Steve Coleman

[Omon Ra]

Is there anyone out there acquainted with his work? I checked out some of his youtube videos, it was really cool. And checking out some of his essay's and he appears to have a pretty crazy cosmic philosophy. Just wondering if anyone can guide to me to some good recordings.

[Bill Barton]

I have nearly everything that he's ever recorded and there really aren't any duds in the batch for my taste.

My personal favorites include:

The Sign and the Seal: Transmissions of the Metaphysics of a Culture (hmmm... he does have a penchant for bombastic titles)

Strata Institute - Transmigration

Myths, Modes and Means

Strata Institute - Cipher Syntax

Alternate Dimension Series 1 (download only)

Genesis & The Opening of the Way

His out-of-print recordings are all available for free download at:
http://www.m-base.com/download.html

That's a good way to sample his music without forking over bundles of bucks.

[Dan Warburton]

Word. I'm a great Steve Coleman fan (so, btw, is Jean-Luc Guionnet), but have lost track of his recent music somewhat - I have everything up to & including The Opening Of The Way, but only Lucidarium since (any other recent Colemans I should seek out?).
Anyone unfamiliar with his work should certainly hoover up those JMT OOP downloads pronto, though. There's some fantastic stuff there: Cassandra Wilson never sounded better than she did with Coleman.
I sort of drifted away from his work when he brought the rappers in - not because they weren't any good (quite the opposite: those live recordings from Hot Brass are still mighty impressive), but because he had to compromise the metric intricacy of the compositions to accommodate the binary backbeat of hiphop.
Still, a major figure in my opinion. Surprised to see he's dropped off the radar somewhat.