Steve Coleman & Council of Balance / SYNOVIAL JOINTS Coleman’s main objective for Synovial Joints was to investigate two novel compositional ideas: exploring different connective principals to effect musical momentum and flow, and a concept he calls camouflage orchestration. In the first, he analyzed the movement of the various synovial joints of the human body – how they pivot, flex and bend, contract and relax – and applied those features so that the music flows not just in a linear fashion, but with cyclical spin or rotation. In camouflage orchestration, which is inspired by the sounds that Coleman recorded in the Amazon rainforest, he pays particular attention to how instrument sounds can be distributed so that they are perceived to be in the foreground, middleground and background, much as the layered sounds reveal themselves in the rainforest. The New York Times recently named Coleman “one of the most influential figures in the last half-century of improvised music” and, in awarding him the so-called “Genius Grant,” the MacArthur Foundation called him “Influential well beyond the scope of saxophone performance and composition, Coleman is redefining the vocabulary and vernaculars of contemporary music.” Always looking forward, Synovial Joints is further evidence that Coleman remains at the vanguard of expanding the possibilities for musical expression.