Home » Jazz Articles » Live Review » David Liebman Group - One More from the Road

128

David Liebman Group - One More from the Road

By

Sign in to view read count
Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus
Philadelphia, PA

The Dave Liebman Group made a stop in Philadelphia on their way home from a gig at Washington D.C.’s Blues Alley, as a quick addition to the 2000 Mellon Jazz Festival. The venue was Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus, an old neighborhood jazz bar on the site of the now defunct Ortlieb’s Brewing Company, purveyors of one of the leading domestic beers of old.
The quartet opened with “Pablo’s Story,” the piece that occupied most of the first side of Lookout Farm’s eponymous 1974 debut on ECM. Guitarist Vic Juris took the intro, with an extended, beautifully melodic solo on amplified acoustic, with drummer/percussionist Jamey Haddad playing expert tambourine. After Liebman’s melody statement on soprano sax, Haddad moved to the drumkit, and Juris soloed again, over the rhythm section. Liebman followed, with a smoking soprano flight that practically lifted the room. (With no use for the club’s piano, the band found the stage to be a close fit, so Lieb and Juris stood on the floor in front, haggling for space with the occasional passing waitress.) Stopping suddenly on a muted cymbal crash, they went back into the languid melody quietly, letting the dust settle in waves that were almost palpable to the audience.
Next up was Juris’s “Rhumba in L,” a dark, softly swaying tune that quickly went to bassist Tony Marino’s solo. After a brief play with the melody, the tune’s muted, spacious elegance managed to survive the talking patrons seated a few feet from the stage. After a long Juris solo on electric, Liebman upped the intensity level a bit with a soprano solo that neatly showed his assimilation of Coltrane. Both Juris and Liebman (on tenor) took long, envelope-pushing solos on the next piece, a fusion-y workout that was close in flavor to the group’s 1997 New Vista disc.
It was interesting to hear Liebman play tenor on the next tune, Miles Davis’s “All Blues,” as he worked late-period Coltrane ideas into a context so irrevocably defined on record, years before Trane would elaborate those ideas himself. Marino and Haddad, a superb drummer, pushed and pulled the familiar framework with supple empathy. Haddad was featured on Osi drum next, Lieb joining in on wooden flute (on which he has great chops) before Marino and Juris entered. “Chant” ended the set, Liebman again playing tenor on the lengthy tune, culminating in a ferocious tenor/drums duet before the rideout.

After years of playing together, the Liebman Group is a closely-attuned band that plays challenging, colorful music, that seems capable of drawing the most blase of audiences into its orbit. Each of the members is strong soloistically as well as ensemble-wise, and Liebman may be the most accomplished soprano saxophonist in jazz, next to Steve Lacy.

Comments

Tags


For the Love of Jazz
Get the Jazz Near You newsletter All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who create it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

You Can Help
To expand our coverage even further and develop new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for a modest $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination will vastly improve your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.

More

Jazz article: The Cookers at Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley
Jazz article: Julian Lage At Higher Ground

Popular

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.