A review on the September 15 gig at Cornelia Street Cafe by Laurence Donohue-Greene
…The same night, veteran flute player Jeremy Steig and his trio with Cameron Brown (bass) and Gerald Cleaver (drums) held court at Cornelia Street Cafe, as Steig does every month. Though jazz flute has grown in practitioner population, most still utilize the instrument as a double. The only doubling Steig did was from one flute to the next, from Sankyo flute to a Kotato bass flute as on his quite open rendition of “So What”, its extended free atonal introduction lasting several minutes before the familiar bass lien and steady time kicked in care of Brown’s fluid, ever-melodic playing. From the “Black Orpheus” theme to the “Love Theme from Spartacus”, Steig put on a clinic of the instrument’s timeless possibilities and nuances. His masterful techniques of overblowing, singing and humming multi-phonics as well as key clicks, percussive effects and noteless breaths of air not only encapsulated the instrument’s well-documented history in jazz (Jerome Richardson and Frank Wess to Yusef Lateef, Charles Lloyd, Eric Dolphy and Rahsaan Roland Kirk), but clearly stated his own case as an original contributor to this impressive line, of which he has been a part since 1963. An emotional player, Steig’s rendition of “Straight No Chaser” turned Hendrix-like when he swung the bottom end of his flute, knocking over and smashing the glass on top of the stool in front of him. Why not? –he actually played with Jimi once upon a time.