Flow (with his critically acclaimed octet), On Meaning, Door and Demian as Posthuman, featuring Tyshawn Sorey and nine-time Grammy nominee Ndegeocello.

Faultlines events will include featured concerts, performance workshops and talks, all free and open to the public, and all guaranteed to generate passionate debate about the nature of jazz and its relationship to American cultural identity.  The festival is made possible through the generous support of the Amherst College Arts Series Fund, Amherst College Department of Music, Amherst College Mead Art Museum and UMass Amherst Fine Arts Center’s Solos and Duos Concert Series.

For more information about the Steve Lehman Trio performance or any other events associated with Faultlines: Mapping Jazz in the 21st Century, visit the festival Web site at www.amherst.edu/faultlines.