The People I Love on Pi by Steve Lehman this year was a kind of event. It does not sound like a reheated version of the past, does not try to be a ‘classic jazz’ record and is far more immersive a listen and gets right inside you like few new releases at the moment. In other words this is not fake.

The altoist has a tart slightly dour sound that has a certain gravitas to it without being at all self-conscious, and in the past he has run his fertile imagination over a broad range of music from African hip-hop to French spectral music.

This new album is closer to his jazz roots than some of his previous records and finds Lehman with the Robert Glasper drummer Damion Reid, bassist Matt Brewer and pianist Craig Taborn.

Tunes on the record include a version of Kurt Rosenwinkel’s ‘A Shifting Design’ and Kenny Kirkland’s ‘Chance’ and there is a remarkable version of ‘qPlay,’ by electronica mavens Autechre. I hear it as a non-literal translation which has a lot of depth to it and a great respect for the jazz ballad tradition even while dressed in such modernistic clothing. SG