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The Bickel/Marks Group: The Bickel/Marks Group with Dave Liebman
ByTime has come full circle with the opportunity to record this CD. The original line-up was augmented by saxophonist Dave Liebman, who had met the group when he played with the University of Miami Concert Jazz Band 20 years earlier Liebman's sense of adventure sits in well; the compositions are open enough for his distinctive concepts, and for the others to infuse their own sense of progress and development, as "Sparrows and Didewinders" remarkably shows.
The melody is infectious but the early manifestations are turned around by Liebman, through fiery and trenchant phrases. Vashlishan meets him on the high road to invention, his playing vibrant and powered by a drove of ideas. Into this comes Bickel, who shifts the pulse into a gentler domain, his piano sprinkling a shower of luminescent notes. The ambit has changed, but the lure of the song remains consistently appealing.
"On the Outside Looking In" is a beautiful ballad, with Bickel and Liebman (on soprano saxophone) drinking deeply from its well to make the tune unforgettable with their magnetic impulses.
Hard bop drives "Truncated Theme," the head giving no indication of the body which makes the enterprise all the more delightful. Bickel escarps his drive with a welter of notes that sing joyously, the plinth torn into by Liebman's brawny tenor. Marks solo percolates and kicks in intriguing whorls, the extrapolation adding deeper shades.
It may have been a long time coming, but the music here was worth the wait, as the band holds it all together with aplomb.
Track Listing
Sparrows and Sidewinders; Finding Your Way; Home; Turnover; Do I Love You Because You Are Beautiful; The Jazz Behemoth; On The Outside Looking In; Truncated Theme.
Personnel
Dave Liebman: soprano and tenor saxophone; Matt Vashlishan: alto saxophone; Doug Bickel: piano; Dennis Marks: acoustic bass; Marco Marcinko: drums.
Album information
Title: The Bickel/Marks Group with Dave Liebman | Year Released: 2010 | Record Label: Zoho Music