Intervals - David Liebman's Newsletter

2011-10-16T15:04:00.000-07:00

CHANGE IS IN THE WIND: LAST INTERVALS ON WEB SITE
OCT 14 2011

To all my readers past, present and future who have read what I have called my newsletter, Intervals, over the years I am about to make a change. When I started Intervals it was the result of a program initiated by the National Endowment of the Arts in the early 1990’s specifically meant for a portion of the jazz musician population who were then considered in “mid-career.” This meant not young enough to be part of the then widely publicized “Young Lions” movement, but on the other hand not old enough to be living legends. This described my situation quite well at the time. I was directed to journalist Bret Primack, who has since become synonymous with jazz on the internet. After a variety of ideas, including management, starting a non profit corporation, filling out grants, etc., all moves that have been done with varying degrees of success by other artists, we settled on the idea of incorporating a newsletter. First of all, I enjoyed writing and by then had authored several books, so I was comfortable with typing (yes, on a typewriter!!) and was not too bad at expressing myself in this medium. The idea was for people to be aware of my activities and as it evolved, my thoughts on various subjects. Of course this was well before the internet, blogs, e mails, etc. I started out with typed newsletters, getting help from a local couple, Scott and Joan Fabian, mailing out hundreds of copies using a bulk rate. With the advent of e mail I sent Intervals directly to people for a few years, eventually leading to posting the newsletter directly on my web site bi-monthly.

With the advent of Facebook, it is quite clear that web sites serve a very different function than just a few years ago when it was the solo source of information about an artist. Now, it is more of a repository of items concerning past and present activities….bio materials, discography, photos, educational articles, lists of publications, new recordings, itineraries, events, etc. But as a source of contact with the world at large, this has shifted to Facebook. I have a gentleman, Michael Crowell, who coordinates Facebook for me and has built up quite a large number of friends and fans over the past year plus. Because of these changes I have decided to stop publication of Intervals on my web site. Instead, I will post things directly on Facebook as they occur and have time to write. I think this is much more practical and will have a larger readership.

I must say that having to meet a deadline, though self imposed was very positive for forming my thoughts on subjects, organizing my activities and the like. I have all the past newsletters from 1993 posted on the web site in this section called Intervals as well as a table of contents with the named articles. I will continue to collect what I write about and all my activities in an organized fashion in this section of past newsletters. With gratitude to Bret Primack, Scott and Joan Fabian, and after eighteen years, Intervals has a new lease on life as a way to communicate with interested folks around the world. You can always contact me through the web site under the tab called Contact on my home page.

The exact link to my page on Facebook is: https://www.facebook.com/pages/David-Liebman/29847424589

Peace
Lieb

There's a greaat story of this photo dated 1970, I believe from a record date with Louis Armstrong who died shortly after. I was at Miles' house in the late 70's and out of nowhere he grabbed a big blow up of this picture. He said something to the effect: "From him to me... to you." Whew!! More important, look at his face...the joy and the feelng of respect that Miles gives off to the father of all of us.

INTERVALS:SEPT/OCT 2011

2011-09-01T12:53:00.000-07:00

FEATURE:BRAZIL
It can be easy to take Brazilian music for granted, if only because someone like Antonio Carlos Jobim’s music is so ubiquitous. We hear him and other bossa nova songs in elevators, shopping malls and the like all over the world. The first misconception is that samba and bossa nova ARE Brazilian music, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Like all large countries, geography makes a difference especially when a country is long in a north/south configuration. In general the centers seem to be Bahia in the north which is very African influenced, Rio De Janeiro with the bossa nova and its predecessors and Sao Paolo which has a long “choro” tradition, their equivalent to our Dixieland in a way. I’m sure there are more stylistic centers that I am not aware of…just imagine the Amazon Basin. Furthermore the racial mixture is among the most intense in the world meaning a great melting pot of musical influences.

For me, the concert featuring myself, Marcelo Coehlo and guitarist/singer/composer Guinga was very special. He seems to be quite an underground hero but certainly has some recognition publicly because his CDs are extensively produced and from what I understood he recently performed with the LA Philharmonic featuring arrangements of his tunes by Vince Mendoza. And recently at the Newport Jazz Festival, the new rage Esperanza Spaulding sang a few of his tunes. This concert we did in Sao Paulo as part of the IASJ‘s 21st Annual Jazz Meeting (a big success described below) was one of the highlights of my performing career. Guinga’s music, his voice, the rich and at times unusual harmony, the lyrical, unforgettable melodies (still running in my head) and his PRESENCE are incredible. As one of my friends noted, Brazil is probably the only country where you feel comfortable doing one ballad, rubato-ish tune after another, which is exactly what we did. All I can say I am glad that I had lead sheets prior and practiced, because some of the music was very challenging. You can see clips on You Tube under Dave Liebman and Guinga. This is a heavy cat!!

One musical thing for sure…. These guys do more with the ii-V progression than even the Broadway and film American composers. I have never seen so many combinations of this progression, always with a lyrical melody on top. Add the rhythm, which is a whole world in itself and you have a potent mixture. This is before the lyrics which of course I don’t understand, but the Portuguese language is so smooth and mellow, everything sounds great. Like Indian music, the world of Brazilian music is very deep.

Choro musicians at club

IASJ 21st MEETING-SAO PAULO, BRAZIL
This was definitely one of the great meetings over the past decades. Our host school Souza Lima, located in downtown Sao Paulo with several satellite locations has been involved with jazz and pop music for 30 years. The staff is incredible and the facility very workable. At all of our meetings, I urge the host school to present some music that represents their country, not jazz, but from the people. In Israel, Spain and a few other places in the past, we had some wonderful presentations. But here they gave us something every day: choro masters, a drum group and on the last day, a real special guy, Filo Machado, another killer guitarist and singer. Filo, (very different from Guinga), is a one man show, using every part of his body for rhythm, playing the hell out of the guitar and singing with an incredibly strong spirit. The guy can light up hell, I’m sure. There was also a great presentation from one of our ling time members, Antonio Aldolfo, an expert teacher and author of books examining the basics of Brazilian music. The week was a great learning experience. In sum, I get the feeling that everyone in Brazil can play guitar, knows hundreds of tunes by heart and can sing…it just feels that way!!

From the IASJ standpoint, we had students and teachers from nineteen countries taking part in the ensembles that performed as we have become used to, some truly high level music at the end of the week for our final concerts, as well as jam sessions at several different venues and of course sharing ideas in instrumental master classes. Since we were in Latin America, we enjoyed our first representation from Chile, Columbia, the Dominican Republic and once again Argentina. Souza Lima is coordinating a kind of IASJ for Latin America, meeting once a year, lead by the great bassist, Oscar Stagnaro. I am hoping for some good communication between our associations. There is no doubt that Latin American musicians are becoming more and more visible in the jazz world, especially evident during the last decade. This is exactly what the IASJ is about, influences form everywhere invigorating jazz. I am very optimistic and hope to see the day when we have Africa, India and more Asian representation.
Bassist Ronan Guilfoyle from Ireland wrote a day by day description of the meeting on his blog:
http://ronanguil.blogspot.com/2011/07/sao-paulo-iasj-meeting.html (part one)
http://ronanguil.blogspot.com/2011/07/sao-paulo-iasj-meeting-part-2.html

Great photos from the week: | victorhideo.blogspot.com/p/iasj.html

Also my good friend Leon Segal who attended last year’s 20th Anniversary meeting in the Hague with a film crew put together a great promo video of the IASJ:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hv0BfB1kzzY&feature=related

Jam session with students from Columbia, Dominican Republic and Israel

RECOMMENDED: SPINAL TAP ON JAZZ
Everyone knows the famous movie about the Spinal Tap rock band. Here (not sure when it was done), the guys discuss jazz which is hilarious as well as to some extent true.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wscZhvj_lH4

65th BIRTHDAY: Hard to believe but here’s a nice tribute put together by Bret Primack for me. I appreciate the kindness of the folks talking on this clip:
http://wbgo.org/blog/happy-birthday-dave-liebman-wbgo-premieres-65-is-no-jive

LIVE FROM BIRDLAND: You can see a set by the Dave Liebman Group and the Big Band from my week at Birdland by going to: livestream.com/birdland and look for the video there....pretty good sound.

WILD SOPRANO: My friend, Ulf Radelius from Malmo, Sweden took something I recorded at his house years ago and dressed it up a bit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSuyQZmGKR0

PASSINGS: FRANK FOSTER
One of the great tenor players and composers (“Shiny Stockings”), my recollection of Frank goes back to the first gigs I had with Elvin Jones in the early 1970s when I was hired to take Joe Farrell’s place. For the first few months, different tenor players would join since Elvin liked the two horn front line. Eventually Steve Grossman joined the band, but this was prior and often it was Frank who knew Elvin for years and had some family connection with him. One musical thing I remember about Foster was his great control of the the high (altissimo) range of the tenor before it was fashionable to play up there. He definitely practiced it because he could really play melodies in that range, very carefully choosing his notes. This was quite impressive as you could imagine to a young tenor player. But most of all was the true warmth and kindness Frank offered to me, unlike some of the other guys who would join up for a gig or two. He was a giant and a lovely person.

RECENT EVENTS:
JAMEY AEBERSOLD CLINIC: Every few years I like to show my face at the annual Aebersold summer jazz camps where the attendance is somewhere between 3-400 students of all ages. What I enjoy the most is seeing all the teachers, some of whom like Ed Soph, Dan Haerle, Rufus Reid, I’ve known for decades. I am always impressed with the complete selflessness exhibited by the faculty at these camps. They are of course paid, but what they do is beyond market value, offering all their wisdom to anyone interested. As informal as the camps are, there is a strict schedule which includes ear training, ensemble and instrumental master class as well as nightly performances by the faculty. I totally recommend anyone interested in jazz to attend an Aebersold workshop. These are real professionals who know how to teach.

24th LIEB MASTER CLASS ON CHROMATIC HARMONY: With participants from five countries, I delved into the material I teach at the Manhattan School of Music using my book on the subject as the centerpiece. I must say it is quite a challenge to try to fit two years worth of material into five days, but the main point is exposure to this sound. We had a great performance at the Deer Head Inn accompanied by Mike Stephans, Phil Markowitz and Tony Marino, an event that has become a tradition during the master class. Next year for the 25th, I will return to the Saxophone Master Class, interested saxophonists should get in touch after January 1, 2012 (information on my web site under Education).

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:
SEPTEMBER:
-BIRDLAND, NYC; 65th CELEBRATION: DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP AND DAVE LIEBMAN BIG BAND
-DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP AT THE COTA FESTIVAL, DELAWARE WATER GAP, PA
-PERFORMANCE WITH POET STEVE DALCHINSKY AT UNIVERSITY WITHOUT WALLS, NYC
-ROSTOV, RUSSIA-PERFORMANCE WITH BIG BAND AT THE ROSTOV JAZZ FESTIVAL
-EUROPEAN TOUR WITH "VEIN"-THE MICHAEL ARBENZ TRIO

OCTOBER:-CORNELIA STREET CAFÉ WITH SOPRANO SAXOPONIST SAM NEWSOME
-IRELAND TOUR WITH RONAN GUILFOYLE
-DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP AT ELK CREEK CAFÉ, MILHEIM, PA
-QUEBEC CITY JAZZ FESITVAL WITH MICHEL COTE GROUP
-DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP MID-WEST TOUR: UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, KY; INDIANA UNIVERSITY; GREEN MILL IN CHICAGO; WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY; UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN; KNICKERBOCKER THEATER IN HOLLAND, MI; COLUMBUS, OHIO JAZZ ASSOCIATION AND CAPITOL COLLEGE; UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO, OH

My daughter Lydia's jazz radio show web site; reedsanddeeds2.com- 6PM (Easter standard time-USA)-every Sunday on the web at wecb.fm

INTERVALS:JULY/AUGUST 2011

2011-06-25T18:34:00.000-07:00

HAPPY 85th TO MILES: Hard to believe, he could easily have been around as we speak. Born May 26 1926

FEATURE ARTICLE
THE THIN RED LINE:My good friend Jean Jacques Quesada from France always sends me movies that he thinks I would enjoy. I don’t really have time to see many and I do love movies. This one by Terence Malick is very heavy and by chance I watched it the day before Memorial Day, which for those not familiar is a holiday set aside to commemorate the war dead in America.
You can’t watch a movie like this or others on the subject: “To Hell and Back” about Audie Murphy which I remember as kid; “Saving Private Ryan” or “Platoon” or for me the greatest movie ever “Apocalypse Now” without reflecting on the subject of war. There is plenty of anti-war literature available so there is no need to go into the obvious which is the wasting of young lives at the behest of guys sitting behind a desk. Surely, there have been so-called “righteous” wars like World War II and other conflicts in history that were matters of defense. But when you think about other reasons for the slaughter like religion, nationalism, and pure greed conjured up by some guys in suits in a remote room somewhere using these pretexts, it amazes me that thousands of young people agree to be in harm’s way. Even more mind boggling to me is the idea that someone would shoot their own countrymen as we are witnessing in Libya and Syria, their neighbors and relatives. What can make them do that? The whole idea of putting all those bodies together for war because someone(s) may be delusional or paranoid or what have you is incredible; even more is that they get away with it.

IASJ MEETING AND GUINGA:I will be going to La Plata, Argentina for a two day workshop in the end of June followed by the Annual IASJ Jazz Meeting which is in Sao Paulo, Brazil this year. Everyone is looking so forward to going to this very vibrant city and being immersed in Brazilian music, which as I have discovered is as varied stylistically as jazz. The combination of European harmony and Brazilian rhythms is really fascinating. The tradition of guitar and voice is very important in Brazil. Through a good friend on mine (pianist Micu Narunsly) I was turned on to a musician named Guinga (I assume that is a nickname?), whose music is absolutely the most beautiful I have heard in years. Guinga doesn’t read music and was from what I understand a practicing dentist. I searched him out and he told me that he was in the audience when I played in Brazil with Miles in 1974 and was familiar with me. Anyway, I have completely fallen in love with Guinga’s music which you should check out on You Tube. The orchestrations, arrangements and musicianship, the overall production is very impressive. Check him out on You Tube. We will be performing the opening concert for the IASJ Meeting as a duo with some help from one of my former students who is one of the head people at the host school, Souza Lima, Marcelo Coehlo. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to this concert and a bit nervous. The music is very harmonically rich, beautiful and truly passionate. I’m sure there will be something up on you Tube by the first week of July.

RECENT EVENTS
DUO WITH VIC JURIS:Incredibly, after twenty years of playing together in my group I have never done a duo gig with guitarist Vic Juris. We got the opportunity in Des Moines, Iowa of all places. A wonderful couple, Jackie and Abe Goldstien organize concerts out there and invited us. Being so used to playing in duo with piano which is such a natural instrument for accompanying the horn, I was really curious as to how this would be. We had a great time and I especially enjoyed with all the sounds that Vic gets with his pedals….the atmosphere of every tune becomes enlarged and every song has a completely different ambiance. We have to do this again.

LINEAGEis a group that spans several decades, hence the name. With Mike Stephens on drums, Vic on guitar and myself, the “youngbloods” are Bobby Avey on piano and Evan Gregor on bass, two guys who are from the Pocono area where we live and have gone through the informal apprenticeship scene we have here in Pennsylvania. Both of them are doing great in New York keeping busy and refining their art. We recorded a project last year of “pop tunes" from the rock period that the three of us “old timers” know so well from the ‘50s and ‘60s like “Tequila” which was one of my first influences towards playing tenor sax. “Love Me Tender” was the first tune I played with chord changes on piano since I was an Elvis freak. It is completely reharmonized by Bobby Avey who by the way has taken the chromatic harmony to another level. Others…. “Wipe Out” which is a classic that everyone knows; Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock.” once again completely reharmonized and a few others. We are gong to put the project on Kickstarter (a web site that posts proposals for funding projects of all sorts) sometime in July, so if you feel so inclined please make a donation which would enable us to mix and release the recording. We played a gig at the Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap in May. These tunes are so much fun to play live. It just shows that music is music; anything can be transformed and adapted, even “Wipe Out.”

DL GROUP IN CANADA:We had a great four day jaunt up north playing for really appreciative audiences. This review captures the essence of the group’s music. It’s nice to have someone truly LISTENING who knows the music and does the job right…..John Kelman.

Dave Liebman Group:Ottawa, Canada May 20-21,2011
When saxophonist and recent NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman brought his longstanding group to Ottawa's Café Paradiso a little over three years ago in April, 2008, it was truly one of the hottest, most memorable shows this city has seen in years--if not ever. Now two decades old, with three of its original members--Liebman, guitar underdog Vic Juris and the equally underappreciated bassist Tony Marino--still around, and its fourth, powerhouse drummer Marko Marcinko, long beyond being the "new kid on the block," having spent ten years with the group, the continued appeal of Dave Liebman Group is, in part, undeniably about the chemistry that comes from a consistent lineup. But there are plenty of groups out there with longevity, that don't have the combination of firepower and finesse that Liebman has managed to retain with this ensemble.
In a recent All About Jazz interview, Liebman talked about how he keeps a group that only tours a few weeks a year together: "I'm very proactive as a leader, because to keep the same guys--which, through thick and thin, I try to insist upon--we don't have a lot of work and we don't make a lot of money, so the only thing I have is that they're playing with me, and the challenge of this music. Because it's for the music. I'm not trying to make it like we're carrying a cross here, but it is for the music. My job with these three guys is to make it so that there's a challenge and a reason to come out and play with me. "
For the group's return visit to Ottawa, Paradiso's owner, Alex Demianenko went a step further, not only booking Liebman for two nights, but making it a small tour that began in Montreal, continued in Quebec City and wrapped up at his club for the final two nights. It's that kind of lateral thinking that makes it possible for a group like Liebman's to come to a club like Paradiso, which is relatively small, seating a max of about 75 people. As ever, Paradiso is a wonderful place to catch a group in an intimate setting that's rare, even for clubs; sitting less than five feet away from the bandstand it's possible to see how the group interacts on the subtlest of levels. Despite its dividing half-wall running down the center of the club, lines of sight were largely fine for most attendees, and the sound was consistently excellent throughout the room--all the more surprising, given that, while Marino and Juris were amplified, there was no PA to speak of, other than a microphone for Liebman to speak into, and use when he occasionally brought out his wood flute.
Another reason that Dave Liebman Group has been around for so long is because the music never stays in one place for long. The last time the group was in Ottawa, it was a more acoustic affair--except, of course, for the kind of textural coloring that makes Juris an almost orchestral partner--with Marino solely on acoustic bass. In the same AAJ interview, Liebman explained: "I have a book that's bigger than most jazz groups in the world--we have 80-100 tunes--and I recycle here and there and change things. Basically, I really always want to keep the slant different. Right now I'm already thinking about what we're gonna do two years from now. We're in a completely different direction at the moment--electric bass only, Vic is playing a lot of colors and sounds, I am playing only soprano, and we are playing freer, sonically--a more rocky kind of vibe."
Liebman's two nights at Paradiso suggested that, while the freer approach is still going on, it was already showing signs of morphing into whatever direction comes next. Marino split his time about 50/50 between electric and acoustic basses, while Liebman did the same, spending about as much time with his tenor saxophone as he did soprano. And while the group did, indeed, rock out pretty hard--with Marcinko driving the group with a combination of incendiary pulses and an unfettered expressionism that was the perfect foil for Liebman, who's long held a reputation for similar extroversion--there were plenty of calmer moments, too, in particular with Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Zingaro," culled from New Vista (Arkadia, 1997), in Friday night's first set, where Juris switched to nylon-string acoustic guitar and the group delivered an early demonstration of its ability to play with both reverence and a healthy irreverence for the tradition, as Marino and Marcinko flexed liberally with the tempo. Still, as unfailingly beautiful as the tune was--with Liebman's warm soprano lyrically weaving through the changes--it was Juris who delivered an early high point with a solo that, just when it seemed he'd shown everything he had, came out with even more, building to a peak, but then pulling back with such a visceral sense of tension and release that the audience's collective relief was palpable.
Juris--whose Omega is the Alpha (Steeplechase, 2010) was released late in the year, but still made it into at least one 2010 Best of List--was a marvel throughout the two evenings, playing with the kind of effortless invention and open ears that made him an ideal accompanist, whether it was strumming fervently on his own "Folk Song," adding electronic textures to Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman," from the group's award-winning Turnaround (Jazzwerkstatt, 2010), or driving a riff home on his "Romulan Ale," first heard on the Liebman Group's In a Mellow Tone (ZOHO, 2004), but revisited recently on Omega. An endlessly inventive soloist, with an effortless mastery of his instrument few can match--whether executing mind-boggling intervallic leaps or creating cascading harmonics--Juris, like the rest of the group, truly manages to approach the material differently each and every time, something Ottawa fans who attended both evenings got to experience. While the four sets by no means repeated themselves, there was a handful of tunes Liebman called on both nights, including Juris' "Folk Song," the title track to Liebman's Dream of Nite (Verve, 2007), and the saxophonist's "Smokin' at the Café," an altered blues that was a great way to loosen the group up at the start of each night.
Liebman was, as ever, an equally endless fountain of ideas, and with all four sets running long--each clocking in around 90-minute mark (clearly this group came to play)--and with only six tunes per set, there was plenty of opportunity for extended soloing, though the group always managed to avoid any semblance of excess. Instead, the interplay amongst the members was so compelling, and the fun they were having so obvious and infectious, that the sets seemed to pass by in an instant. And while Liebman was relentlessly impressive on the more energetic pieces--combining remarkable tonal and textural control with the kind of ideaphoric abandon that seemed near-reckless but, as his solos developed with remarkable focus, clearly was not--he also proved himself a master of deeper lyricism on his balladic "Breath," from his duo record with Australian pianist Mike Nock, Duologue (Birdland, 2007).
Marcinko's a hard-working drummer who deserves far greater recognition. His ability to mirror Liebman or Juris rapid-fire note for rapid-fire note was matched by his locking, in-the-pocket, with Marino on tracks like the Spanish-tinged "Mesa D'espana," from Liebman's tribute to former employer, trumpeter Miles Davis, Back On the Corner (Tone Center, 2007). He soloed rarely, and while those occasions were as exciting and dynamic as would be expected, it was his ensemble work that, ultimately, was more impressive. Like the rest of his band mates, he worked from structural roadmaps, but with a free and unhindered approach that made even the most familiar material fresh, like the group's cover of Dizzy Gillespie's "Night in Tunisia"--reharmonized and delivered with shifting bars of ten and four. And, like the rest of his band mates, Marcinko may have turned the heat and volume up at times, but he was equally capable of turning on a dime, dynamically, and bringing the music down to a near-whisper.
The emphasis was on original music--most from Liebman and Juris, but also including Marino's "Anthracite," referencing the coal mining of which Pennsylvanians like Marino and Marcinko were all too familiar, and which became a running joke throughout the first set on Friday ("Clean coal, clean coal," Marcinko quipped as Liebman introduced the song). But Liebman, whose introductions to the tunes provided plenty of insight, also ensured that the tradition which underscores everyone in the group was never forgotten, calling out material from Coleman, Gillespie and Jobim, albeit radically reworked.
If there was a hidden gem in the group for these two nights, however, it was Marino, a largely quiet partner whose playing across all four sets, was particularly impressive. As fine as he was last time in town, this time it seemed like he'd lept to a new level, on both instruments. Whether pushing a hard acoustic groove on the Americana-tinged "Folk Song," echoing Juris with an octave-divided electric bass on "Romulan Ale," or playing it entirely free on a track from Liebman's Elements--Water (Arkadia, 1999), he combined astute technicality with unfailing musicality.
A characteristic that, indeed, defined the entire group. There was no shortage of virtuosity on display, but equally, it was never an end, only a means, with Juris building his solos through gradual motivic development, Marcinko working compositionally, Marino accomplishing the near-impossible and making his electric bass sing, and Liebman, subtly directing the group with almost imperceptible hand signals, delivering solo after solo of fire and finesse. If playing free means to be able to do anything one wants, then all four of Liebman's sets at Café Paradiso--six hours of improvisational heaven for Ottawa jazz fans--were prime examples of how four people can make spur-of-the-moment choices, individually and collectively, to create music of such passion and commitment that they once again raised the bar for live music in Canada's capital.

JAZZ POETRY WITH STEVE DALACHINSKY:Steve and I went to the same elementary school (P.S.99) in Brooklyn, so we go way back, He has pursued jazz poetry for years, which is as I have learned a separate world unto its own. We had a great gig at the Stone in the East Village, NY where this clip of this poem dedicated to Coltrane can be watched. All poets go to Trane for inspiration…it’s a given.
http://www.facebook.com/n/?video%2Fvideo.php&v=10150176435088647&mid=426a

RECOMMENDED: My daughter, Lydia has always been good with graphics, making brochures and programs, things like that. She is helping some musicians in designing promotional flyers. Interested parties, check this out: www.lydialiebmanpromotions.webs.com

DUO WITH BOB MOSES: My oldest compatriot is drummer Bob Moses who introduced me to a lot of the real deal as a teenager. We first met in 1962 and have been playing on and off since then, often in duo. Bob teaches at the New England Conservatory and was able to book the historic Jordan Hall for an afternoon of recording. Mose is a one of a kind musician….there is nobody like him. Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmEFIN_rUTI

JAZZ VISION PROJECT:I have entered a relationship with a painter from the Washington D.C. area, Barbara Januszkiewicz. I remember back in the ‘60s at so-called “happenings” when a painter would do their thing, while I played and a dancer improvised …all at the same time. The technology is much advanced now and Barbara is doing nice things to my music. Along with my French friend, pianist Jean Marie Machado, we have applied for a grant to do some concerts and collaborate on other things. Here’s a clip and small description of the beginnings of our collaboration. Like the poetry thing with Steve D. described above, mixing genres is something I love to do.

“Visionary American Jazz master Dave Liebman and American multimedia visual artist Barbara Januszkiewicz have teamed up in a wordless conversation, each in their own language responding to the other in a dialogue of musical notes and paint. Liebman’s solo saxophone artistry on his Colors album is the inspiration for the kaleidoscope of color, images, and brushstrokes Januszkiewicz captures moment by moment on her canvas. As they play off each other’s voice or visual expression in an ever-changing musical palette, the music takes on a visual rhythm and colorful beat and transforms the way you look at a painting or listen to jazz music.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9fkAsg4Z24

OF INTEREST: THE BRAIN AND JAZZ
Thanks to my old friend Mike Garson for hipping me to these articles that discuss jazz improvisation specifically. It seems like the psychologists and brain specialists are finally getting hip to what we knew all along….it is a language we are speaking that definitely involves “higher” brain activity and some serious coordination.
1- Comparing basketball and improvising by Jonah Lehrer for Wired.com. I’ve always thought that of all the sports, basketball is the closest in spirit to jazz. Somebody gets the ball and shoot…other times you pass off…just like a good soloist is doing with the rhythm section. Anybody can be a “star” at anytime.
“Basketball has always been compared to jazz. For the most part, this analogy exists for superficial reasons. Like jazz, the modern NBA game has been pioneered by African-American icons; Michael Jordan was the Miles Davis of athletes. Furthermore, the unscripted nature of basketball seems to echo the improvisational nature of jazz, in which the notes are often unknown in advance. A fast break is like a Coltrane solo.
In general, our culture looks down upon such spontaneous forms of entertainment. We will always respect the symphony that took years to write more than the jazz album recorded on the first take. The classical work just seems more serious, more sophisticated, more worthy of critical attention. Similarly, it can be hard to defend the complexity of basketball to an ardent football fan. Have you heard what NBA coaches say during timeouts? Their game plans seem to consist entirely of vapid cliches. And then there are the plays: While athletes in the NFL have to memorize a Talmudic playbook, most NBA offensive plans are some variation of the pick and roll. The end result is that both basketball and jazz get dismissed as mindless acts of spontaneity, nothing but the carefree expression of talent. LeBron doesn’t think while slashing to the hoop – he just obeys his impulse to dunk.
The problem with our bias against improv, both in jazz and basketball, is that it fails to recognize all the mental labor behind these forms of entertainment. That jazz quartet might make their music look easy – the players are just playing – but that ease is an illusion. In reality, those musicians are relying on an intricate set of musical patterns, which allow them to invent beauty in real time. Likewise, that Chris Paul assist might seem like a lucky bounce pass, but it’s actually a by-product of some exquisite perceptual analysis. Instead of appreciating the uncanny quickness of these improv artists – watching in awe as they make something out of nothing before our very eyes – we disparage them as mere performers, unaware of all the work and smarts going on behind the scenes.
Let’s begin with basketball. A few years ago, a team of Italian neuroscientists conducted a simple study on rebounding. At first glance, rebounding looks like a brute physical skill: The tallest guy (or the one with the highest vertical) should always end up with the ball. But this isn’t what happens. Instead, some of the best rebounders in the history of the NBA, such as Dennis Rodman and Charles Barkley, were several inches shorter than their competitors. What allowed these players to get to the ball first?
The rebounding experiment went like this: 10 basketball players, 10 coaches and 10 sportswriters, plus a group of complete basketball novices, watched video clips of a player attempting a free throw. (You can watch the videos here.) Not surprisingly, the professional athletes were far better at predicting whether or not the shot would go in. While they got it right more than two-thirds of the time, the non-playing experts (i.e., the coaches and writers) only got it right about 40 percent of the time. The athletes were also far quicker with their guesses, and were able to make accurate predictions about where the ball would end up before it was even airborne. (This suggests that the players were tracking the body movements of the shooter, and not simply making judgments based on the arc of the ball.) The coaches and writers, meanwhile, could only predict a make or miss after the shot, which required an additional 300 milliseconds.
What allowed the players to make such speedy judgments? By monitoring the brains and bodies of subjects as they watched free throws, the scientists were able to reveal something interesting about the best rebounders. It turned out that elite athletes, but not coaches and journalists, showed a sharp increase in activity in the motor cortex and their hand muscles in the crucial milliseconds before the ball was released. The scientists argue that this extra activity was due to a “covert simulation of the action,” as the athletes made a complicated series of calculations about the trajectory of the ball based on the form of the shooter. (Every NBA player, apparently, excels at unconscious trigonometry.) But here’s where things get fascinating: This increase in activity only occurred for missed shots. If the shot was going in, then their brains failed to get excited. Of course, this makes perfect sense: Why try to anticipate the bounce of a ball that can’t be rebounded? That’s a waste of mental energy.
The larger point is that even a simple skill like rebounding reflects an astonishing amount of cognitive labor. The reason we don’t notice this labor is because it happens so fast, in the fraction of a fraction of a second before the ball is released. And so we assume that rebounding is an uninteresting task, a physical act in a physical game. But it’s not, which is why the best rebounders aren’t just taller or more physical or better at boxing out – they’re also faster thinkers. This is what separates the Kevin Loves and Kevin Garnetts from everyone else on the court: They know where the ball will end up first.
The same principle applies to jazz. In 2008, the Harvard neuroscientist Aaron Berkowitz and colleagues conducted an investigation of the brain activity underlying musical improv. He brought together thirteen expert pianists and had them improvise various melodies in an fMRI machine. As expected, the act of improv led to a surge of activity in a variety of neural areas, including the premotor cortex and the inferior frontal gyrus. The premotor activity is simply an echo of execution, as the new musical patterns are translated into bodily movements. The inferior frontal gyrus, however, has primarily been investigated for its role in language and the production of speech. Why, then, is it so active when people improvise music? Berkowitz argues that expert musicians invent new melodies by relying on the same mental muscles used to create a sentence; every note is like another word.”

2-And on the parts of the brain involved with improvisation: Creation on Command by Jonah Lehrer from seedmagazine.com
The first study, led by Charles Limb of the NIH and Johns Hopkins University, examined the brain activity of jazz musicians as they played on a piano. The musicians began with pieces that required no imagination such as the C-major scale and a simple blues tune they’d memorized in advance. But then came the creativity condition: The musicians were told to improvise a new melody as they played alongside a recorded jazz quartet.
While the musicians riffed on the piano, giant magnets whirred overhead monitoring minor shifts in their brain activity. The researchers found that jazz improv relied on a carefully choreographed set of mental events, which allowed the musicians to discover their new melodies. Before a single note was played, the pianists exhibited a “deactivation” of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), a brain area associated with planned actions and self-control. In other words, they were inhibiting their inhibitions, which allowed the musicians to create without worrying about what they were creating.
But it’s not enough to just unleash the mind — successful improv requires a very particular kind of expression. That’s why the fMRI machine also recorded a spike in activity in the medial prefrontal cortex, a fold of frontal lobe just behind the eyes. This area is often linked with self-expression — it lights up, for instance, whenever people tell a story in which they’re the main character. The scientists argue that this part of the brain is required for jazz improv because the musicians are channeling their artistic identity, searching for the notes that best summarize their style. “Jazz is often described as being an extremely individualistic art form,” Limb says. “What we think is happening is when you’re telling your own musical story, you’re shutting down impulses that might impede the flow of novel ideas.”
In the second experiment scientists at Harvard investigated the varieties of musical improvisation. They recruited 12 classically trained pianists and had them spontaneously create both rhythms and melodies. Unlike the Hopkins experiment, which compared brain activity between improv and memorized piano melodies, this brain scanning experiment was primarily designed to compare activity between two different kinds of improv.
As expected, both improv conditions led to a surge in activity in a variety of brain areas, including parts of the premotor cortex and, most intriguingly, the inferior frontal gyrus. The premotor activity is simply an echo of execution — the novel musical patterns, after all, must still be translated by the fingers. The inferior frontal gyrus, however, has primarily been investigated for its role in language — it includes Broca’s area, which is essential for the production of speech. Why, then, is it so active when people create music on the piano? The scientists argue that expert musicians create new melodies by relying on the same mental muscles used to create a sentence; every note is another word.
These two brain-scanning studies provide an elegant view into our seething cauldron. They reveal a brain able to selectively silence that which keeps us silent. And just when we’ve found the courage to create something new, the brain surprises us with an expression of ourselves. We suddenly find our reflection — not in the mirror, or even in our words. It’s in the music.

AMORTALS:The following paragraph from Time Magazine is quite interesting for those of us advancing in years, at least on the calendar…..my 65th is coming in September!!
“The defining characteristic of “amortals” is that they live at the same way, the same pitch, doing and consuming much the same things, from their late teens right up to their death. They rarely ask themselves if their behavior is age appropriate, because that concept has little meaning for them. They don’t structure their lives around the inevitability of death, because they prefer to ignore it. Instead they chose to chase aspirations and covet new goods and services. Amortals assume all options are always open. They postpone retirement by choice, not necessity.”
Sounds like some guys I know who inspire me right out here in Pennsylvania as they continue to be active….Phil Woods, Bob Dorough and Roy Haynes to mention a few. Who has time to worry about the inevitable when you have to learn a new tune?

ROY HAYNES AT 85:Talk about an “amortal”…from late night TV. You want to talk inspiration…check this out!!
http://www.drummerworld.com/Videos/royhaynesletterman.html

LEE KONITZ RECUPERATING:Lee had a brain aneurysm in Melbourne, Australia a few weeks ago. I spoke with him and it appears that full recovery will happen. He was in excellent spirits. Another warrior!!

THE LATIN CATS:Two friends of my daughter from Boston are absolutely killing in a little drum thing. Anyone want to tell me where beat 1 is?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff7ZpMct88Q

ITINERARY:As a result of slower season in Europe with funding cuts for the arts which is the lifeline of jazz there, the itinerary for the summer months is slower than the normal. I am using this time to recalibrate, hang with the family and generally catch up with the several hundred CDs on my shelf given to me over the last few years by students, etc., to listen to.

JULY:IASJ Jazz Meeting at Souza Lima School, Sao Paulo, Brazil including performance with Guinga; Jamey Aebersold Workshop at University of Louisville, Kentucky

AUGUST:Chromatic Harmony Master Class held at East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA including performance at the Deer Head Inn; five nights at Birdland, (NYC) with Steve Kuhn, Steve Swallow, Billy Drummond; Deer Head Inn (Delaware Water Gap, PA)with Dan Wilkins Group; Deer Head Inn with Dave Liebman Group

INTERVALS:MAY-JUNE 2011

2011-05-03T15:52:00.000-07:00

FEATURE COMMENT:
THE POWER OF SYMBOLS-Sitting in Europe watching on TV the Royal Wedding followed a few days later by Pope John Paul II beatification ceremony in Rome made an impression on me about something that I have always been fascinated with which is the power of symbols to mankind. No matter how cynical one might be about humanity, the fact that large numbers of people (now more than ever because of the media reach) flock to happenings like these is a testament to the overwhelming human need to be positive and lift the spirit, to have sign posts that stand outside of one’s personal life and can be shared by all. Needless to say, the British know how to throw a party, this aptitude being one of their major contributions to culture for centuries, while the Catholic Church doesn’t too badly either in that regard. It’s a cliché but so true that the differences between peoples are dwarfed by what is in common-the need for spiritual meaning, the joy of love and devotion and as we see so clearly in Japan and the tornado ridden southern states of America, how generous people can be towards each other

RECENT EVENTS:
AFRICA BRASS GIG-Jazz Standard-NYC: With Saxophone Summit (minus Lovano), we played twos ets oft eh music from this seminal release as part of a week long celebration of the record label Imulse’s fiftieth year. Incredibly producer Creed Taylor who started the label was in attendance, saying he hasn’t heard this music since the day Trane recorded in in 1961. It was John’s only outing with a large ensemble (outside of “Ascension” later on) with great tunes all pointing towards what the quartet would accomplish for the next few years…modal formats with McCy’s fourth voicings, Elvin and in this case, Reggie Workman slashing behind with Trane riding the waves on soprano and tenor. We had a great time playing that language.

Review by Nate Chinen-NY Times:
“…..The kickoff, on Wednesday, involved Coltrane’s “Africa/Brass” as interpreted by Saxophone Summit, featuring David Liebman and Ravi Coltrane, with Phil Markowitz on piano, Cecil McBee on bass and Billy Hart on drums. The late set, which began like a thunderclap and ended as an oceanic swell, was most intriguing for the contrast between its two frontmen, each a different kind of heir to the Coltrane sound. Ravi Coltrane, the son of John and Alice Coltrane, was 2 when his father died in 1967; since coming into his own as a saxophonist, he has carefully weighed his stylistic inheritance against his own artistic identity, which skews cooler in temperament. Here he seemed unusually intent on strident epiphany: his solo on “Blues Minor,” the opener, was full of overblown notes and impassioned digressions, hard swerves out of the given key. Mr. Liebman, who will turn 65 this fall, came of age in John Coltrane’s immediate wake, embracing the influence as truth. His own style, marked by an imploring intelligence, can be understood as a specific dialect of the Coltrane language. And on almost every solo he dug impressively deep. Playing tenor on “Blues Minor,” he worked a cantorial cry; his soprano turn on “Song of the Underground Railroad,” a reworked spiritual not included on the original LP, had him evoking the fever pitch of the post-Coltrane avant-garde. His contribution to “Africa,” the album’s droning title track, was an essay on wooden flute, expressive and gorgeous. For all the focus on saxophones, a Coltrane tribute lives or dies by its rhythm section, and this one labored admirably. Mr. Markowitz, in his tolling accompaniment as well as in his methodical solos, suggested a contemporary gloss on the McCoy Tyner school, filtered through the likes of Chick Corea. And Mr. Hart was the heavy lifter, managing an inexhaustible and, just as crucially, personal take on Elvin Jones’s polyrhythmic fire. “Africa/Brass” was a large-ensemble album, with French horns, brass and reeds, and in that sense an anomaly in the Coltrane oeuvre. Because those textures were ancillary, arranged around a working quartet, their absence here wasn’t a problem. The set could have used a bit more warmth in its bluster — one reason to wish Joe Lovano, usually a marquee figure in Saxophone Summit, could have made the gig — but its sincerity, and the light it reflected on both Coltrane and his label, couldn’t have been clearer."

Photo by Tom Gieske

ESTONIA-BRUSSELS-WARSAW:
ESTONIA: I had quite an intense eclectic week doing a workshop for several days and playing in Tallinn, Estonia with a great band that featured a former Master’s degree student from the Manhattan School of Music, Kristjan Rondalu and guitarist Jaak Sooar. As I usually do I let the local leader of the group choose the tunes from my work that they want to play. What is interesting to me is that the choices of songs Jaak made reflect the “chromatic” harmonic style I first started using compositionally in the ‘80s which was basically double triad chords in various combinations. It seems in some small way, this language has now become sort of standardized, which is gratifying to say the least. So there’s always hope that what you conceive of now will find its way to other musicians a few decades later.

BRUSSELS: With the release of Guided Dream on a Belgium based label, the very polished Brussels Jazz Orchestra and I played the music from that recording, mentioned in New Releases below. What was most interesting about the evening was a contest for the best arrangement for big band with four finalists chosen by the band from over 50 contestants to be judged this night by five big band European so-called “experts.” As I have always maintained, contests with financial rewards are something that I do not endorse, first of all because music is NOT sports. But more to the point is that you are judging apples and oranges, meaning it comes down to a matter of taste and experience. It happened to be that Bob Mintzer, who knows a thing or two about big band writing was also in attendance working with a youth band. We both chose the same chart, which did not win. It was adventurous and not clichéd, but obviously the taste of the judges was more, shall we say, orthodox. How can you judge between pieces of music that have different goals and intentions? Can you say that Love Supreme is better than Speak No Evil for example? On the other hand, these occasions do bring attention to budding talent, but I don’t feel contests are the way to accomplish that.

WARSAW: In line with the beatification ceremony of the late Pope John Paul II, there was a performance of an oratorio written using the poetry of the then young priest from Kracow during World War II as the text for songs. Including a choir of children, string orchestra and jazz rhythm section with several soloists (among them the incredible French accordionist Richard Galliano and Polish trumpeter Piotr Wojastik), it was quite a thrill to be apart of this event which took place in the same square (the coldest I have ever played outdoors) where the Pope gave one of his most important speeches. I love the Polish public…they are really receptive and open.

Clips from the concert:

All The Things You Are:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCadwick#p/u/3/ukfS9GTIAYY

This one is an ethnic type tune with a burning singer:

http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCadwick#p/u/2/KsZs_CsczAI

POETRY AND JAZZ: Harkening back to the old Beatnik days in the Village that I remember from my teenage years, along with my elementary school class mate from over 50 years ago, Steve Dalachinsky, we had a jazz and poetry night at the Stone in the East Village. Steve is quite well known in these circles, overseas as well as here and it was really fun for me to improvise upon first hearing of these mostly jazz flavored poems. It appears that jazz poetry is a whole genre of its own, something I learned more about from guesting in a class taught by Herman Beavers last month at the University of Pennyslvania. This clip was the final poem dedicated to Coltrane in which Steve weaves many of John’s titles:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?video%2Fvideo.php&v=10150176435088647&mid=426a

SKETCHES OF SPAIN-Linz, Austria: With Jean Charles Richard conducting and Wolfgang Reisinger on drums along with some wonderful Austrian musicians, I performed this piece once again at the Brucknerhaus. I never tire of playing this suite, my all time favorite piece of music. The recording was so good, it seems that we will have a release on an Austrian label in the near future.
THREE GIGS IN ONE DAY: A first for me: To the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY for an early afternoon lecture; then on to Syracuse for a mid afternoon public discussion of the program to be played the next evening there; finally to Ithaca for a late one setter with drummer John Riley and guitarist Steve Brown. The next day was the main gig in Syracuse playing original music written for me by Bret Zvacek based on Jewish and Arab scale formats, which was quite interesting to play. This was a community big band of professionals from the area that has been doing together for fifteen years. I love when I see grass roots energy being used to promote this music.

FROM STRINGS TO ROCK: I had a wonderful duet tour with Jean Marie Machado, a French pianist with who I have been collaborating over the past few years. One of the gigs was with a string quartet that displayed his high level compositional and arranging skills. Just to change things up, one gig in the middle of our duo tour was playing the music from On The Corner with Andy Emler (keyboards), Badal Roy (tables), Linley Marthe (bass), Eric Echampard (drums) and the incredible Manu Codjia (guitar). All in a day’s work.

NEW RELEASES:
AMAZING-We3 with Adam Nussbaum, Steve Swallow-Kind of Blue Records: A great collection with classic Swallow compositions as well as from Adam and myself. I love this trio because of the vibe we get from years of playing and associating together.

GUIDED DREAM-with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra-Provo Records: A top notch band playing my originals from two live gigs. These guys really do it right, well rehearsed and committed to excellence.

RECOMMENDED:
LAST WORDS-George Carlin autobiography: One of the great wave of comedians that for me were more philosophers than comedians with great observations of life in America mid 20th century. First of all the way Carlin describes his childhood in Manhattan is a page out of how I remember New York when I was growing up. It happens to be that he lived right near where the present Manhattan School of Music is located (actually Julliard in his day). His take on growing up in the greatest city in the world at the time along with his family situation is touching and of course humorous because of Carlin’s wit. But even more impressive to me is his analysis of American society during this part of the 20th century…the prejudices, contradictions and general hypocrisy about sex, politics and more that was rampant in those years. Hi is spot on about the hippie period, the Reagan years and more. With an incisiveness and intelligence right up there with Richard Pryor who was similar, but less overtly political. It’s also a story of how Carlin matured in the entertainment business from playing the game to finding a way to cut through all the bull that surrounds that field of endeavor. This is actually an inspirational book as well as historical.

WEATHER REPORT: I was turned on to a Weather Report concert in 1975 in Berlin that was unbelievable. What a band that was and what a legacy they left. Any live performances by that group are worth checking out.

ELEVEN YEAR OLD SCATTING BIRD: The world can’t be in too bad a shape if this is happening:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7L8O-TdfQQ0

MEL LEWIS-THE HISTORY OF JAZZ DRUMMING: In the 1980’s drummer Mel Lewis gave a series of interviews on WKCR, which is Columbia University’s long standing jazz station, a very important one to boot. Mel, a cantankerous, but lovable and completely honest guy really knew about drums, growing up in a club atmosphere in Buffalo, New York. He traces the evolution from Baby Dodds to Elvin with examples and complete knowledge. After years of trying to have it transcribed, John Riley managed to get all of it online at the Percussive Arts Society web site. This is well worth the time:
http://www.pas.org/experience/oralhistory/mellewis.aspx

OF INTEREST:
Jamey Aebersold sent me this from emoryhealth.org-Aging musicians have sharp brains:
Playing a musical instrument throughout life may help fight cognitive decline as we age. Older musicians perform better on cognitive tests than individuals who did not play an instrument, according to a new study published in the April issue of Neuropsychology. While much research has been done to determine the cognitive benefits of musical activity by children, this is the first study to examine whether those benefits can extend across a lifetime. “Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging,” says lead researcher and clinical neuropsychologist Brenda Hanna-Pladdy of Emory University. “Since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older. ”The study enrolled 70 individuals age 60-83 who were divided into three groups. The participants either had no musical training, one to nine years of musical study or at least 10 years of musical training. All of the participants had similar levels of education and fitness, and didn’t show any evidence of Alzheimer’s disease.
Cognitive performance was measured by testing brain functions that typically decline as the body ages, and more dramatically deteriorate in neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease. The high-level musicians who had studied the longest performed the best on the cognitive tests, followed by the low-level musicians and non-musicians, revealing a trend relating to years of musical practice. The high-level musicians had statistically significant higher scores than the non-musicians on cognitive tests relating to visuospatial memory, naming objects, and cognitive flexibility, or the brain’s ability to adapt to new information. “Based on previous research and our study results, we believe that both the years of musical participation and the age of acquisition are critical,” Hanna-Pladdy says. “There are crucial periods in brain plasticity that enhance learning, which may make it easier to learn a musical instrument before a certain age and thus may have a larger impact on brain development.” The preliminary study was correlational, meaning that the higher cognitive performance of the musicians couldn’t be conclusively linked to their years of musical study. Hanna-Pladdy, who has conducted additional studies on the subject, says more research is needed to explore that possible link.
Well, we knew that!! Nice to know there’s hope for us old timers!

TSUNAMI VIDEOS: Tragedy beyond belief and the power of nature still prevails above all:
http://video.news.com.au/1838132952/Helicopter-vision-as-tsunami-hits

http://www.news.com.au/world/shocking-new-video-shows-people-trying-to-outrun-japanese-tsunami/story-e6frfkyi-1226038526218

Manhattan School of Music Graduating Master's Degree Class

ITINERARY
MAY: Cornelia Street, NYC with Bob Garcia(drums), Drew Gress(bass), Dan Tepfer(piano); Dave Liebman Group in Canada-Maison du Festival, Rio Tinto Alcan-Montreal; Club Pardisio-Ottawa; Largo-Quebec City;
Dave Liebman Gorup at the Falcon, Marlboro, NY; Lineage with Mike Stephens(drums), Evan Gregor(bass), Bobby Avey (piano) at the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA

JUNE: Duo with Vic Juris at the Caspe Terrace, Waukee, Iowa;

INTERVALS: MARCH-APRIL 2011

2011-02-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

FEATURE: NEA FUNDING CUTS
I would imagine that people who read my newsletter are well aware of what is happening with the proposed funding cut for the NEA, which of course affects the Jazz Master’s Program, but more importantly, public radio and television. So the following is exactly what the cliché “preaching to the chorus” means, but these things need to be reiterated on the off chance that someone who is not aware of the situation can make their voice known in objection.
Considering that I was recently granted a cash award and the honor of Jazz Master by the NEA, one would expect that I would be in a positive frame of mind towards the U.S. government in matters cultural, which was and is temporarily true. On the other hand after being honored in January at a wonderful ceremony (more below), I, like all artists are very upset at this impending disaster. Specifically in the case of jazz, it is imperative that this program continue, that musicians who have given their life to jazz playing and teaching be recognized in their own country for the cultural contribution this music makes to the world at large. I have written extensively about why jazz is so important as a spiritual force beyond the music itself, and below I will be including some words from others about the place of music and art in our lives.
But there is more to this discussion than the music. From a philosophical standpoint, what is the role of government vis a vis the populace? These observations are not mine…I can’t tell you where I first saw the following points made. And obviously if we look at what is presently happening in the Middle East with their stultifying governments, a “philosophical” discussion is hardly realistic, but for the sake of argument I will go forward. In life, one should at least be cognizant of what is at the top of the mountain, if only to see oneself in relation to what is possible in the best of all worlds. The bottom line is that in a democracy we, the people, choose the members of our government to put principles to work. So we need to be clear as to what these principles of good government should be and how America is doing in these areas.

An elected government in a democracy has four responsibilities towards maintaining the well being of the people: defense, education, health and culture.

Defense…There’s no doubt that the U.S. government has been quite active in this field for the past several years. Depending upon your view, this activity could be at least to some degree be construed as offense, rather than defense, not too successfully as it seems. I am no expert on terrorism and the real threat that exists to us, but I have to note that sending in troops to countries like Iraq and Afghanistan with technology and equipment that is worth more than what a whole village or province earns in a year, has to be construed in some way as a bit over the top. It is the manufacturers of all the hardware and their cohorts who are profiting from these adventures, certainly not the men and women serving on the front line, nor our citizenry unless we allow the rampant paranoia, so well orchestrated by our government since 9/11 to cause us to believe that the people of these countries are an imminent threat to our well being, when they hardly have enough food, etc., to sustain day to day living needs. In any case, there is evil in the world and defense of a country’s well being is a legitimate and necessary function of government.

Education…Now that my daughter is officially part of the “higher education” system, a privilege for which I pay nearly $50,000 a year, it is clear to me and I’m sure anyone else in the same position that this whole education thing has truly gotten out of hand and appears to have no ceiling, in the financial sense at least. Let’s just look at the economics: fifteen to eighteen hours of class a week and more work to do out of the classroom along with housing and supposedly board, (although a lot of food is on her dime) for a total of thirty weeks. For the sake of argument let’s say that this is truly cost effective, all towards the intended result of a graduate being able to make a living in a satisfying, decent paying job that contributes to the world and all that good stuff. We all know that with the economic situation the way it is in America, obtaining a viable job, no matter the line of work, after graduation is not looking too positive these days, let alone a summer job to offset expenses. More importantly, what about those who cannot afford anything like college and will do qualify for the limited financial aid available in this period of belt tightening happening everywhere, especially on the state level of junior and community colleges. The truth is that higher education, which is mandatory for any kind of decent job opportunity, is out of reach for more people than ever and this isn’t a good sign for the future of democracy. The mythical haves and have-nots dividing line will only broaden unless a way for public education to thrive is supported.

Health…You would have to be from another planet to not realize what is going in this area. I don’t pretend to know the intricacies of Obama’s health plan but it does appear to me that keeping young adults longer on their parent’s policy while making sure that everyone is somehow covered cannot be bad. Again, my situation….I pay about $20,000 a year before one day of sickness, just in case a catastrophic situation arises. Once again, I can afford it so far and only have three people to worry about, but what about all the uninsured? And some jokers want to repeal these provisions? Once again it is the haves and have-nots scenario looming larger and larger as time goes by with health care being so out of reach for most people.

Culture…Finally what appears to be the most expendable of the “my government to fulfill wish list” raises its head. OK, they don’t want to fund the elites, the snobby effete people who dig jazz, public radio and public TV, etc. So why not mandate that funding must be used in downtown Detroit or like that…..but don’t cut cultural monies off. Culture raises the level of daily life of the populace in ways beyond mere entertainment. A citizenry needs art, executed by people whose lives are dedicated to expressing feelings, beauty and truth… some of the virtues of real art. Artists are not looking for handouts, just support towards bringing what appears on the surface to be non-essential to the people. Without support from up high, what is left is a waste land of cable TV, social networking, so-called smart phones, etc., for informing people about ideas and matters of the mind and spirit. Of course there is a place for this technology as we are witnessing in North Africa these very days as a means of promoting vital communication between people in spite of repression and censorship. But a society needs thoughtful and considered forums of discussion beyond the click of a key. It is a bad sign for any democracy if funding for culture is cut off and especially non-commercial avenues like public radio and TV.
The response to all these points is always on a financial level: “There’s no money left” and all that. It is hard to believe that with such a big corporation as the U.S. government is, there are no places where inefficiencies, existing loopholes, out and out larceny/graft/corruption and so forth are occurring and costing tons and tons of money. In the final result, it is about priorities and what is important beyond the here and now for the future. Are we just supposed to let the people we elected to represent our best interests allow matters to sink to the lowest common denominator without a fuss being raised. We need an educated, forward looking populace that insists on these priorities being straightened out and making their voices heard towards positive change. I am most concerned about the boundary between the haves and the have nots broadening to such a degree beyond what is happening today, that we will have in essence a two class system in what was supposed to be a place according to the Declaration of Independence where “all men are created equal.” This does not bode well for the future of any country.
A few supporting documents concerning the value of music:

From Jamey Aebersold, in a letter to a music teacher’s organization about some specific pedagogical points....the ending statements are apropos:
“Zoltan Kodaly said: ”Every healthy child would improvise if we’d let him.”
I have often felt our present day crisis in public music education is a direct reflection of institutions of higher learning not “keeping up with the times.” There is no valid reason students can’t be taught to read the notes on the page AND play the notes that lie in their minds musical ear.
People who learn to improvise often continue to make music their entire life. Music becomes their friend. They become a well-rounded person and music is a big contributor to their well being. Once they are encouraged to create music by improvising it’s like a missing piece of their life is found. The desire to create comes with each person’s first breath. They won’t all become pros but they CAN learn to improvise music.
Improvisation is where the fun is. Being forever tied to the notes on the page is a disservice to our many music school graduates. It doesn’t have to be this way. Music is for life.”

And this from Dr. Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of the music division at the Boston Conservatory, who gave this welcome address to the parents of incoming students at the Boston Conservatory on September 1, 2004:
“I have come to understand that music is not part of “arts and entertainment” as the newspaper section would have us believe. It’s not a luxury, a lavish thing that we fund from leftovers of our budgets, not a plaything or an amusement or a pass time. Music is a basic need of human survival. Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds. Some of you may know Samuel Barber’s heart-wrenchingly beautiful piece Adagio for Strings. If you don’t know it by that name, then some of you may know it as the background music which accompanied the Oliver Stone movie Platoon, a film about the
Vietnam War. If you know that piece of music either way, you know it has the ability to crack your heart open like a walnut; it can make you cry over sadness you didn’t know you had. Music can slip beneath our conscious reality to get at what’s really going on inside us the way a good therapist does.
I bet that you have never been to a wedding where there was absolutely no music. There might have been only a little music, there might have been some really bad music, but I bet you there was some music. And
something very predictable happens at weddings—people get all pent up with all kinds of emotions, and then there’s some musical moment where the action of the wedding stops and someone sings or plays the flute or
something. And even if the music is lame, even if the quality isn’t good, predictably 30 or 40 percent of the people who are going to cry at a wedding cry a couple of moments after the music starts. Why?! The Greeks. Music allows us to move around those big invisible pieces of ourselves and rearrange our insides so that we can express what we feel even when we can’t talk about it. Can you imagine watching Indiana Jones or Superman or Star Wars with the dialogue but no music? What is it about the music swelling up at just the right moment in ET so that all the softies in the audience start crying at exactly the same moment? I guarantee you if you showed the movie with the music stripped out, it wouldn’t happen that way. The Greeks: Music is the understanding of the relationship between invisible internal objects.
What follows is part of the talk I will give to this year’s freshman class when I welcome them a few days from now. The responsibility I will charge your sons and daughters with is this: “If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at two AM someone is going to waltz into your emergency room and you’re going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 PM someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft.
You’re not here to become an entertainer, and you don’t have to sell yourself. The truth is you don’t have anything to sell; being a musician isn’t about dispensing a product, like selling used Chevy's. I’m not an entertainer; I’m a lot closer to a paramedic, a firefighter, a rescue worker. You’re here to become a sort of therapist for the human soul, a spiritual version of a chiropractor, physical therapist, someone who works with our insides to see if they get things to line up, to see if we can come into harmony with ourselves and be healthy and happy and well.
Frankly, ladies and gentlemen, I expect you not only to master music; I expect you to save the planet. If there is a future wave of wellness on this planet, of harmony, of peace, of an end to war, of mutual understanding, of equality, of fairness, I don’t expect it will come from a government, a military force or a corporation. I no longer even expect it to come from the religions of the world, which together seem to have brought us as much war as they have peace. If there is a future of peace for humankind, if there is to be an understanding of how these invisible, internal things should fit together, I expect it will come from the artists, because that’s what we do.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO: below is the whole story and site address to let your voice be heard:
On Thursday, February 17, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to make a deep cut to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The vote added an additional $20.5 million cut on top of an already underlying $22.5 million reduction. If the U.S. House completes its work on this appropriations legislation (H.R.1) at the end of this week, the NEA's FY 2011 budget will have been reduced from $167.5 million to $124.5 million – a cut of 26% and the deepest cut to the NEA in 16 years.
Now we must turn our attention to the U.S. Senate - for they will consider this legislation perhaps as early as February 28th. Because members of Congress will be at home next week in observance of President's Day, we have provided a web address to register your voice. Media Alert for you to send to your local media outlets in support of the NEA.
http://capwiz.com/artsusa/issues/alert/?alertid=28957501 (paste into your browser)

RECENT EVENTS

NEA MASTERS CEREMONY: Obviously, a highlight for the recent past but also for my whole life. There were three components for the two days including a panel discussion, where basically my contribution for a question in that direction was a quick summary of the feature article above. The second component was the high point, a luncheon sponsored by the performing rights organization, BMI. All past recipients were invited as well as widows of previous awardees, which I think is a classy touch. My table was named for one of my recordings, “Miles Away” and along with Caris and Lydia, we sat with Ahmad Jamal, his wife and Kenny Barron. I have to tell you to be in the presence of forty past and present masters of jazz ranging from Jon Hendricks and Candido at ninety years old, to me being the youngest (beside the Marsalis clan who received a group award) was a heavy experience, because it is not often that I am the youngest in the room!! I basked in the glow of all that talent, history (not only of jazz but of America in the 20th century), camaraderie (Joe Wilder and Johnny Mandel reminiscing about being together in the trumpet section with Count Basie in 1941); and most of all the depth of humanity gathered in that room. The truth is that once a year this meeting by definition captures in a secular way some of the highest spiritual energy on the planet by having all these masters of the art in one room. (From my own personal standpoint this is enough of a reason to keep the Jazz Masters program intact.)
Finally, the actual award ceremony with Hubert Laws, Johnny Mandel, Orin Keepnews, the Marsalis clan and myself all being introduced, saying a few words and playing. Lee Konitz was scheduled to be my presenter but he called in a panic a few days before saying he lost his passport and probably wouldn’t make it. He said something really nice: “I practiced my speech for you more that the saxophone recently.” I asked David Baker who I know for decades through the Aebersold clinics and as the conductor for one of my personal favorite recordings that I did with strings, “Dedications” in 1979. (By the way Lee did make it to the ceremony but wanted David to do the presentation anyway.) I played with the orchestra from Gil Evans-Miles Davis’ Porgy and Bess, “Summertime” and There’s A Boat That’s Leaving For New York.” The link to see the ceremony is below…it was an excellent production by Jazz at Lincoln Center. I had a contingent of home boys present since I was the only awardee who is a native New Yorker. It was nice to have a posse out there….a great and memorable day for me and my family. I thank all those people who have helped me get there.

The link to the full show---(I go on at around 50 minutes):

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/11960995

Receiving award from the heads of NEA and BMI

JEN CONVENTION/AIRMEN OF NOTE: Representing my new Liebman Model soprano saxophone for the Keilwerth Company (still waiting for it to go into production), I attended the second Jazz Educators Network convention in New Orleans. Some of you know that JEN arose out of the ashes of the IAJE which went bankrupt a few years ago. This second meeting had two times more attendance than the year before and was low key and pleasant enough. I am sure it will continue to grow because there is a need and demand for such an event. I just hope that they will not over step themselves as the IAJE did, but this leadership truly seem to be watching their p’s and q’s. I got to play with the Air Force big band; the Airmen of Note which is an incredibly tight unit that made me fantasize what it it’s like to have rehearsal time. My big band gets together a few hours before a gig and it sounds like that in some ways. It can’t be denied that when you have time to practice and refine music, the level is raised. We do the best we can.

HUNGARY WITH GABOR GADO: I had a great gig in Budapest with a fantastic guitarist, Gabor Gado playing with a young French trio, Mathieu Donnarier, Sebastian Boisseau and Joe Quitzke who were really dealing. Fantastic musicians EVERYWHERE these days with their own stuff.

SAX SUMMIT/QUEST: February was quite a month with two separate weeks at NYC’s Birdland Club featuring Saxophone Summit (Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Billy Hart, Cecil McBee, Phil Markowitz) and Quest (Richie Beirach, Billy Hart, Ron McClure). As noted, the one common denominator in both groups besides me is drummer Jabali Billy Hart, without whom both of these group would not be the same. Billy just does it every night, every set and still continues to improve as do all the guys. If you get a chance to play with any regularity, it is inevitable that your and everyone around you will evolve up the food chain in skills.

Sax Summit at Birdland

DEER HEAD INN GIG: For the second time I had a chance to play with pianist Uri Caine who is a real killer, swinging and totally into the heat of the moment. Along with Mike Stephans and Tony Marino we played the entire “Love Supreme” recording, something I did only once decades ago with a Japanese pianist at the Knitting Factory. Needless to say this was quite different. What a compelling piece of music!

RECORDING PROJECTS: Somehow, with the jazz record business almost lifeless I managed to record with three of my major ensembles: Saxophone Summit, doing all original, quite free material which I think will be an unusual recording in the group’s history; with Quest we decided to concentrate on the mid ‘60s Miles Davis Quintet repertoire, recording some of the greatest compositions every written: Pinocchio, Neferttiti, Paraphenelia, Prince of Darkness, Vonetta, Fall and Hand Jive; finally as a result of a grant from Chamber Music America given to saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, we recorded with the group Different But The Same. Along with Ellery and myself, the group includes Tony Marino and the incredible Jim Black. The centerpiece of this recording was a suite by Ellery, a wonderfully constructed and conceived piece plus “Ghosts” by Albert Ayler and two originals of mine including “New Breed” from my Elvin Jones period. This recording it seems will appear on Hatology next year when we tour Europe.

NEW RECORDING-KNOWINGLEE(Out Note Records (France)
This features trio with Richie Beirach, Lee Konitz and myself. I spoke about this in a newsletter a few months ago, concentrating on the experience of playing next to one of the greatest and most swinging melody players in jazz history.

OF INTEREST: FIRST THE RECORD BUSINESS- NOW MUSIC PUBLISHING(from the NY Times):
“The site, the Internet Music Score Library Project, has trod in the footsteps of Google Books and Project Gutenberg and grown to be one of the largest sources of scores anywhere. It claims to have 85,000 scores, or parts for nearly 35,000 works, with several thousand being added every month. That is a worrisome pace for traditional music publishers, whose bread and butter comes from renting and selling scores in expensive editions backed by the latest scholarship. More than a business threat, the site has raised messy copyright issues and drawn the ire of established publishers.” Another nail in the coffin!!

ITINERARY (go to venue web sites for exact dates, times and info):
MARCH: Classes and Dave Liebman Group performance at Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA; the Stone, NYC with poet Steve Dalachinsky; concert at Littlefield, Brooklyn, NY with Robert Garcia (drums), John Hebert (bass), Micheal Gentile (flute) and Daniel Kelly (piano); duo tour with pianist Jean Marie Machado in Europe; On The Corner at Theatre d’Orleans with Andy Emler (keyboards), Manu Codjia (guitar), Linley Marthe (el. bass), Badal Roy (tablas, percussion), Eric Echampard (drums).

APRIL: Workshop at the Global Institute, Berklee School , Boston, MA; performance with George Garzone and the Fringe, Lily Pad, Cambridge, MA; Sketches of Spain conducted by Jean Charles Richard at the Brucknerhaus, Linz, Austria; performance at the Carriage House Café, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; performance with the CNY Jazz Arts Foundation, Carrier Theater, Syracuse, NY; Jazz Standard with Saxophone Summit playing Coltrane’s “Africa Brass” recording commemorating fifty years of Impulse Records; performance and workshops at the Tallinn Jazz Festival, Estonia; performance with the Brussels Big Band, Belgium.

INTERVALS: JAN-FEB 2011

2011-01-01T18:27:00.000-08:00

FEATURE: RECORDING LIVE AND IN THE STUDIO-TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
It certainly does appear that I have a record coming out every day in the past few months. The reality is that in a lot of cases the artist doesn’t have control of release dates, especially with older recordings, or the luxury of being exclusive with one label so inevitably releases can pile on top of each other. As well, in light of the economic state of the jazz record business, many artists have to accept live recordings as representative of their work. It’s true that even in the studio situation if the money is tight and time restricted because of that, the recording process is not that much different from live outside of the presence of an audience. I have done many records in six hours or less which essentially is a kind of live recording allowing no time for use of the studio situation to one’s advantage. But for the sake of this discussion let’s omit economics and assume that you have approximately two hours per tune, meaning for a standard CD length around two eight hour studio days. (This doesn’t include mixing and mastering which adds on at least another day.)

There is an inherent contradiction when recording jazz in the studio. The obvious fact that people can hear the music anywhere, anytime in the world forever certainly puts something special on any recording. The paradox is that we are capturing a moment(s) of musical time and magnifying it way beyond that time scale. Ideally, jazz, in fact any improvisational art, is predicated on being in absolute present time with no past or future impeding the flow of spontaneity or the artist’s ability to respond to what is happening in the moment around them. We cognize musical “spontaneity” as an ideal, as something special. However, spontaneous doesn’t mean that completely new and fresh material is necessarily being discovered, though that exists as a goal for most jazz players. The reality is that we are playing what we have discovered before, whether it be through the practicing process, or by accident, or a combination of events. It is the interpretative aspects of the music in the moment which is the first time event identified as spontaneous. Even in the case of the pre-be-boppers who often would play a set solo with exactly the same notes from performance to performance (like the classical artist), matters of interpretation (meaning phrasing, nuance, etc.) were different every time. To use a metaphor, magnifying a snapshot into a poster can be daunting and in the case of jazz, at least theoretically, paradoxical to its very ethos. On the other hand, why shouldn’t one moment be as representative of an individual’s playing as another, assuming the artist is skilled enough to be consistent (a skill gained by experience in the studio).

The obvious benefits of studio recording is what painters, writers and sculptors artistically enjoy as a given….the opportunity to refine, correct and change one’s art towards the artist’s vision. It is in the studio where we can actually realize a piece representing the kind of diligence and care an artist should and can give to his work and to the audience. The other reality is that you cannot hide under the harsh lights of the studio where everything is heard to the smallest detail. The studio is a great leveler of talent…everything is scrutinized. However, in our era with technology so advanced, it is possible to seamlessly alter everything about the music to such a high degree that there is the inherent danger of over correction…. a problem of too many possibilities. In other words, if I have the capability of making something “perfect,” how can I resist using it? The sad truth in our era is that a listener cannot be sure that what they are hearing is what was actually played because there are so many ways to alter the past. Of course this is ultimately an individual artist’s decision but a very important one, especially for an art form that prizes spontaneity. Let me remain positive and just say that editing in our time affords the artist a chance to make a truly grand presentation, to present a concept, to mull over details… all of which hopefully contribute to a higher level of enjoyment from the listener as well as encouraging the artist to evolve further.

Though it is less likely that a performer uses extensive editing on a live recording compared to the studio, you can never be sure. Putting that reality aside, recording live is as close as you can get to hearing the essence of jazz….spontaneous-in the moment playing which for my aesthetic is the absolute highest musical goal. What I am looking for when I hear myself is a solo that is technically beyond reproach; ideas that are musically sound and coherent; interaction with the other musicians at the highest level; and an emotional depth that the listener can feel. That is a tall order which is realistically beyond most of us, but represents the highest goal of jazz improvisation for me. Recording live can be a nerve wracking experience because you cannot go back and change or fix things without affecting the very premise of what a live recording is supposed to be.

In summary the challenges of both kinds of recording are many and for the jazz artist it is mandatory to live in both worlds. As I said earlier, because of the current state of affairs in jazz recording, much of what is being released are live recrodings, a reality we as musicians have to live with. But we must persevere in attempting to find ways of recording under the white lights of the studio, using the tools afforded us in that environment to elevate our art.

One thing is sure…for myself and my peers it was the live recordings of Miles, Coltrane, Bill Evans, etc., that were passed around, many of which recorded in the ‘60s, as tenth generation reel to reel copies, evolving into cassettes and finally CDs that had the most effect on our musical development. The Coltrane “One Up, One Down” track live from the Half Note in NYC was a treasure as were various live Miles Davis concerts. “Live at the Plugged Nickel” was like gold (first released in Japan only as a double LP) and I wore out Trane’s “Live at Birdland.” There were some artists like Sonny Rollins, known for not being terribly comfortable in the studio, for whom you went primarily to their live recordings to hear their latest work. On the other hand those of us who saw Coltrane live witnessed first hand a group that was completely different on vinyl than live. (Refer to the You Tube of “Vigil” discussed below).

So what does this come down to? As an artist we have to deal with what is given us in our time. But for the serious listener the only way to really know how someone plays is to hear them live a few nights in succession without the benefits of hindsight (editing. Then you can truly judge themusic. Studio recordings are another, parallel reality to be taken in account on its own merits.

CHROMATIC HARMONY AND MELODY MASTER CLASS-AUG 2011:Go to my web site (www.davidliebman.com) under Education/Master Classes for details

LIEB PLAYS THE BLUES A LA TRANE(Daybreak): That said, this new release was doe on a spur of the moment with my Dutch rhythm section, drummer Eric Ineke and bassist Marius Beets, with whom I have recorded two other “repertoire” CDS featuring the compositions of Kurt Weill and Alec Wilder. Some of my fans might remember a streak of recordings I did in the ‘90s for the Italian label, Red Records, which were all repertoire recordings. Arranging the music of composers is something I have been doing for decades and really enjoy. This present CD was spontaneously played and recorded one night on tour in lieu of the Wilder and Weill music we were promoting at that time. The actual taping was done casually but turned out to be more than acceptable and a nice addition to my recorded work. Here are some of the liner notes:

”For many years till the late ‘80s, with a few exceptions I purposely refrained from recording Coltrane tunes for the obvious reason that I needed and wanted to escape his titanic ( and positive) influence on my life and music. It is well known among those who have heard me speak in classes or interviews that seeing Trane live in the ‘60s was my epiphany. By the late ‘80s I felt ready to tackle it somewhat of my own terms, which I did on “Homage To Coltrane” (Owl Records) in 1987 and have recorded several Trane compositions since then, especially from the late period. In the case of this CD, the vibe was to just play the music for an evening and have fun. With such a strong bass-drum team as Marius and Eric are, I knew that whatever transpired it would certainly swing…so no arrangements, just the heads and blow. There is nothing new contained herein but it does reflect the absorption of years of study of Trane’s music and a kind of homage to one particular aspect of his massive style.

Coltrane had a different approach to playing the blues than others from his generation as well as from his usual approach to chord change playing. In a way Trane was like an old blues cat who couldn’t give up the strong pull of the basic I-IV-V progression. This is notable in light of so many intricate altered blues statements that existed like Bird’s “Blues for Alice” or even “All Blues” which were compositional variations of the format. And there is of course the incessant cry of the blues scale itself to deal with. Just imagining how many variations exist on that basic sound is impressive.

For the beboppers, the blues was an old friend who had to be visited, almost as an obligation. There is so much in the blues that transfers to the standard song repertoire: the tonic, sub dominant, dominant relationships of the harmony; the call and response aspect of the form; the lyrical (vocal) intimations of the melodies; the universal appeal of the blues. When Trane played the blues you really GOT IT. He wrote a lot of blues in different keys, sometimes with different substitute harmonies but always true to the integrity of the blues sound. One of his most influential solos, the classic live track from the Village Vanguard of “Chasin’ the Trane” is a great example of his commitment to the basic I-IV-V blues model as is “Pursuance” in a completely different way a few years later. Of course there is the landmark recording “Coltrane Plays The Blues,” a primer for anyone interested in his music.

To me when I hear the blues played well, it is an affirmation of the human spirit…neither sad nor happy…just a slice of life on this planet that all humanity feels and lives through beyond time, place, culture and ethnicity. In broad terms people have much more in common than not-the life/death, young/old, love/loss cycles that we all pass through…the general “yin/yangness” of it all. The blues is a universal declaration of what it is to be alive in the moment.”

OLD WINE-NEW BOTTLES-recordings available as downloads only
ORNETTE PLUS: THE DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP LIVE
This is a live recording from 2008-09 done at the Deer Head Inn (Delaware Water Gap, PA) and Roberto's Woodwind Shop (NYC). The group plays three arrangements of Ornette Coleman tunes from their recording "Turnaround" (Best Record of the Year 2010-German Jazz Journalists) plus a long version of Vic Juris' "Victim" which features some sonic stretching out by the group, which has been together for 20 years. Communication par excellente!
As is the case with many jazz players, there is often a big difference between studio and live recordings, not quality-wise but obviously as far as excitement and spontaneous creativity are concerned. These two venues were as relaxed a setting as you can get with small and attentive audiences, so no show, just the music! The three Ornette tunes were recorded on “Turnaround” (Jazz Werkstatt) which won the prize for jazz record of the year (2010) from the German music critics. Juris’ “Victim” has been played and recorded previously by the band over our twenty year history, but this particular version goes into textural directions that appear to be the direction the band is heading towards as I write these notes. Keeping a band together for decades demands constant reevaluation to inspire both the listeners and musicians. Tony, Vic and Marko give their all every time. My appreciation to these great artists for their commitment and musicianship.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/ornette-plus/id402245548

LIEBMAN BEIRACH ARCHIVE RECORDINGS:
Welcome to the Liebman-Beirach live recording archive. For most jazz musicians there is a significant difference between live and studio recordings, hopefully not qualitatively, but in terms of energy and inspiration. This is definitely true of the music that Richie Beirach and I have played together over the decades. We began together in the late '60s jamming in my loft in Manhattan, putting together Free Life Communication (musician’s cooperative), apprenticing with masters, listening, talking and exploring music towards constructing a sound that would reflect our influences, the times we lived in and whatever contribution we might ultimately make to the jazz legacy---in summary, the past, present and future.
Over the years we have played in three different configurations: the Duo and quartets Lookout Farm and Quest. Throughout you will hear certain recurring themes, albeit with a particular emphasis depending upon which setting. We have always looked back at the jazz repertoire interpreting it in our own manner. There have been traces of free jazz, fusion and world music along with an ongoing interest in the harmonic implications garnered from contemporary classical music of the 20th century, all integrated into an improvised jazz context. These commonalities can be observed over the four decades of our collaboration.
As in any recorded jazz, multiple takes of a tune are of interest because they can and often do differ so much from each other. It goes without saying that the sound quality on some of the tracks is less than desirable but we felt the music itself took precedence. A few of these tracks have been previously released on the Select Series from Mosaic Records but available here for the first time as downloads.

PENDULUM-LIVE AT THE VILLAGE VANGUARD, NYC
Dave Liebman, RIchie Beirach, Al Foster, Frank Tusa, Randy Brecker
Originally recorded in 1978 and released as an album on the famed Artist's House label, this collection features several nights at the famous Village Vanguard in New York with a stellar cast of musicians who comprised some of the most notable of the young generation in the Apple at the time, and had been playing together in many different combinations during the preceding decade. Playing standards with a modern twist, the energy in the club is palpable and electric.
http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Liebman-Richie-Beirach-Pendulum/dp/B00479DFS4/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289583270&sr=301-1

DAVE LIEBMAN AND RICHIE BEIRACH: THE DUO LIVE 1976-1990
This duo has its place in jazz history secured since their beginnings in the early 1970s playing in Liebman's loft on West 19th Street in NYC and served as the foundation of the groups Lookout Farm from the '70s and Quest in the '80s. In particular, the duo (reunited with new recordings) developed an harmonic concept blending the jazz language with 20th century modern classical innovations. These recordings of standards and originals span a sixteen year period and bear witness to their development.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dave-liebman-richie-beirach/id397559373

LOOKOUT FARM LIVE: 1974-75
Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Jeff Williams, Frank Tusa
After Dave Liebman had done his apprenticeship with Elvin Jones and Miles Davis, he formed his first group as a leader which musically represented a mixture of the newest trends at the time being explored by jazz musicians-Indian music, fusion and free jazz--all played with a spirit reminiscent of their strongest influences, John Coltrane and Miles. This is eclecticism at its boldest which resulted in the band being voted number one for "Group Deserving Of Wider Recognition" by Downbeat Magazine in 1976.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lookout-farm/id401614700?i=401615545&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Liebman-Richie-Beirach-Lookout/dp/B0049AF4WQ/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1289583377&sr=1-13

QUEST LIVE:1988,1991
Dave Liebman, Richie Beirach, Billy Hart & Ron McClure
The famous quartet is featured here in live performances which capture the incredible communication that the quartet (now re-united with new recordings) demonstrated during their tenure in the 1980s.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dave-liebman-richie-beirach/id397564417
http://www.amazon.com/Dave-Liebman-Richie-Beirach-Quest/dp/B00479BZH2/ref=sr_shvl_album_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1289583311&sr=301-5

NEA MASTERS OF JAZZ AWARD: I will be presented with the award at the Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center on Jan 11. My presenter is Lee Konitz and it will be on the radio live at 7:30PM Eastern Standard Time (U.S.) at:

http://www.xmradio.com/realjazz (satellite radio)
and
http://www.wbgo.org/ (internet)

INTERVIEWS IN DOWNBEAT AND JAZZ TIMES: With the Jazz Masters Award I have been given a couple of nice profiles in the December issue of Jazz Times and the January issue of Downbeat. You can find these interviews and others at my site under PRESS MATERALS-INTERVIEWS

ALL ABOUT JAZZ-NEW YORK BEST OF THE YEAR: I did pretty well this year in the Apple in five categories:
-Chosen as one of the five Musicians of the Year
-“Turnaround-the Music of Ornette Coleman” by the Dave Liebman Group was named one of the Tribute Recordings of the Year
- Lookout Farm's gig at Birdland in February was named one of the Performances of the Year
- “Relevance” (with Evan Parker and Tony Bianco) was named one of the Albums of the Year
-“Quest for Freedom” (HR Big Band with Richie Beirach arranged by Jim McNeely) was named among the Best of 2010 Honorable Mentions

Also from the Penguin Guide of Music the Quest recording “Redemption” (HAtology) was selected as one of the Best Albums

EUROPE TOUR WITH DL GROUP: My group had an intense 12 day tour of Europe, trudging around in the snow and cold which was everywhere around us. We played some of the music from the award winning “Turnaround-Music of Ornette Coleman” as well as other material emphasizing a more electric approach than we have done in years-electric bass, myself exclusively on soprano sax with a small effects box and Vic increasingly using pedals and reverbs, etc. working steadily always confirms the mantra that having a steady group is irreplaceable for musical self improvement and that there is no substitute for playing every night for paying customers to make one feel close to their instrument. This all adds up to a higher level of audience concentration, acceptance an approval. They can feel the difference of a group that has been together for awhile….in our case this next year will be the 20th.
Three excerpts from the tour:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnWQvahdGLQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKfh5IUOz3I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKs_SKA4xdU&feature=related

Presentation of award for Best Jazz Recording 2010-German Jazz Critics:Uli Blobel, owner of Jazz Werkstatt and Bert Noglik from German Critics Panel

MEDITATIONS SUITE WITH SAXOPHONE SUMMIT AND ORCHESTRA: On the anniversaries of Coltranes’s recording of this seminal piece (Nov,1965) I like to find a way to perform it somewhere in the world. This last November for the European tour of Saxophone Summit we played the suite every night for our six concerts. You can imagine how deep it got with Lovano, Coltrane, Hart, McBee and Markowitz exploring this special music on a night to night basis. As well celebrating this special anniversary, the Dave Liebman Big Band leader, saxophonist Gunnar Mossblad who has collaborated with me on many works over the decades (including a big band version of “Meditations”) wrote an arrangement of the suite for the studio orchestra at Manhattan School of Music. Studio orchestra means a full symphonic orchestra with the addition of a jazz rhythm and saxophone section, so you get the best of both, This was a spectacular arrangement conduced by Justin Dicioccio with 85 musicians and Randy Brecker alongside me in the solo positions. The power of Gunnar’s arrangement was incredible and Justin really got these mostly straight laced young classical players to loosen up a bit for some great moments of group free improvisation. And it is the free improv alongside the beautiful melodies from the suite that gives the music its special yin-yang character. I hope we can find a way to release the recording to the general public in the near future.

PRACTICE DVD (Aebersold Publications): Taped from a lecture I did in Dublin, Ireland (thanks to Ronan Guilfoyle) this is a succinct one hour presentation on the basics of good productive practicing. I have found out more than a few times over the years that most people do not know how to practice. This is truer in jazz than classical music where at least the goal is clear, to learn, memorize and master a written piece of music. In jazz, it is a bit more ambiguous because it is impossible to practice spontaneity, the core of improvising. Assuming that an individual is trying to be diligent there are some essential guidelines that lead to effective use of one’s time towards the goal of self improvement. In fact, learning how to practice or shall I say reinforcing positive behavior is a tool for life, no matter what the material.

From the DVD notes:
"The goal of practicing, no matter the activity, is to transform behavior from the realm of mechanics and technique to learned instinct, employing little if any conscious thought. This means the mind is free to dwell on matters of content, aesthetics and expression. Specifically, practicing an art form demands rigor and creativity acting in tandem. In the final result, an artist’s work reflects the depth of their practicing process."

TOPICS COVERED:• Where and when to practice
• Value of maintaining a practice diary
• Use of books
• Instrumental technique first
• Ritual
• Organization
• Prioritization
• Length of practice period
• Highlighting weaknesses

PASSINGS
BILLY TAYLOR: A true giant, Taylor was way ahead of the educational curve decades ago. What he did towards raising the level of acceptance of jazz for the general public is unmatched in our time. Billy realized early on that you could explain jazz somehow, someway, therefore opening the door for people to feel comfortable in a milieu that could be construed as a secret and esoteric society. He truly understood that knowledge is central to comprehension and what inevitably follows is acceptance. All jazz musicians and jazz fans owe Mr. Taylor a gigantic dept for furthering our cause.

JAMES MOODY: What can you say? First of all, he was a jazz musician of the first order beyond "Moody's Mood" which of course was his trademark song. For me, it was his flute playing that was so authentically be-bop, played on a very difficult instrument to exert control. But Moody had more going than many of his contemporaries because of his naturally ebullient personality, which was key to his communicative success with an audience. Further was James' unquenchable thirst to learn more and be on top of contemporary trends. I remember one of my early tours with the Elvin Jones Group (1972) as part of a George Wein Newport style armada trudging throughout Europe. Moody was part of the "Young Giants of Jazz" with Sonny Stitt, Roy Haynes and others of his generation. James couldn't get enough of asking my partner Steve Grossman and myself about pentatonic and diminished scale licks, Giant Steps and other Coltraneisms that we were playing, then writing them down and discussing the material. At one point, Illinois Jacquet yelled something in the bus to the three of together in the back to the effect of why bother with that "bull...." James just laughed and told us to ignore him. He was a true artist, a lover of life and a gentle loving human being.

RECOMMENDED
LIVE COLTRANE:From the European tour in 1965 this clip of the Coltrane Quartet with Elvin Jones, Jimmy Garrison and McCoy Tyner is as close as it gets to what it felt like to hear the group live as I did so many times. This track in particular shows the band in that particular year when John recorded like crazy and as the year came to a close after recording “Meditations” changing the personnel of the group to his wife Alice, saxophonist Pharoah Saunders and drummer Rashied Ali. “Vigil,” beginning with a duo between Elvin and Trane gives a feeling of a man in transition; just a little motif that Trane and the group work out to an astounding level of intensity and freedom:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UHZaqG87N0&feature=player_embedded

ON THE SOPRANO SAX: Sam Newsome is making some waves on the little horn and dedicates a blog to it….very interesting comments: http://sopranosaxtalk.blogspot.com/

MUSIC FROM WATER GLASSES: How much practice would it take to do this: http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2008/musical-glasses-p1.php

TRISTANO ROBOTS: Funny and quite accurate in many ways:
http://www.youtube.com/user/annaspatafora

MY DAUGHTER’S JAZZ RADIO SHOW:
http://jazztimes.com/community/articles/26788-student-s-online-jazz-radio-show-reaches-international-ears

UNBELIEVABLE STORY FROM THE HOLOCAUST: To everyone about the power of music, this is something really special. One statement stands out:
"Fill your head as much as you can because it can't be taken away, especially music."
Watch this and you will understand the depth of that statement. (Thanks to my oldest musical compatriot Mike Garson for sharing this.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlccsLr48Mw&feature=share

ABOUT FRANK FOSTER:One of the nicest guys and great saxophonists has become ill and needs some help:
http://www.jazzwax.com/2010/10/how-i-helped-frank-foster.html

ITINERARY (consult local listings for details and dates)

JANUARY:Jazz Educators Convention in New Orleans-performances with the Airmen of Note and Chuck Owens’ Surge; Snug Harbor Club with Jason Marsalis, Steve Masakowski, James Singleton; NEA Masters of Jazz Presentation at Lincoln Center, NYC featuring performance of excerpts from “Porgy and Bess;” Masters of Jazz Presentation at Lincoln Center, NYC; Concert with guitarist Gabor Gado at the Palace of Arts, Budapest, Hungary; Dave Liebman Group at Symphony Hall Jazz Caberet Upstairs, Allentown,PA; gig at Elk Creek and Aleworks with drummer Phil Haynes and organist Steve Adams; Milheim, PA

FEBRUARY: Birdland, NYC with Saxophone Summit (Joe Lovano, Ravi Coltrane, Cecil McBee, Billy Hart, Phil Markowitz); Saxophone Summit at Lafayette College,Easton ,PA; with Uri Caine, Mike Stephens and Scott Colley at the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap PA; Birdland with QUEST (Richie Beirach, Ron McClure, Billy Hart)

INTERVALS-Nov/Dec 2010

2010-10-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

FEATURE ARTICLE: A STEADY BAND-WHY SO IMPORTANT?
This fall has seen my regular working quartet hitting pretty hard in the U.S., something which is a rarity these days. You can see from the itinerary in the last newsletter that we made some stops on the West Coast and in the New England area. Also, the DL Big Band had a few hits and my band is the rhythm section for that group also. As a capper, we have a Europe tour coming up in December. So, this is quite a nice run which with constant playing inevitably opens musical doors both as a group and individually. In essence the machine has a chance to get oiled and run full throttle. This flurry of activity has lead me to re-think why it has always been a top priority to maintain the same personnel throughout my career. In this case it has been nearly twenty years with bassist Tony Marino and guitarist Vic Juris and ten with drummer Marko Marcinko. In fact, I have had only three other steady groups in a 36 year period which in the jazz business is rather unusual.

I formed the Dave Liebman Group after Quest (Richie Beirach, Ron McClure, Billy Hart) which took up most of the 1980s. The original formulation was alongside Tony and Vic, Jamey Haddad on drums/percussion and Phil Markowitz on piano/ keyboards. My initial concept was to play more programmatic, written music than previously with Quest. I also wanted to delve more into odd meters and rhythm in general, in light of the emphasis during the Quest period where the material focused so much on the harmonic language that Richie and I developed over the decades. In 1997, the piano departed and a few years later Haddad left for Paul Simon’s gig, so Marko came aboard. With the absence of the keyboard, Vic Juris had to seriously step up to the plate, which he has more than accomplished. In fact I have never heard a musician grow more than Vic did in these decades. He is serious, hard working and full of talent. And as a human being, Vic is the nicest person to be around as well.

With the departure of Markowitz I directed the music towards a freer harmonic and more open rhythmic concept. Repertoire-wise this meant a lot of time/no changes formats, rubato and occasional odd meter. But the primary emphasis was definitely towards the conversation taking place between the guitar and myself, rather than purely soloistic. Now in 2010, we have been moving into a more color oriented stage, meaning increased use of sound and ambiance. Tony is now playing exclusively electric bass; I am only playing soprano (harkening back to the long hiatus I took from the tenor between 1980 and 1995) and Vic is all over the place sonically speaking. The three of us are using a variety of pedals and effects with Marko employing hand percussion instruments along with the drums. One could say that an emphasis on atmosphere is where we are at present.

Considering the material itself over the years, I think it is quite clear to anyone who has followed my development (and I would venture to say the following is more or less true of most artists), that what you play near the beginning of your career forms the foundation for everything after that. Of course it is juggled around and transformed, but the basic sound that one hears at the commencement of creative work seems to more or less form the basis of an artist’s entire oeuvre. Although from my generation onwards (growing up musically in the ‘60s and career-wise in the ‘70s), the jazz repertoire became much more eclectic than previously using a wider variety of idioms and styles rather than the customary blues, rhythm and standard tunes, the fact remains that you are what you are musically. One could say that even in the case of Miles Davis who on the surface traversed many styles over forty years, common stylistic aspects remained throughout his life. There is a certain “essence” that usually appears in its raw form at the beginning, probably without much cognizance or sophistication, but very real nonetheless. The challenge for a long artistic life is how to refine that essence and transform it over the years so it remains fresh and vital. In more than a few ways the music I have played with the present Dave Liebman Group over the past twenty years is quite similar to the material on my first recording as a leader on ECM titled “Lookout Farm” (1973).

DL Group at Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco

Back to the subject, the most obvious reason for maintaining the same personnel is that time spent together both on and off the bandstand builds trust and confidence. Musically this means that whatever one plays, you know it is real and not a false or selfish gesture. You accept what your mates play as the best they can do at the time and move on from there. In other less permanent situations, a moment of doubt may surface as to why someone played something. Did it happen because of musical reasons or personal ego or other extraneous factors? Granted that great musicians can come together on a one night or short term basis and create some interesting music. But when a band has a history it’s apparent, certainly to the listener without them necessarily being consciously aware of it. They feel something beyond the ordinary happening. There is one more important reason for keeping steady personnel. In retrospect it was through observing Miles Davis as a leader that I learned the following.

The main task when leading a band is to recognize in your sidemen what they do best. One must of course first realize what you personally do best musically. I would imagine by the time one is a bandleader they would know that about themselves. You can’t expect others to latch on to something if you don’t have it well formed at least in your own head, if not on paper. This “knowing oneself” is a purely objective exercise …there is no “would’ve,” “could’ve” or “should’ve” …no conditional tense please!! Just objective observation. Then, because jazz is the most democratic of all music, you have to find partners who can and want to enhance what you hear.

With Miles, it seemed that he could hear what he wanted out of you even if the so-called “audition” was musically totally unrelated to what his music was at the time. He heard Dave Holland with a singer playing standards; he heard Al Foster playing bebop with Walter Bishop at a club called the Cellar on 96th Street in New York; he heard me playing with Steve Grossman in a double quartet free jazz gig at the Scene on 46th Street in Manhattan. What all of us ended up playing with Miles had nothing to do with any of these musical settings. If you think about a lot of Miles’ sidemen, the way they played during their tenure with Miles was never heard again in their future music.

Once you find these right partners, the leader has to create the circumstances for this combination to blossom and realize the sound in his head. This means several things: keeping the music challenging and exciting in order to pique the interest of your sidemen; finding opportunities to play in order to satisfy the necessity of making a living; and creating a workable social environment since there is hopefully a lot of time spent together touring and recording…if the group is successful which is the obvious objective. When everything is synching up, the music has a chance to go beyond the mundane. This takes a lot of work, good timing and a bit of luck…all factors that go into any successful business undertaking.

Like any long term relationship (marriage being a good metaphor), there are emotional and relational ups and downs which naturally occur. There is also the “boredom” factor, meaning knowing too well how someone reacts to a given musical situation, which can potentially take away from what true improvisers look for on a daily basis, playing something new and fresh, not by rote. True jazz musicians are very sensitive to mechanical playing. We are supposed to be in the moment without a past or future, in the now. Too much predictability can bring the level of the musical discourse down. We try to achieve a balance between the expected and the surprise gesture. Accepting the inevitability of at least some repetitious playing when you are with the same musicians for awhile is important. Ultimately with the right people, the group moves beyond, concentrating rather on the positive which is something played that is fresh music. With patience, time will take care of these matters. When that happens there is a feeling of accomplishment, of having passed through something together which strengthens the band and the music. It goes without saying that finding the right people to fit into this scenario is no mean feat!!

For me, it was the power of their steady groups that artists like Coltrane, Miles, Monk, Blakey and others from that era had going which most affected me most as a listener. I urge musicians to do their best to sustain long term relationships. The rewards are worth it. To my guys, I say thanks for the loyalty and trust you have given me. Two very accurate reviews about our Los Angeles performance appear at the end of this newsletter.

NEW RELEASES
QUEST FOR FREEDOM(SUNNYSIDE RECORDS) with Richie Beirach and the HR Big Band arranged by Jim McNeely: This could be one of my best recordings for a few reasons. It was taped in Frankfurt with the HR Big Band (one of the great German radio bands that still are active in jazz) under pristine conditions and a great German engineer (Axel Gutzler). The repertoire consisted of arrangements of several of my more chromatic compositions, one by Richie, a song that we have been playing for years, “Pendulum,” an arrangement by former student Heiner Schmitz of my tune for 9/11 titled “WTC;” and one amazing twelve tone piece by McNeely (“Sky’s The Limit”). Those in the business know how deep Jim is as an arranger and musician. With Richie and myself together, this music is an orchestration of our duo’s harmonic language, something Jim is completely in tune with. Not to mention the incredible performances (combination of live and studio) by the Hesse Rundfunk Big Band. I am very proud of this recording.

LIEB ON FACEBOOK:Incredible, but I'm finally joining the brave new world. The whole social-network thing is just too big to ignore for artists. I now have a social media presence on the internet: Facebook, MySpace and Twitter pages, all linked into a Dave Liebman network. And I am amazed at the number of YouTube videos you can find with my name on them. I have to thank Michael Crowell for taking care of this. And while I’m at it I have hired a great PR person, Ann Braitwaite, for a several month period to take advantage of the NEA award as well as Todd Brown and Zak Weil to keep my web site up. One has to strike while the iron is hot!!

RECENT ACTIVITIES

BIRDLAND WITH STEVE SWALLOW,STEVE KUHN AND BILLY DRUMMOND:The club Birdland in the Apple has begun a five night policy which is as close to the old days as possible (not withstanding only two sets). What a pleasure to play with giants of this caliber over nearly a week. Kuhn of course has been a fixture for decades playing with Trane and everyone else around the world. He is a consummate musician with a beautiful touch and a true understanding of the tradition. When he was doing club dates (the kinds of gigs referred to as “GB”….general business) for awhile, he played my wedding reception with Caris in 1986 at Garvin’s Restaurant in the Village using a trio and a great singer who did all the ‘50s tunes. (If a bomb had gone off that day, the NY jazz scene would’ve been decimated!!) Billy D is one of New York’s first call drummers….meaning the job is taken care of perfectly. Swallow and I go back to my first playing experiences with Bob Moses and Pete LaRoca in the ‘60s. This is a one of a kind guy musically and personally. People often refer to him as the Prince, because of his unending generous spirit, both musically and personally, not to mention his absolutely perfect playing and compositional sense. Steve writes in a style like Bach, flowing, a unified thought throughout, easy in some ways, but tricky in others. Here’s what I wrote on Facebook about him:
"Just finished five nights at Birdland in the Apple (by far the best place to hear jazz in NY), playing with pianist Steve Kuhn, drummer Billy Drummond and one of the most "perfect" musicians in jazz, bassist Steve Swallow. Younger fans may not know that Steve of course played upright bass in the 1960s working with everyone before converting to electric bass. He plays with a pick more like a guitar (when he solos) then a bass. The sound he gets in the upper register is beautiful, light and lyrical. When I say "perfect," I mean every solo is a gem with the best voice leading, chord change playing and melodic shapes that one could imagine. Following a solo of Steve Swallow is quite a challenge!! Not to mention his incredibly beautiful compositions, several which we played for this gig. He is one of my oldest associates going back to my first mentor's group, drummer Pete LaRoca's Band that also featured Chick Corea in 1969. One of the all time greats----Steve Swallow."

RECOMMENDED

YOU TUBE CLIPS

“PEACE ON EARTH” PERFORMED BY PARTICIPANTS AT 20TH ANNIVERSARY IASJ MEETING (JULY-DEN HAAG): You can see all the participants (over 100 people) playing and singing in a giant version of Trane’s beautific song and sentiment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ff1kVAVfIeM

IASJ students, faculty, teachers and administrators performing "Peace On Earth"

BEN WEBSTER WITH TEDDY WILSON (UPON HEARING OF JOHNNY HODGES’ PASSING): If you want to feel what the jazz brotherhood is about check this out. Besides the playing which as you can imagine is sublime (“Old Folks”), the emotion that you see in Ben’s face is beyond words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQVVLAO-9LU

THE JOY OF MUSIC: A perfect complement to the Ben Webster clip, here is the joy of music in another way—absolutely one of the cutest things you will ever see-a four year old boy conducting Beethoven: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0REJ-lCGiKU&feature=email

MISCELLANEOUS CLIP ON OUR WORLD: From Sony, an impressive look into what is happening around us with information and technology….a lot of numbers to scare us, but the final statistic about how many illegal downloads happened in the time you view the clip is pretty wild. You have to watch this to know what I mean:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL9Wu2kWwSYW

KENNY WERNER: Most of you are familiar with pianist/composer Kenny Werner, if only for his book “Effortless Mastery” which has been widely read. A few years ago, Kenny and his wife suffered what has to be the most tragic event parents can go through…. the death of their 16 year old daughter in a car accident. This recording which features Joe Lovano at some of his best and wife Judi Silvano, is as deep as it gets. Even if I didn’t know the inspiration for the why the music was written and recorded, it would still be some of the best stuff I’ve heard in years for orchestra, voices, string quartet, etc. I cannot even conceive of the depth of such a tragedy and for Kenny to write this music is a testament beyond any words. This is a must to hear: “No Beginning…No End” (Hi Note).

INSTRUMENT MUSEUM IN PHOENIX, AZ: If you ever get to the American southwest, check this place out: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6881747n&tag=contentMain;contentBody

PODCAST INTEVIEW: This is a nice interview of me with a really well informed guy, Jason Crane: http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzpodcast.php?id=5782

FOR ALL AUTHORS-WE ARE BEING VIOLATED: Below is a letter I wrote to the Commerce Dept. after finding out that they are taking submissions from interested parties about revising the regulations governing intellectual property on the internet. Of course there are laws in place but as we all know it is impossible to police the web. Maybe a more stringent law would intimidate people from ripping us all off like happened a few years ago when they were arresting kids for downloading. Maybe that was harsh but the point was well made. (Of course we all know downloading illegally is still way out of control, but copying a few hundred page book is something else again because takes some real sustained effort.) The more pressure brought to bear the better. The address is in the heading. We have to at least try to protect ourselves. It couldn’t hurt to send this to your congressman (but please wait untill after the election).

From: lieb@ptd.net
Date: Sun, Oct 18, 2010
Subject: NTIA: Inquiry on Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation on the Internet
c/o Commerce Dept requesting feedback on DMCA
To: copyright-noi-2010@ntia.doc.gov

To Whom It May Concern:

I have been informed by interested parties that the Commerce Department is considering revising the regulations governing intellectual property on the internet. I am a musician, author of books and composer with a lot of product on the market in the jazz field published by several leading companies in our area of expertise. I am a recipient of the NEA Master's of Jazz Award for 2011, a great honor which is the highest recognition in the field granted by the U.S. government. I have been in this business for over 40 years.

Recently I was notified by a friend that several of my books were COMPLETELY scanned (several hundred pages each) and available for free on a web site. I immediately took action through the FBI which has a site for such complaints and a local lawyer. Through the intimidation of both parties the material was removed at least on this site. As the publisher told me (from Germany in this case), there was no way they could stop this from happening, meaning it was an impossible battle to win. There is not enough time in the day or is it economically feasible for small companies and individuals to monitor this situation.

It is common knowledge that the recording business has been decimated by the downloading of music, most of it still illegally procured. The print business is obviously next in line, not to mention films and more. It appears to be just a matter of the when the home computer has enough capacity to pirate full length movies, etc. It just seems inconceivable that performing artists, authors and publishers have no way to fight back with at least the semblance of some official protection from our government, if not foreign countries.

I paraphrase now from the owner of Sher Music (U.S.based) who is one of my publishers. He sums it up succinctly as to some sort of remedy:

"What is the solution? Several of the sites contacted have a "Search blacklist" where they can block access to any future postings of a title, upon request. But evidently this is not required of them by law, and it needs to be. This is the only answer to a serious problem that is making it increasingly difficult for all legitimate creators of books, music, films, etc. to remain in business. Thanks for making the concerns of honest, hard-working creators of works of value your top priority."

I appreciate the opportunity to record my views.

Yours truly, etc…

GRAMMYS: I am nominated under a few categories, but three recordings are in the Large Ensemble Jazz category I believe. From what I understand members can vote for selections, so that slightly absolves me from competing with myself. Members of NARAS, your vote would be appreciated.

ITINERARY
NOVEMBER: Workshop at Global Jazz Institue, Berklee College of Music, Boston; Saxophone Summit Europe Tour-Istanbul, Zagreb, Cartagena and Lugo(Spain); Lisbon and Guimares (Portugal); Duo concert with pianist Ron Stabinsky at St. Stephans Church, Wilkes Barre, PA; Dave Liebman Group at the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA

DECEMBER: Dave Liebman Group European Tour to Amsterdam, Geneva, Zurich, Hannover, Vienna, Paris, Dortmund, Goppingen(Germany), Antwerp, Berlin

DL GROUP REVIEWS FROM LOS ANGELES-SEPT 2010-VITELLOS RESTAURANT

From the Los Angeles Times by Ken Silsbee:
Though he’s worked in Los Angeles since 1972, when he played on drummer Elvin Jones’ “Live at the Lighthouse” album, saxophonist Dave Liebman doesn’t visit often. Friday, his first of two nights at Vitello’s in Studio City, was an object lesson in instrumental virtuosity and adventurous band leading. The evening was a reminder that attendance at every Liebman appearance is mandatory.

He may revert to the tenor sax on occasion, but Liebman has concentrated so intently on the soprano saxophone that he’s one of the few truly individual stylists on that difficult instrument. The National Endowment for the Arts recently named him a Jazz Master award recipient for 2011. The recognition is exceptional; most recipients are past their best performing days. Liebman not only performs regularly, he shows no sign of peaking.

The Liebman Quartet has been together for 20 years; its junior member, the exuberant drummer Marko Marcinko, has been onboard for 10. It’s a band with a probing, pan-stylistic approach to material. Liebman’s originals cover a wide range of forms, and when the band occasionally essays a standard, it does so in a novel way. The group always seems to have another musical card to play.
Liebman’s high-pitched soprano dug into “Matchless,” which had a staccato theme with a whiplash turnaround. Even on a rhythm tune with a bright tempo, he took care to shape the notes. They curled and billowed, thick with tone. On Ornette Coleman’s haunting “Lonely Woman,” he picked up a small wooden recorder and likewise bent the notes that conclude the liquid phrases. Liebman’s soprano played a lazy unison voicing with the guitar for extended blues exploration and then lacerated angular lines against Marcinko’s crashing drums on “Dream of Night.” A piping recorder introduction to an unnamed original instantly conjured a Peruvian mood.

The metric verve Liebman displayed during his unaccompanied introduction to “Night in Tunisia” suggested a rhythm section in his head. While some tunes, by virtue of their structure, are near impossible to camouflage, this standard was cleverly redesigned with harmonic alterations and unusual phrasing. The band steers clear of the obvious, especially on a warhorse.

Vic Juris is an unclassifiable guitar virtuoso. He supplies sweeping chords on the electric model that resonate and hang in the air, brushing in backdrops. He works hand-in-glove with Tony Marino’s melodic electric bass lines. As a soloist, Juris will strum and pick out-of-tempo notes that play tag with the beat or he’ll uncoil lines that cut across the beat. On a nylon-string acoustic guitar that also fed into the amplifier, he flat-picked filigree on “Lonely Woman.” Enthusiastic applause from guitar great John Pisano (who hosts Vitello’s guitar night Mondays) at a nearby table reinforced Juris’ status.

Though the dynamics could rise to crescendo pitch, the volume never reached a level of pain. Guitar and bass accounted for a low degree of electric hum, but when Liebman used a pitch-altering device clipped onto his soprano, the overtones and brief feedback marred an otherwise marvelous two sets. Juris and Liebman may employ electronic toys but never as gimmicks. They only expand sonic vocabulary.
Throughout, Marcinko was a resourceful fount of time, rhythmic invention and variety of sound. He drove the band and pushed against the soloists; his drum breaks served as transitions between tunes. He wrung sounds and tones out of the entire kit and added strings of bells and shells for added texture. Like Liebman and the others, Marcinko never cruised, not even for a measure.

The International Review of Music by Don Heckman:
Earlier this year, Dave Liebman received a lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts. And it was about time. At 64, Liebman can look back on a remarkable sequence of achievements, on his own and in association with the likes of Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, Chick Corea and more. But his performance Friday night at Vitello’s was a convincing display of the fact that Liebman – despite his already significant “lifetime achievements” – still has much to say and do as a cutting edge jazz saxophonist, composer and leader.
All three of those attributes were manifest in his work with guitarist Vic Juris, bassist Tony Marino and drummer Marko Marcinko. And the lengthy history of the group – Juris and Marino have been with Liebman for twenty years, Marcinko for ten – was also a factor in a performance enlivened by the near-symbiotic interaction among the players.
Liebman limited himself to soprano saxophone and, on one piece, a small wooden flute. The music, mostly originals, tended to position Liebman’s soprano amid a simmering cauldron of rhythm, sometimes driven by hypnotic vamps, sometimes arcing into off-center meters. Each of the players balanced their rhythmic togetherness with passionate soloing – Juris blending sound and phrase in long, soaring lines, Marino surging across low register landscapes with ease, and Marcinko using his jazz drum kit as a virtual treasure chest of percussion sounds and timbres.
In the highlight of the set, Liebman played his tiny flute in an intimate, vocalized rendering of Ornette Coleman’s “Lonely Woman” – a selection from his soon to be released album, Turnaround: the Music of Ornette Coleman, which has already received Germany’s Preis Der Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik (German Record Critics Prize) award. The performance was stunning, its atmospheric dynamics perfectly capturing the dark intentions of Coleman’s memorable line.
What was most remarkable about the Liebman set, in its entirety, was the fact that it was utterly contemporary, cutting edge, envelope-stretching jazz in which the music nonetheless reached out to engage the listeners. At a time when ego-focused technique and virtuosity make too many jazz sets into fast-fingered personal showcases, Liebman and his players reminded us that the best jazz – classic or contemporary – always has the power to touch the emotions.

New member of the DL Group?

INTERVALS-SEPT/OCT 2010

2010-08-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

FEATURE ARTICLE: TRANE AND PREZ
We celebrate Trane’s birthday Sept. 23. I always like to use the opportunity to write something about the Master.

As I mentioned in the last Intervals, Lee Konitz was talking to me about Lester Young, giving me one of his solos to play through. This seems like an appropriate time to discuss Prez and Trane. Coincidentally I just came into possession of one of the only interviews of Prez a few months before he passed. As well I recently read the biography of Stan Getz, which by the way is riveting. The New York raised (Bronx) Jewish musician was a complete natural, already with Jack Teagarden at 15 years old. No question he had some real psychological and addiction problems. It is not without as reason that Stan is referred to by those who worked with him as a bunch of guys, a true Jekyll and Hyde personality. But for sure, musically he comes directly out of Prez.

Jazz history has made it dogma that the two main approaches to the saxophone in early jazz and by extension, not withstanding the colossal influence of Armstrong, to the early years of improvisation in general (up to Bird at least) are represented by the Lester Young and Coleman Hawkins approaches. Hawk with his big sound, fast arpeggio and quite often on top of the beat, as compared to Prez, behind the time, across the bar pure melodicist who by the way seems to have sort of invented jazz ling. I think that after Bird, it really didn’t matter much except historically, but if you were coming up in the ‘50s like Trane and Sonny you still had to deal with Prez and Hawk since they were still quite active and you couldn’t help but hear them live on at least a few occasions if you were into the music at all. When you think of Trane with his technique and runs up and down the horn, you initially think Hawk stylistically speaking. On the other hand that light sound which Prez had, a kind of altoish approach to the tenor (Frankie Trumbauer C melody sax influence?), does seem to have influenced Trane, who started on alto. It’s really the pre-Miles Trane that you hear when he was with Dizzy’s and Johnny Hodges’ bands in the early ‘50s where you can hear besides the obvious Dexter influence, something akin to Prez in approach. Of course Trane did publicly acknowledge that Prez was an influence along with Stitt and of course Bird.

Interesting from the Getz book about Trane and Stan’s relationship: I have referred to this in an earlier Intervals concerning the scenario when I was just starting in the early ‘60s, vis a vis the supposed “competition” between Stan and John, who both had more or less contemporaneous hits with in Stan’s case “Desafinado” and “Ipanema” while Trane had “Favorite Things.” I was just starting to read Downbeat and the vibe was who is the REAL jazz guy, with as I remember it some undertones of race. But when you see the You Tube clip with Trane and Stan in Germany playing together, it attests to their camaraderie and dispels any notion of animosity between the two. Sure enough in the book, Trane is quoted as saying something to the extent that everyone would like to play like Stan Getz. I have to think that has to do with his incredible melodic gifts.

RECENT EVENTS: IASJ 20th ANNIVERSARY JAZZ MEETING AT THE ROYAL CONSERVATORY, DEN HAAG, NETHERLANDS
We started with our first meeting 20 years ago at The Hague, so this was very special. Walter Turkenburg did a great job with posters and tee shirts from past meetings, photos and some recounting of notable stories. We also had the benefit of a kind of jazz strip where we had three jam sessions going on at the same time which was great for the students. Ashley Kahn did a lecture on the 40th anniversary of “Bitches Brew” which really was influential in shaping the fusion movement. We had bassist extraordinaire Reggie Workman, representing the New School as a guest. I had a wonderful time interviewing Reggie for the participants, discussing his days with Coltrane and his own journey with education and music. As always the student level was very high as you can see from several clips on You Tube. (I’m there playing Alec Wilder’s “Lady Sings the Blues” with a guitarist in concert.) A real highlight was all the participants playing and singing Trane’s “Peace on Earth.” The picture below is small but you can see the whole group on stage in our meeting hall. This should be on You Tube shortly. What a great sentiment to summarize what the IASJ is doing…promoting brotherhood among cultures using jazz as the vehicle. Next year for our 21st Jazz Meeting, we are in Sao Paolo, Brazil, one of the great music countries. (PASTE ALL LINKS INTO YOUR BROWSER)
http://www.iasj.nl/fjc/youtube.html

My daughter in one of the IASJ ensembles

Peace On Earth

GIGS:CONTACT TOUR with John Abercrombie, Marc Copland, Drew Gress (also Doug Weiss filling in for a few dates) and Billy Hart. We had some nice concerts playing really well crafted music in high class company. Talk about people friendly music!!

TUSCHIA JAZZ: As I have done before in Italy, there are these workshops that happen in all kinds of locations basically taking over the main piazza for nightly events and teaching in the local conservatory. The whole town comes on board…it’s really amazing. This one near Rome has been gong on for ten years with a lot of participants on all levels. I had a good time hanging and hearing pianist Dado Maroni who is really an incredible bebop player. In fact, all the teachers could really play the language. Most of all, it was fantastic to hang and hear my old friend Eddie Gomez. In the end, I don’t know if there has ever been a better soloist on the double bass…and with the bow on “My Funny Valentine” playing the melody…somethin’ else. One of the all time greats for sure.

HABANERA SAX QUARTET IN POITIERS, FRANCE: I had the pleasure to hear what is considered one of France’s top sax quartets play two of my pieces written for that instrumentation. Talk about interpretation …they completely changed it around and gave it new life. The second half featured my great friend and wonderful soprano/baritone player, Jean Charles Richard in duo with me. I had a great time, especially playing drums accompanying the solo soprano piece I wrote for JC, “Elvin.” Now, that’s fun!!

SAXOPHONE MASTER CLASS
For the 23rd year of my master class, with participants from Australia, France, England, Israel and of course across the States, I had the most young players in the whole history…five guys under 17 years old who could all play well. Tony Malaby was my guest and he was fantastic, giving great insight into how he organizes his work and practice time. It was really interesting to see how a modern so-called “free” player as Tony is known puts together his art with such discipline and care.

Olivier Sauvan from France and Joe Berry from California

Playing with Tony Malaby

NEW RELEASES
DAVE LIEBMAN BIG BAND-“AS ALWAYS”-MAMA RECORDS: Our second record culled from two live gigs a few years ago, once again I am blessed with great arrangers taking my original compositions and putting them so creatively into the big band format. The band is made up of A team New York guys who are the best in the business along with my regular rhythm section from my quartet (Marko Marcinko, Tony Marino and Vic Juris). Stylistically it ranges from the lyrical Pete McGuiness arrangement of a tune I recorded with Quest in the ‘80s, “As Always” to a long, exotic excursion featuring Charles Pillow on oboe, “Anubis” arranged by Scott Reeves. Gunnar Mossblad, my long time associate who leads the band contributed an harmonically challenging arrangement of “Philippe Under the Green Bridge” while from Israel, Guri Agmon took on the odd metered, rockish “Turn It Around” featuring Vic Juris screaming on guitar. Finally, two tunes from my early days with Elvin Jones’ band, one of my first compositions I wrote called “Brite Piece” arranged by Andrew Rathburn and again Scott Reeves revisiting “New Breed” featuring the sax section playing my solo from the “Live at the Lighthouse” recording….…kind of Supersax on Mars!!

PASSINGS for oboe, soprano sax, viola, cello (Published by Advance Music: This chamber piece presents a kind of different string quartet, with the oboe and soprano taking the place of the usual two violins. It was originally written for the Commission Project and premiered at the Manhattan School of Music. It’s a deep piece for me dedicated to folks who have passed on. The notes follow:

“It is natural as we age to contemplate the finality of passing on, if not personally, then certainly as an effect from others around you whom have left this space. Having to endure the passing of family and friends is of course very trying. This is especially true when the perception is that someone “passed before their time” though there are those of us who believe in fate implying that the Force works in its own mys¬terious way. In some ways I can subscribe to that concept, but for me when someone passes early, say in their fifth or sixth decade of life, it is “before their time.” Composers often commemorate passings with music as a means to mourn and as well to celebrate the life of an individual who meant something to them. Such is the nature of this piece.

Movement 1 - Past– uses as source material themes I wrote for my mother Frances and father Leo when they passed; movement 2 – Present centers around a choral (“Prayer for Mike”) I wrote for my dear friend, saxophonist Michael Brecker when he passed a few years ago. This same period also saw the passing of other friends and associates whom I had known for years, all way too premature, beginning with JF Jenny Clarke and Bob Berg, Hans Gruber, Thomas Stowsand, David Baker, James Williams, Dennis Irwin, John Stubblefield. The final movement – Future is a requiem of sorts for all of us still here. With its improvisational charac¬ter, it is meant to suggest the positive implications of living life to its fullest.

QUEST REISSUE–“SEARCHING FOR THE NEW SOUND OF BEBOP”-STORYVILLE (DENMARK: From the mid ‘80s, this double CD release encompasses three recordings we did in Copenhagen-“Quest II” and “Midpoint” with Richie Beirach, Billy Hart and Ron McClure; the third LP was duo with Richie and myself playing standrs, “Double Edge.” Besides the weird title they gave this, it’s nice to have this music out again…this is when were hot. A review from All About Jazz by Joel Roberts:

Twenty five years ago, one of the era’s most arresting groups was Quest. Growing out of the partnership between Liebman and pianist Richie Beirach, Quest played a brand of Coltrane-inspired jazz that was ethereal one moment, funky the next. Searching for the New Sound of Be-Bop is a two-disc compilation that includes two Quest albums, Quest II from 1986 and Midpoint, a live recording from 1987, along with Double Edge, a duo session of standards Liebman and Beirach made in 1985. Nearly all the tunes the group performed were penned by Liebman and Beirach, including the modal number “Pendulum”, the spacey “Carissima” and the furiously paced “Third Visit”. The live recording yields tunes that are even more frenetic and complex, including “The Code’s Secret Code” and “The Snow Leopard”. Throughout these sides, what stands out is the intense interplay between Beirach and Liebman, who was then playing soprano sax nearly exclusively along with flute on occasion. That intensity is felt even more on the duo tracks, as the pianist and saxophonist radically reinvent tunes by Coltrane, Monk, Sonny Rollins and others. Most memorable of these are a particularly emotional exploration of Monk’s “Round Midnight” by Beirach and a rapid-fire, free jazz treatment of Rollins’ “Oleo.”

MISCELLANEOUS
EDITORIAL ON THE ART FROM BOB RUSCH-CADENCE MAGAZINE: Cadence Magazine is really quite something. Besides columns about the music and even equipment, etc., there are literally dozens of reviews of records…most of whom are by people I do not know. The magazine is more like a small book published a few times each year and is really about the music, living off of donations and the like. Cadence also has a record company with hundreds of releases, mostly avant garde, called CIMP. As well, a subsidiary of Cadence is the CD distributor North Country which a lot of people use to get their music out there. I encourage serious fans to check out Cadence. This editorial, reprinted with permission from Cadence is by Rusch who is definitely known for not holding back. Concerning art and commercialism, it intelligently calls for honesty, respect and no pretense when it comes to the music. Bob has been supportive of many artist that are shall we say “below the radar.”

FOR TECHNICAL REASONS IT SEEMS YO9U HAVE TO CLICK ON THE ARTICLE TO MAKE IT LARGER.

WHAT’S NEXT?: A new program described here for the I phone or I pad (not sure). I guess the next thing is the phone will play the horn and drive a car at the same time!! Check the last sentence.
“MuseAmi uses different technology to correct pitch, and does so in real time. (Auto-Tune works on recordings that have already been made.) It can also generate harmonies, chosen by icons on its touch-pad screen. The icon that looks like Johann Sebastian Bach gives a singer a Baroque backup. The icon that looks like a barber pole adds three other voices for a barbershop quartet sound, with dominant chords. And there are other icons for other effects, but as Mr. Taub explained, “you don’t need to know any music theory.”

YOU TUBE CLIPS
TRANE AT ANTIBES: This very famous night with Trane playing Love Supreme live for the only time. is Good quality and “Impressions” at the end is incredible. This is near the end of the quartet’s time together. http://www.cymbalholic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35624

PAUL GONSALVES SOLO: “Dimuendo and Crescendo in Blue:” This is a very famous solo from the tenor player with the Duke Ellington Band from the Newport Festival in 1956. It’s not so much what he played, basically a swing-be-bop combination but the feeling, the heat and the excitement in the audience is palpable. This is what jazz comes from….an uplifting joyous excitement. The whole story is narrated while you hear Paul burn it up on the blues…a million choruses. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vnrNWyvI-U

INCREDIBLE TECHNIQUE-EARL BOSTIC: Saxophonists, you will not believe the stuff that Bostic does on the alto. David Sanborn, Mike Brecker….forget about it. Trane worked with Earl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmNcw2rt1J4&feature=player_embedded

PASSINGS
ABBEY LINCOLN:I met Abbey when I was a teenager at drummer Bob Moses’ New York apartment. She lived in the same building on Central Park West and was Bob’s godmother and very close with his mom. I had the great fortune to record with her in Japan in the ‘70s when I was there with Miles. The album “People and Me” included a scorching version (courtesy of drummer Al Foster) of Trane’s “Africa” which people still mention to me of from time to time. Abbey was a lovely person, a strong woman who believed in the right things and had a distinctive vocal style. She could really make you believe the lyrics of whatever song she sang.

ITINERARY(look at local listings for exact info and dates)

SEPTEMBER: Masters with Steve Kuhn, Steve Swallow, Billy Drummond at Birdland, NYC; Dave Liebman Group at the COTA Festival, Delaware Water Gap, PA; at 55 Bar, NYC; at Scullers, Boston, MA; at the Falcon, Marlboro, NY; the Turning Point, Piermont, NY; Anthology, San Diego, CA; Vitellos, Los Angeles, CA; Bach Dancing Society, Half Moon Bay, CA; Yoshis, Oakland, CA; Kuumbwa Jazz Society, Santa Cruz, CA

OCTOBER: Dave Liebman Group at Jimmy Macks, Portland, OR; Vermont Jazz Center, Brattleboro, VT; One Longfellow Square, Portland, ME ; Celebration of NEA Master’s Award and the Dave Liebman Big Band at the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA; Dave Liebman Big Band record release (“As Always”) at Iridium, NYC; Manhattan School of Music Chamber Jazz Ensemble featuring Dave Liebman performing commissioned music by the Ensemble Intercontemporain(Pierre Boulez group) premiered 2009 at La Cite De Musique, Paris, France

INTERVALS:JULY-AUGUST 2010

2010-06-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

ANNOUNCEMENT:
NEA MASTERS OF JAZZ AWARD 2011
Well, I got the big one, the highest award in jazz that America offers. I am of course quite honored to be from what I can gather the youngest single recipient yet and as it appears as well the first from my generation. Realizing that I have not been too visible on the American scene in the past decades my gut feeling is the education aspect….the books, articles, etc., had a lot to do with receiving the award. I have always contended that the “pen is mightier than the sword.” In any case, I want to first of all thank all the listeners, students and general public who have supported my music over the years. Without the audience, there is no reason to make music. Last year in France when I received the Order of Arts and Letters, I publicly thanked some of the French people who were instrumental in supporting my career there and I would like to do the same for this award.

-To my wife Caris, daughter Lydia and in-laws Harold and Natalie Visentin for all their patience and forbearance with my schedule and obsessive work habits.
-To my mentors and teachers past and present: Luba Galprin, Nat Shapiro, Joe Allard, Charles Lloyd, Lennie Tristano, Dave Baker, Jerry Coker, Dan Haerle, Art Murphy, Chick Corea, Pete LaRoca, Elvin Jones, Miles Davis, painter Eugene Gregan and Beverly
-To Mike Cherigo who has stood by me all these years booking gigs wherever he could find them through thick and thin.
-To Gunnar Mossblad who currently leads my big band and has collaborated with me on books, DVDs, recordings and the like for several decades.
-To Jamey Aebersold who has published my books and been so supportive in that respect.
-To Pat and Mary Dorian who live in my area and have been instrumental in helping me operate my annual Saxophone/Chromatic Master Class for the past 23 years held each summer at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania.
-To Veronika and the late Hans Gruber for their support as publishers of my books and music with Advance Music in Germany.
-To Justin DiCioccio, my boss at the Manhattan School of Music with whom I have collaborated on so many big projects along with his support for me as Artist in Residence at MSM.
-To Walter Turkenburg who has helped me realize a dream in founding and leading the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) for the past 20 years.
-To personal friends and musical associates Ernst and Trudie Bucher, Jean Jacques Quesada, Jean Jacques Pussiau, Kurt Renker, Bret Primack, Richard Stein, Jed Luchow, Steve Lipman, Leon Segal, Arthur Barron, Jonathan Rome, Les Silver, Tom Alexander, Saudades, Ralph Gluch, Marine Palme, Whit Sidener, Walter Quintus, Kent and Lois Heckman, Manfred Eicher, Harry and Kathy Zerler for their continual support of my life’s work.
-To those former students who have helped me directly with projects (Matt Vashlishan, Evan Gregor, Bobby Avey) and to all my students worldwide whom over the decades have inspired me to continue the research.
Finally, to Mom and Dad, Frances and Leo Liebman, gone, but who always encouraged me to get past the polio and forge ahead.

-Most important are all the musicians worldwide with whom I have traveled, hung with and of course played great music in all kinds of situations; specifically to those whom I have worked with and learned so much on and off the bandstand over the decades: Vic Juris, Tony Marino, Phil Markowitz, Ron McClure, Billy Hart, Richie Beirach, Marc Copland, Dave Holland, Lenny White, Steve Grossman, Jamey Haddad, Marko Marcinko, Adam Nussbaum, Jeff Williams, Frank Tusa, Al Foster, John Abercrombie, George Mraz, Bob Moses, Eddie Gomez, Jim McNeely, Mike Stephans, Joe Lovano, Michael and Randy Brecker, Ravi Coltrane, Wolfgang Reisinger, Jean Paul Celea, Daniel Humair, Ed Sarath, Cecil McBee, Ravi Coltrane, Badal Roy, Ronan and Conor Guilfoyle, Michel Portal, Joachim Kuhn, Mike Nielsen, Bobo Stenson, Phil Woods, Mike Zilber, Rufus Reid, Jean Charles Richard,Jean Francois Jenny-Clarke,Maurizio Giammarco, Paolino Dallaporta, Micu Narunsky, Jack DeJonette, Tony Arco, Roberto Tarenzi, Eric Ineke, Paolo Benedittini, Marius Beets, Marc Van Roon, Tony Bianco, Ellery Eskelin, George Cables, Mike Garson, Jim Black, Lars Danielsson, Bill Dobbins.

This is the official statement upon receiving the award which I assume will be in the announcements, etc:

“It is an honor to be recognized by the country where jazz was born and raised. Most of all, it is gratifying to join such a select and prestigious group of past Jazz Masters recipients. Among this group are many artists who have in one way or the other provided the knowledge and wisdom that inspired me and those of my generation to become the best we could. I thank my family, the musicians with whom I have played and others who have supported me through the years. Like the music, getting this award is truly a group effort.”

THANK YOU ALL--IT IS A GREAT HONOR!

FEATURE ARTICLE: THE END OF FAST TEMPOS?
From Ronan Guilfoyle’s blog, he laments that the younger generation has seemed to give up on playing fast tempos.Very interesting as Ronan’s insights always are:

“I think it’s a shame to see this tradition die out in jazz for several reasons, the main one being that a whole part of the tempo range is being ignored and forgotten. For my money I get very tired of the narrow tempo range within which musicians often operate these days - tune after tune at nearly the same tempo or pretty close. And I think it’s a mistake to think that just changing the atmosphere or feel of pieces are by themselves a guarantor of variety in the listener’s ear. Of course musicians are often guilty of thinking that regular audience members hear the kind of detail they, (the musicians) do - believing that the audience will be wowed by a 7/4 meter, or a reharmonisation of a standard chord progression. Audiences rarely recognise these kinds of subtleties, but one thing they do notice are tempos – slow-fast-medium – these are things that are real to non-musicians, in the same way that loud and quiet are, and musicians need to be aware of what creates the most impact on an audience when setting out to create the architecture of a piece of music or of a set.

Another reason to play fast tempos is because it feels different! There’s a feeling you get when playing a really fast piece – a sense of onrushing excitement, like driving a fast car – that you can’t get from any other tempo. It’s very demanding, (perhaps another reason many people shy away from it), and to negotiate a piece at a very fast tempo you need to be almost thinking in slow motion while physically playing very fast – you need to perceive the space between the beats despite the fact that they are flying past. You need to be very physically and mentally relaxed to play fast and you need to combine that with stamina. (Lack of stamina may be another reason for the lack of prevalence of fast tempos too – in earlier times with the plethora of gigs that musicians played it was easier to build up your physical stamina than it is in the current scene with its shorter tours and more sporadic gigs). Playing fast is often derided as being shallow and mere display – and of course it can be. But it can also be very creative and at its best can create a sense of exhilaration that you can’t get playing at any other tempo.

As an experiment, take any 10 albums you’ve bought that have been recorded in the past 10 years, and see how many genuinely fast tunes there are on it – allowing 280 BPM as being the very lower limit of what can be considered ‘fast’. If you manage to find more than 5 pieces on those ten albums then you’re definitely listening to different music than I am – and if you do find those pieces, please let me know.
http://ronanguil.blogspot.com/2010/06/death-of-fast-tempo.html

MY COMMENT:
Yeah-fast--sure it takes virtuosity and all that but I must say most cats (including myself) do not play their highest quality ideas at a fast tempo-only a few in history have been great at it-Clifford, Sonny, Wayne, Herbie, Chick (in the old days) and others mostly from the real jazz generations of the ’40 through ‘60s. My concern is SLOW--where every note counts and for once you finally hear the passion (or lack of it) from the individual, every nuance, every gesture-no volume and no virtuosity to cover your ass. Naked lunch brothers!! Oh....and maybe a melody that is unquestionably lyrical...just once or twice would be nice. (Now I sound like Lee Konitz!!)

ANOTHER AWARD (when it rains, it pours)-GERMAN JAZZ CRITICS
Talk about a hard audience to please, my group’s recording Turnaround: The Music of Ornette Coleman won the prize for Best Recording of the Year from the German critics and journalists. That’s nice for this band which has been with me for nearly twenty years and not received much recognition, though the critics do like us. It is a moot point now in our period of disappearing record companies but of course it still comes down to promotion and a small organization run by one or two folks just cannot get the music out there enough to be notably recognized by the general listening public. I have recorded for more small companies than most musicians, which is in one way an advantage for getting so much music that I am interested in documented, but on the other hand until you get a big gun behind you, there’s not much chance the public will know the recordings. Somehow this CD leaked through.

YOU TUBE VIEWS:Bret Primack aka teh "Jazz Video Guy" who started me on this newsletter idea in 1993 runs a great site Planet Bret. He has the largest Jazz channel on YouTube, where my videos appear along with many other artists: http://www.youtube.com/jazzvideoguy
One called “Trane Lives” (playing “My Favorite Things”) with Joey Calderazzo, Dave Holland and Jack DeJonette has been viewed nearly 200, 000 times; another titled ”Saxophone Warrior” has around 430,000 views. That is unbelievable…the power of the internet is awesome. Think about it….if I got one cent and Trane got one cent per view---well, you get the point.

NEW RELEASE: FIVE ON ONE (Pirouet Records) featuring CONTACT with Marc Copland (piano). John Abercrombie (guitar), Billy Hart (drums), Drew Gress (bass)
I guess this is a kind of “all star” recording because of the personalities involved with their long history both in tandem and individually. It is a pleasure to play with such great musicians and this record, though pretty low keyed in general as far as energy is concerned (and not recorded as good as I would’ve liked) does offer beautiful original compositions from everyone and of course stellar improvising. This is a good one for the general jazz listener.

PASSINGS:MASTER HANK JONES: There’s not much to add to the well known story of the oldest of the Jones Brothers (nine total including Elvin and Thad). Hank was a master beyond time or category…an heir to the Teddy Wilson tradition with a touch and harmonic conception as sophisticated as it gets. He was also the kind of guy who on his day off would be dressed in suit and tie in his hotel room(according to Joe Lovano). My experience with Hank was when he joined Elvin’s group for a week-long gig at the Village Vanguard in the early ‘70s. I was of course intimidated when he queried me on the voicings that I wrote for at one of my tunes, “Brite Piece” which happened to be my big “discovery” of parallel fourth voicings. I can just imagine how naïve I must’ve seemed to such a master. But he was very interested and wanted to get it right. I enjoyed Maestro Jones very much and as all of us feel, I have the greatest respect for his contribution to the jazz legacy.

MASTER EDGAR BATEMAN: Not very well known except for some recordings with Walt Dickerson, Herbie Hancock and Eric Dolphy, this underground Philadelphia legend was admired by those who knew him for his ambidextrous, four-limbed independence and serious attitude towards the music. Later in life, he even earned a degree in composition and music education. Edgar was a fixture on the Philadelphia scene. The funeral held at a Pentacostal church in the Germantown area of Philly was attended by local folks and some great players (Julian Pressman, Bobby Zankel) who of course played one of Edgar’s compositions. Philly isn’t called the city of Brotherly Love for nothing. I have always felt a warm and spiritual feeling from the jazz community there and it was a pleasure to be with them at this passing on service. The minister was incredible starting slow and building to a fever pitch celebrating Edgar’s rebirth. I knew Edgar because he was a major inspiration and influence for one of my first jazz guides, drummer Bob Moses who adored him and will soon release some recent video of them playing together in the past few years. I was working at the Village Vanguard with my first group, Lookout Farm in 1975 when Edgar sat in on “All Blues” and blew us away with four different things happening at the same time, complete independence. Edgar was an unsung hero, dedicated to the art form and the power of the music. Check this recent drum solo out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3HgV7aF9W0

THE FADING WORLD OF JAZZ CRITICISM
Like so many things in our world good jazz criticism is disappearing with the passings of some of the most astute writers about the music. In the last newsletter I spoke about Gene Lees whose Jazzletter was a phenomenal source of insights and knowledge, not only about music. Most recently Mike Zwerin passed on. He was originally a trombonist involved with the “Birth of the Cool” recording in 1949, but for the past decades he served as the jazz writer for the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Mike knew his stuff and was very supportive of the musicians, always giving us a plug in spite of the obvious commercial pressures that are part and parcel of any commercial organization like the Tribune. These guys will be missed and unfortunately I don’t see anybody standing on line to replace them.

RECOMMENDED: LOUIS ARMSTRONG BIO "POPS" by TERRY TEACHOUT
What a story. It goes beyond his incredible gifts and innovative powers, which are of course well documented beginning with the Hot Five, Hot Seven and his re-births through “Hello Dolly” and “What A Wonderful World.” As a black man who was a public personality in America for a good part of the 20th century, Louis Armstrong broke down a lot of racial doors in Hollywood, on TV, on tour and in the record business. Teachout did his homework and presents the picture of a man who was among the most important figures of the 20th century.

TRAVEL ADVICE:CHECK YOUR HOTEL ROOM: This article is depressing but for those of us who travel, it is a fact of life, just like the airlines are. This is from some newspaper or travel site. One good thing about the Internet…you do get some tips about things to avoid or to enjoy. Of course you can’t believe everything, but in the following case, erring on the side of caution is advised:

What are the dirtiest things most people encounter in their hotels, and how do we sort of "sterilize" the rooms to protect ourselves?

This is what you do, in order, from the moment you enter your hotel room:

CLEAN THE TV REMOTE AND PHONE: You may not realize what the SINGLE DIRTIEST item in your hotel room is but -- go directly to the one item in the bedroom that has the highest levels of bacteria, the TV remote control unit. Wipe it off thoroughly. Next up, the telephone handset, especially the mouthpiece.

CHUCK THE BEDSPREAD: Walk over to the bedspread, lift it off the bed, throw it in the corner, never touch it again. Many hotels still only clean those bedspreads intermittently.

RINSE OUT THE GLASSES: Go into the bathroom -- and the culprit here is not what you think. It's not the sink, or the toilet or the bathtub. It's the -- water glasses! Here's how this is a problem: Most hotel maids are tasked with cleaning up to 15 or 16 rooms in any given eight-hour shift. That's a lot of rooms. And usually, by the time they get to the 12th room, they're short on time and some of them start cutting corners. And what happens? They get to those glasses and don't replace them. Instead, they quickly run them under cold water and replace them. Can you say eeeeeeeeeesh? My solution? Simple: Without hesitation, whenever you walk into a hotel bathroom, the first thing you do is take the water glasses and run them under hot water for two minutes, and you'll be OK

CHECK THE MATTRESS: Lift up the mattress and search between the mattress and the box spring. If you see little brown streaks, that means there are - bed bugs. Move.

If you walk into a hotel room, and it is gross, what do you do? Is there a group to report it to? To ensure you get refunded or that no one else books that room?

Easy answer: Always pay with a credit card. Remember: If you don't receive the goods or services you contracted for, you can always dispute the charges. Trip Advisor is also a great forum, and you could write to me at peter@petergreenberg.com and we'll investigate, as well.

HAYES GREENFIELD:A wonderful saxophonist, Hayes does incredible work with kids. Check out this You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcTJQOrsiHU

If you know anyone, any school, etc., that wants to get a guy who knows how to reach kids about improvisation, go to Hayes’ site (www.jazzamatazz.com) Oh…he plays his ass off too!!

UNBELIEVABLE INFORMATION SITE: Watch the Introduction first:
http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html
Then save the Site in your favorites: http://www.wolframalpha.com/

RECENT EVENTS
THE MOST IMPORTANT RECENT EVENT WAS MY DAUGHTER LYDIA’S GRADUATION FROM HIGH SCHOOL. SHE WILL BE GOING TO EMERSON COLLEGE IN BOSTON IN SEPTEMBER.

PERFORMANCES:I did a gig with a community big band that has been together for 35 years in Heidelberg, Germany. This group was really nice to perform with comprised of non-professional musicians who play for the love of the music and do it well. Then I had a nice few gigs with a Swiss rhythm section lead by pianist Michael Arbenz, a very highly educated musician, his brother Florian on drums and bassist Thomas Laehns. I enjoy playing with new young cats and as those of us who play with European musicians know, they are very on top of their instruments, often with complete competence in both classical music and jazz and at complete ease playing totally free music.

I played two concerts with We3 (Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum) in the same week as a one nighter with Quest. What a pleasure to play with two of the best rhythm sections one could ask for. For a completely different mood, I took part in the celebration of Miles’ May birthday at the Iridium in New York with one of my oldest friends George Cables on piano, Lonnie Plaxico on bass (born the same day as me--Sept 4), Billy Drummond on drums and the front line of trumpeters Tom Harrell and Jeremy Pelt. We’re talking swinging and serious straight ahead jazz. Jeremy has done his homework combining Hubbard, Miles and Lee Morgan with great taste and of course when Tom gets going on eighth notes, watch out! There’s a nice Miles story involving George and me going back to 1969 when “In A Silent Way” was released. That was a period when we were taking part in jam sessions at George’s family home in Queens, New York with Steve Grossman, Lenny White and other young guys around at the time. George somehow got us a gig at a car dealership on a Saturday afternoon…talk about different environment than usual! This is just when the Fender Rhodes piano was coming into style which he brought that day. While we were setting up he started playing the main vamp from “Silent Way” saying he had just heard the newest Miles Davis recording. This was a time when record releases were a big thing. For the next 45 minutes we played on this vamp (didn’t sell too many cars) and hence my first introduction to “jazz-rock” which of course I would get closer to in the near future with Ten Wheel Drive and Miles’ “On The Corner” group a few years later.

Gigantic Miles poster on street where Iridium is located, NYC

Tom Harrell, Lieb, Jeremy Pelt at Iridium

KNOWINGLEE(Konitz): I took part in an historic session with Lee Konitz and Richie Beirach. Playing some standards, free improves, and a few originals, the entire recording was a great experience and very instructive. When you get to a certain point it’s not that easy to share the stage with someone who is shall I say “ahead” of you on line, meaning more experience and knowledge, two aspects that Lee has in abundance. With Richie and me playing for so many years together we were able to get into the flow of Lee’s music and personality in tandem. As you would expect, Lee has some definite ways of doing things. For example he doesn’t want to know what tune you are playing, nor the key, and at least for now favors an ongoing group dialogue without definite solos. But most striking and something that serious students know from Lee’s history and teachings is his heavy emphasis on melody rather than harmony (check my comments in last Intervals on this subject). And all of it always played with that amazing behind the beat feel and dark, low sound on the alto….so lyrical, so diatonic and always well developed. He rarely lets an idea go without following its implications through to the natural end. When he played soprano sax, to me it sounded like an alto. I have never heard a soprano sound so close to a guy’s other saxophone. There’s one improvised modal track with Richie and Lee that is among the most beautiful pieces I have ever heard; it will be called “Universal Lament.” I told my wife to put that on when I pass on!! We have to sell the record (titled “KnowingLee”) but I am optimistic someone will be interested. Lee is 82 years young and absolutely taking no prisoners. Just to think he played with Claude Thornhill and on “The Birth of the Cool.” Damn!!!

IASJ 20th ANNIVERSARY MEETING:I am writing this newsletter before our big meeting in the Hague where we first started the IASJ twenty years ago. I am very excited about the event in which we will have 24 countries and 45 schools represented. Reggie Workman representing the New School will be there and I will engage him in a public conversation about his Coltrane experiences and career. Also author Ashley Kahn who wrote the books on the makings of “A Love Supreme” and “Kind Of Blue” will give a presentation celebrating the 40th anniversary of Miles’ very influential recoding, “Bitches Brew.” We have a lot of activities and memorabilia to commemorate the anniversary. Most of all I am truly gratified that the IASJ has continued to exist. Approximately 2000 students, teachers and administrators from several dozen countries have taken part in our international meetings held throughout the world since the inception….a truly international network.

The Royal Conservatory in Den Haag, Netherlands

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL REUNION:From what I could gather it is extremely rare to have a reunion from elementary school. The school I went to in Brooklyn was one of the few left to have a kid from kindergarten through the 8th grade, just when the concept of a separate junior high school began in the ‘60s. Our class graduated 50 years ago and due to the incredible energy of my oldest friend, Jed Luchow, we had a 25th reunion in ’85 and now this one in 2010. The school is one of the oldest in New York, by coincidence age 99 this year. What an amazing thing to see some of these people. My first drummer practicing in my family’s living room; my first kiss; the guys who played ball with me….talk about an innocent time. What was nice about the day was that I was able to take my family to see where I grew up, took piano lessons, got bar mitzvahed, played stick ball, my Nana’s apartment house and other memories. Life was so simple then.
P.S.99

With Lydia in front of my family home:1328 East 5th Street; Brooklyn, NY

ITINERARY(please check local listings for exact dates and venue)
JULY: Iridium, NYC with Bill Warfield Big Band playing Le Jazz Hot; CONTACT tour in France, Italy, Spain and Portugal; workshop and concert at Tuscia Jazz Festival, Italy; Jazz and Wine Festival in Bordeaux, France.

AUGUST: 23rd Saxophone Master Class held at East Stroudsburg University, PA; concerts at Jazz and Wine, Bordeaux, France; performance with saxophonist Jean Charles Richard in Poitiers, France; Dave Liebman Big Band, Scranton Jazz Festival, PA.

INTERVALS-MAY/JUNE 2010

2010-04-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

SAXOPHONE MASTER CLASS: I still have some open spaces for interested saxophone students interested in my 23rd Saxophone Master Class held this August at East Stroudsburg University, PA. Go to my site under education and then to “master classes.”

FEATURE ARTICLE: IT’S THE MELODY STUPID!!
Thank God that you are never too old to learn something new-well maybe not new but at least in a fresh light. In the beginning of May I am recording with my long time associate and present Quest partner, pianist Richie Beirach and Lee Konitz. First of all, this is a dream come true since Lee is one of my all time heroes. His long interview/book with Andy Hamilton is fantastic and lead me to propose a recording. He is an artist beyond reproach, absolutely concentrated on what he believes in without compromise. If the record “Motion” with Elvin Jones weas his only contribution (recorded in the early ‘60s-decades ago) he would be a giant, let alone his work with Tristano and Warne Marsh earlier. In my opinion, Lee has existed below the radar as compared to others of his generation.
In his book and teaching, it is melody which gets the main attention. Through lessons with Tristano and his own personal aesthetic, Lee is adamant about placing melody at the top of the pyramid for jazz improvisation. With that in mind Richie and I decided to co-write a tune together in dedication to Lee for the recording. (Incredibly though we have been altering each other’s work for years, we never have truly collaborated from the start on a tune.) Trying to be faithful to Lee’s aesthetic I wrote completely from the soprano saxophone, purposely focusing on a truly “melodic” statement to give Richie for his harmonization. As has been said for centuries, writing a good melody is the hardest of all compositional challenges. How to decide between one note or another, its placement and duration in the rhythmic scheme, the form of the statement, etc., are the kinds of questions which are impossible to consider while in the heat of improvisational battle, but when slowed down become quite a challenge to consider. Over the course of a few weeks I found myself constantly editing and re-writing to get it acceptable and ready to hand to Richie. What a job!! Try just writing a melody-no bass line-no harmony-just pure melody-not so easy.

THE RECORD BUSINESS: CONTINUED DISCUSSION
Just like everyone else in jazz, I have been writing and discussing the current state of affairs concerning the virtual disappearance of the record business as we knew it for decades, its effect on musicians and what will possibly rise from the ashes. Of course, the younger generation looks to the internet through Facebook, Twitter, etc., as a way of spreading the word and connecting with the audience. I have always contended that although it would appear that without the middlemen (record company, etc.) direct communication with one’s audience should be a great thing, I still feel that without the kinds of resources that record companies had available to some degree or another (obviously depending upon their financial resources and promotional will), the need to promote the music still exists and without it, not much in terms of notoriety can happen, let alone sales of a product. In the past few months, I have had two young associates that after having recorded their music (with me on several tunes for each) agreed to one deal or another in which they had to pay a considerable amount of cash to get things happening. It is apparent that the younger generation is reconciled to this state of affairs and doesn’t really have a choice because the old model is gone: sign up with possible money advance; record company pays for the recording and production; promotion and even tour support follows, etc. As much as I try not to be negative about this state of affairs, I still don’t see how a new artist ((let alone an established one) can get their music out “there.”
Saxophonist Sue Terry has a blog and a recent entry is a great summary of how we got to this and where we are. I appreciate her letting me use the text. Sue describes it perfectly.

FROM SUE TERRY: “It wasn't that long ago but it seems like a whole 'nother era: the 1990's, which saw the rise of the "indie" musician. "Indie" was a nickname for "independent" as opposed to artists who had recording contracts. Up until this era, most musicians had to make recordings through a label because of the high cost involved in making the product, vis a vis recording, manufacturing, distribution, marketing. Keep these four stages in mind--we'll come
back to them later.
Some interesting things started happening. Home recording equipment got cheaper and better. This created a need for affordable indie manufacturing, which was filled by companies such as DiscMakers and Oasis. The CDs that were manufactured needed distribution, and along came CD Baby, and middleman distributors like Artist One Stop and North Country that brought these CDs to stores like Barnes and Noble, Virgin Megastore and [the now defunct] Tower Records. The mystery of the barcode was decoded, and made available to us commoners for tracking of sales by Sound Scan. Internet connections improved, and streaming audio and digital downloads became easier. I Tunes was born in April of 2003. All the "brick and mortar" retailers jumped on the
bandwagon with their own download offerings, joining the increasingly popular (and increasingly profitable) Amazon dot com in offering mp3 versions of both major label and indie CDs. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, thought the record labels, as they proceeded to buy up space on the playing field. The average lot size on the playing field started to shrink.
When I attended an early Future of Music Conference in Washington, D.C. several years ago, the phrase 'level playing field' was served up more times than a volleyball. All the panelists seemed convinced that because the recording process was no longer locked up by the "majors" meaning the "indies" would be able to bypass them and take control of the dissemination and sales of their music, reaping the profits thereof. Their plan worked perfectly--except for the profit part. Because pressing a CD became so affordable, pretty soon anyone with a pulse, a credit card, and two notes to put together could make a CD--and they did. Hence, the recordings created by real
musicians were thrown into the same hopper as everyone else’s. There went the neighborhood! As CDs became numerous and ubiquitous, the value of your CD followed--in inverse proportion. Meanwhile, the music consumer (your potential customer) was flummoxed. So many choices, so little time. Hello, Stage 4. We mentioned the stages earlier: recording, manufacturing, distribution, and MARKETING. The marketing stage is the tipping point, at which the so-called "level playing field" starts to tilt, wildly. Because as we all know, people (even us, the enlightened ones) tend to go with what they know--or at least with what they've heard of. What sells? The stuff at
the top of the see-saw. The stuff at eye level in the store display, the newspaper, the magazines, the web. Everything else sinks to the bottom, where the collective weight of it all makes a nice anchor to buoy up the top.
But what about the Grammy Awards, you ask. Isn't that a peer review process for all the professional CDs? Don't the best CDs win awards, so music consumers will know what to purchase? As a voting member of the Recording Academy, which produces the Grammys, let me enlighten you:
There are hundreds of CDs on the Grammy ballot, in dozens of categories. You are supposed to vote only in your area of expertise, but even so, there are many, many albums, artists, compositions, solos, arrangements, and other categories in your field to vote on. The tracks on the ballot are not located on a central website where they can be heard by Recording Academy members. So you can imagine what happens--you end up voting for your friends, your personal favorite artists(regardless of whether you've listened to the track on the ballot), and the tracks you happened to hear on the radio that you liked. There are many other deserving tracks on the ballot that you will never hear. Even if there were a practical way to actually listen to each track on the ballot, you would have to devote countless unpaid hours to reviewing them all and making an honest evaluation. Probably you would still end up voting for yourself, your friends, and your personal favorite artists. Maybe a few others would earn a little checkmark on your ballot, which would then wing its way over to Deloitte & Touche to be counted. And maybe if all the voting members did this, a few great musicians nobody has heard of would get a break.
As a substitute for actual listening, in our unperfect world we rely on MARKETING. And marketing costs either money, or time, which is the same thing. Is it possible to circumvent the record companies and sell thousands of units on your own? Of course it is! The Internet abounds with such stories. So, those artists who have
sold tons of CDs and digital downloads, how did they do it? By playing lots of live shows, and MARKETING. And, oh yeah--it helps to be good.”

FROM LIEB: Here is a sample deal from an established company with Grammy credibility and a decent catalogue featuring a wide variety of music that was offered to one of my young friends. It came down to basically a bottom line minimum of $4850 plus a “voluntary” $1200 more for radio promotion. This is after the several thousand paid for musician’s fees and recording costs. The “possible” income is 71 cents per CD (minus costs so let’s say 60 cents per “sold” CD) not payable till 1500 copies are sold (a minor hit these days!!) As well, the deal is co-ownership so the artist will never get the music back. I’m not sure about the mechanical fees and all that but it was probably a split deal. So if you do it by yourself and you get it on CD Baby or similar avenues of sales and sell the music at gigs (which is happening less and less because of downloading), you will still be left with hundreds of copies cluttering your bedroom. And if you got some press through private promotion or hiring someone, for that “press” to make a difference in your career, you would need to repeat the process at least once again within a year or two and then one more time again within a short period. This is theoretically meant to sustain any “momentum” or “buzz” that might be occurring about you and your music. Not a pretty picture. Something has got to give eventually----we shall see.

RECENT HAPPENINGS:
QUEST ON TOUR: It is always a pleasure to be with my old friends, Richie Beirach, Ron McClure and Billy Hart for a short tour in Europe. We are like the contemporary version of the Modern Jazz Quartet, meaning only this group of musicians can play what they play. No one can be substituted for. We will have a record out soon on
a new label, recorded live at the radio station in Hamburg, Germany.

NEW RELEASE:RELEVANCE WITH EVEN PARKER AND TONY BIANCO (Red Toucan): A one time live event from London a few years ago. The liner notes will explain everything about this special occasion.

“After decades of playing with musicians from the famous to the esoteric to relatively unknown, there still exists for me a wish list of those who for one reason or another I haven’t performed or recorded with. Near the top of my list was saxophonist Evan Parker. With the help of an old friend and compatriot, Tony Bianco, we were able to arrange a gig at the Vortex in London for the BBC. Of course I have always had the utmost respect for Evan’s art, his unique technical mastery and longstanding reputation as one of the masters of the free jazz idiom. As would be expected for such an occasion we said hello, went directly to the stage and improvised two sets. I will remember this evening as one of my best experiences with a peer saxophonist. Tony as always provided the perfect flowing and consistent “carpet” for us to commune together. As Evan and I both evolved from the Coltrane aesthetic, I think that this meeting could be seen in some ways as similar to the encounter we all know of Newk and Trane on “Tenor Madness” (1957) — different approaches to a common language. (I would imagine to dedicated jazz listeners, this meeting will also be of some historical value.)”

RECOMMENDED

BUT BEAUTIFUL BY GEOFF DYER: (book)Recommended to me by Lucille Humair, this is absolutely the best book I have read on jazz. It is fictional but based on real events that happened to the likes of Bud Powell, Ben Webster, Chet Baker, Mingus, Pres, Monk and others. Difficult to explain here, the book is very well written and truly captures the feeling and spirit of what jazz really is about in human terms, through Dyer’s depictions of a portion of the lives of some of the masters. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

IMPRO-VISOR: An excellent FREE program for beginning improvisers. Here is an explanation by Robert Keller who developed the program:
“Impro-Visor (“Improvisation Advisor”) is a software tool designed by musician and computer scientist Bob Keller to help jazz musicians work out, hear, and record solo ideas, including studying the work of others. It provides a notation capability for lead sheets that consist of a single melody line and chord changes. Melody content can be entered by a point-and-click interface, typed text, or a MIDI keyboard. Chord progressions are entered by typing the chord names or loading from an existing text file. Using the point-and-click interface, notes are sounded with the corresponding chord background as they are entered. Visual feedback is provided by an optional coloring scheme: chord tones show as black, color tones or tensions show as green, chromatic approach tones show as blue, and everything else shows as red.
A typical use of Impro-Visor is to ask students to compose a solo of one or more choruses over a tune being studied. By working out lines for the solo, a better understanding of both the tune and of line construction is acquired. In addition to the visual and audio feedback described above, there are various ways of getting suggestions for ideas, such as using scales, cells, licks, idioms, and quotes. These are part of Impro-Visor’s vocabulary and are automatically transposed to the chord of the moment. The user can then tweak the melodies as
desired or choose alternatives. Ideas can be saved in the vocabulary for later reference. In one use, students submit their solos to the instructor, who then collects them and projects and plays them in the classroom, for mutual critique.
Another feature of Impro-Visor is the ability to generate brand new licks over a chord progression selected by the user. Lick generation is based on a specific “grammar”, and different grammars can be used to get different styles. Grammars can also be used in conjunction with Impro-Visor’s play-along capabilities to support trading fours or eights with the user playing in real time. Looping over the entire chorus or a small segment is supported. The accompaniment is generated automatically from the chord changes, and various styles can be specified. Grammars can be learned by Impro-Visor from a set of one or more transcribed solos that have been entered as leadsheets. A large collection of chord changes for standard tunes is available in leadsheet form from the Impro-Visor user group. Users can also create new styles, enter voicings using a keyboard interface, etc. and generate a solo that deduces the characteristics of this solo over ANY set of chord changes

Reference links:
main page: https://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor/
user group: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/impro-visor/
solo samples: http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor/Solos/index.html
tutorial (translates to many languages): http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~keller/jazz/improvisor/ImproVisorTutorial4.htm
wikipedia description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impro-Visor

NOTE FROM LIEB: Prof. Keller entered one of my solos which features a menu which includes choices of rhythmic feel, ratios of the dotted eighth to other rhythmic values, even noting a latin to swing rhythm, etc. I haven’t had time to get into it but this seems like a very good tool for beginners and elementary players on any instrument. So a student can write a solo on a simple harmonic progression-analyze the color codes for info on what they did and then generate a similar solo on another set of changes.
Important “code” for the transcriptions as mentioned above:
red=passing or foreign notes to the chords
green=color of complimentary "harmonious" notes of chord
black=notes in the chord

TRANSCRIPTION TOOL FOR I PHONE: I HEARIT
iHearit is an iPhone/iPod Touch app which lets you slow down music without changing the pitch, set loops, and intuitively navigate songs by touching the waveform image. Musicians can use iHearit to listen and practice along with music in slow-motion, loop difficult passages, then slowly increase the speed (even to faster than original).
Transcribe licks, patterns, jazz solos, lyrics, etc. and learn the phrasing, time feel, and articulation of the masters much more easily. Visit http://ihearit.net for info.

U TUBE:
KILLING GOSPEL: Twinkie Clarke-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXDlAZJm19Y&feature=related

LIEB SOLO FROM ”LIVE AT THE LIGHTHOUSE”: Saxophonist Steve Wirt plays my solo from this Elvin Jones live recording, ”Taurus People” at a live gig. Some real work here!! (The complete Lighthouse transcription of everything what Steve (Grossman) and I played is available through Caris Music.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRyKcFzEXPs&feature=related

PASSINGS:
GENE LEES: One of the most astute writers about jazz, politics and humanity in general was this man, whose Jazz Letter was a main source of vital information for the serious jazz community. Gene didn’t pull any punches and always backed his views up with real facts. In a world where good writing has is becoming more and more rare, Lees was a beacon of truth and intellect at the highest level.

ANOTHER WUNDERKIND: From Ireland (12 years old guitarist this time!!): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou1vS_Kn7W0

INCREDIBLE ROYALTY: got a check for 18$ coming form the AF of M (musician’s union) “Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund” for my “services” recording with Miles “On The Corner” and “Get Up With It.” Imagine-thirty seven years later and I’m still getting benefits from the Prince of Darkness!!

ITINERARY
MAY: Dave Liebman Group at the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA USA; Heidelberg, Germany; tour with Michael Arbenz Trio; “Quest” concert in Santiago De Compostela, Spain; concert and clinics with “We Three” ( Adam Nussbaum-drums/ Steve Swallow-bass) in Essen, Germany and Sevilla, Spain; recording with Richie Beirach and Lee Konitz; Miles Davis tribute at Iridium with Tom Harrell and Jeremy Pelt, New York; clinics and concert at University of Cincinnati, OH.

JUNE: The Falcon, Marlboro, NY and the Lafayette Bar and Grill, Easton, PA with Evan Gregor (bass), Bobby Avey (piano), Mike Stephans (drums); 20th Anniversary Jazz Meeting of the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ), Den Haag, Netherlands

INTERVALS: MARCH/APRIL 2010

2010-02-26T21:09:00.000-08:00

FROM THE NY TIMES–INTERVIEW WITH PIERRE BOULEZ: “Performers aren’t audacious enough today. They think audiences won’t respond to what’s unfamiliar. But to provoke — in the good sense — is the performer’s role. It’s not just to give one more concert. That’s not culture….that’s marketing.”

FEATURE ARTICLE: WUNDERKINDS ABOUND WITH NO PLACE TO GO?
Some of my readers may have already seen the You Tube clip with me and a 13 year old Israeli pianist, Gadi Lehav playing “Autumn Leaves” in a club on my recent trip to Tel Aviv. Sure enough, I received a clip of another pre-teen genius from somewhere in Russia who had Keith Jarrett down. And below there is a link to a 16 year old tenor player, Ben Solomon from Chicago, who will be coming to my saxophone master class in August seriously channeling old Trane (after the big band head is played below). Of course there have been performing wunderkinds in the arts forever and in jazz to name a few we’ve had Tony Williams, Paul Chambers, even Bird to some extent. But this young and this good!! What is going on folks? Is it some DNA recombination, is it in the air…what?

To hear Ben: http://www.planetbret.com/friday.mp3
To see Gadi and Lieb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvA4ztA7nzs
((You may have to paste in browser)

Without any scientific proof, one thing is for sure. With You Tube and instant access to recordings, teaching aids and history, every generation from now on will have all the tools at hand. Quick access to information at a young age makes for a potent situation, which for example in the case of the Columbine massacre when those kids learned how to gather a small arsenal through the internet was not too good. On the positive side, if the desire is there and a kid wants to see for example Coltrane, hear a recording, study a transcription, read an analysis of his music, etc., with a click it’s done. Then there is my generation which became the first great “explainers” of how to play jazz down to the molecular level (not withstanding early jazz education pioneers like Jerry Coker, David Baker and Jamey Aebersold to name a few). Certainly it is heartening as my neighbor Phil Woods famously said to me about jazz education: “It’s better for a kid to have a horn in his hand than a weapon.” (After all, this IS gun happy America we live in!) But beyond the enduring life lessons that a young person learns through the jazz process (interaction, discipline, individuality, etc.) and assuming there may be increasingly more Gadis and Bens out there, the question is what is their future like?

First of all, as a result of the internet let’s acknowledge the basic reality concerning the demise of the traditional business model that guys like me grew up on meaning record deals, promotion, touring, etc. In other words the detrimental effect the web has had on the entertainment/media business in general which translates to the virtual end of books, movies, TV, newspapers, even pornography (because it is free on the web) and who knows what else. When you begin this discussion the usual platitudes are heard stating that change has happened before like for example the industrial revolution (on a grand scale) or TV when it first appeared, blah, blah, blah; all meant to imply that somehow things work out because it always has. In the music biz, the optimistic outlook is that the internet means more access for people to obtain your art without the middlemen (record companies, PR people, etc.) in the way so you can make a perfect CD in one’s basement, put it up on Facebook or Twitter or whatever and voila, you are known and get gigs where you sell your product. Everything is beautiful. This scenario doesn’t take one major thing into consideration which is that how and why will Mr. and Mrs. So and So come to your site for your art if they have no idea of who you are. We are back to the perpetual bottom line in a free commerce society which is promotion, meaning in this case let’s say a banner across the Google site or something like that. Now we are talking about major bucks. But of course we do not know the future and maybe everything will work out.....

What I am more interested in relation to the wunderkind phenom is much more basic. What will these kids play in ten or twenty years? This eternal question that has been on the minds of interested thinkers over centuries is usually answered by stating that music evolves over time and has done so for hundreds of years, implying that the variations are endless and things do change. But on the other hand as far as jazz goes, this is not like finding a cure for cancer or disease which in general is open ended, or going to the moon, then to Pluto and so on. Are there just so many ways to skin a cat when it comes to improvising in a particular style. Has Indian classical music changed over its 5000 year history?? Should we think or accept that jazz is finite? What more can be done besides the obvious and eternal aspect of stylization meaning that someone like Gadi or Ben will probably find their own sound and identifiable way of playing the existing language on their respective instruments-not a small feat but it begs the question of the future of the music..
No answers—just questions!!

MISCELLANEOUS
SAXOPHONE MASTER CLASS: The 23rd Saxophone Master Class will take place as usual at East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA (one and half hours from New York City). A description of the activities, past meetings, etc. is available on my site. If you are interested I need a CD of your playing; even with a play along track is fine. I am looking for at least a middle level of understanding jazz basics, chord changes and time feel. The class will take place the first week of August.
Send to: Dave Liebman
2206 Brislin Road
Stroudsburg, PA 18360

NEW RELASE: TURNAROUND-THE DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP PLAYS THE MUSIC OF ORNETTE COLEMAN-Jazz Werkstatt

Liner notes:
A lot has been written about the music and legacy of Ornette Coleman, his “harmelodic” approach and overall influence. If only for his first recordings in the late 50’s and early 60’s, especially Free Jazz with the double quartets, he would’ve made musical history. On a personal level from the several times I’ve met Ornette, he impressed me as soft-spoken, a total gentleman always ready to talk about music and explain his theories (which after five minutes had me completely baffled--similar to what I have heard from others). I particularly love two of his recordings for their incredible swing and fire: New York Is Now with Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison and Live At the Golden Circle with Charles Moffett and David Izenzon-both great rhythm sections. But in general his music has not had as much an influence upon me as others from my generation. This is primarily due to the relatively minor role that harmony plays in his music, or shall I say intentional-direct harmony. For my aesthetic, choosing and refining harmony (at least on occasion) deepens the expressive power of a melody, be it an improvised line or a nursery rhyme. The development of harmony stands as one of the major contributions of Western culture to the musical world at large. Although there have been “harmonic moments” in Ornette’s music in tandem with pianists Walter Norris, Paul Bley, Joachim Kuhn and Gerri Allan, as well as all the bass players throughout the years, for the most part Ornette’s brand of “free-bop” doesn’t really place much importance on harmony per se.
Nonetheless I do admire his seemingly never ending repository of lyrical melodies, most of which do just fine with little or no direct harmony. Over the years it intrigued me to imagine what would happen if I “loaned” harmony to some of the more likely material and arranged the freer music to fit my long standing group of twenty years which features the guitar in the person of Vic Juris.
A primary factor for me when considering what I call “repertoire” projects (as opposed to original material) is that I can learn something by immersing myself in another’s person’s music and life. After choosing material from Ornette’s vast catalogue and re-thinking the original recorded concepts, I focused on his improvising and found several recurring tendencies: tonally centered material for extended periods sprinkled by short chromatic excursions into neighboring key areas; triadic and close interval line construction with occasional use of wider intervals; often use of blues inflections if not actual blues licks per se; intense swinging eighth notes interspersed with non metrical fast multi-noted flurries; a basically legato flowing approach to articulation encompassing the full range of the alto saxophone with a very strong and focused tone. Finally, there is present a feeling of controlled abandonment which consistently underlies the group interaction surrounding Ornette as a soloist.
Above all as in any great music, it is the spirit that shines brightest. In Ornette’s music there is a joyful spirit which permeates throughout and explains why people love his art as they do. His music expresses an irrepressible joie de vivre, uplifting and mournful at the same time, playful and deadly serious-a full view of the human condition. With deep respect to a true individualist and master of his art, I hope you enjoy our Ornette Coleman voyage.

THE DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP:
Dave Liebman-tenor and soprano saxophones; wooden flute
Vic Juris-acoustic and electric guitars
Tony Marino-acoustic bass
Marko Marcinko-drums and percussion

TUNE LISTING:
1-Enfant-4:22
2-Turnaround-6:45
3-Kathelin Gray-6:37
4-Bird Food-5:46
5-Lonely Woman-6:43
6-Cross Breeding-3:57
7-Face of the Bass/Beauty Is a Rare Thing-8:09
8- Una Muy Bonita-7:6
9-The Blessing-6:00
10-The Sky-4:57

RECOMMENDED
FRENCH RECORDER GENIUS: You’ve probably seen this guy do “Blue Trane” and “Skunk Funk” on the recorder. Here he is doing Clifford Brown on “Donna Lee.” How much does this guy practice?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI-h4urmKtA

MUSIC EDUCATION IN JAPAN: This is something to see the way they teach music at least at this school in Japan. Notice-no music in front of them, the little kid playing baritone, the girl on trombone but most of all, the conductor at the end-scary, not a hint of a smile.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9p0Acf-SbU
While we are in Japan here’s some wild jazz humor: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwhDe56O9f8

UNBELIEVABLE EARL BOSTIC ALTISSIMO: Bostic was very admired by the saxophonists of his day. Trane also spent time in his band in the early ‘50s. This audio clip is really something else. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmNcw2rt1J4

RECENT EVENTS
ISRAEL: Leaving out any discussion of politics, Israel is incrediblein respect to the creative energy of the people. There are all kinds of projects in education, computers, environment and music going on. The level of education is what makes it this way in my opinion, not to mention that they exist in a pressure cooker environment. The Rimon School which has been operating since 1985 and hosted one of the IASJ Jazz Meetings in the `90s has SIX HUNDRED students studying everything from jazz to pop song writing and more. After all, this is the Middle East we are talking about-quite impressive. From what I could observe all the teachers are involved in musical activities and very content with the scene, something I don’t hear often as I travel around. Quite a place.

With student ensemble from the Rimon School in Tel Aviv

LOOKOUT FARM REVISITED AT BIRDLAND (NYC): Playing some of the repertoire from my first group along with Richie Beirach, Jeff Williams on drums and Ron McClure subbing for original bassist, Frank Tusa, we had a great weekend with a lot of old friends attending. That band which I began after being wtih Miles and recording for ECM was pretty popular around the New York area in the day. Tablaist Badal Roy who was part of the band for a period sat in with us the last night as did trumpeter extraordinaire, Tim Hagans. Following is something I sent around concerning some personal observations about the weekend.
“I want to share something special with my friends, family and musical associates. It doesn’t happen often at this age that you look back at your roots not as a result of someone passing but because someone is present.
How appropriate that after playing four nights at Birdland in "reunion" mode performing some of the music from my first band, “Lookout Farm” with Richie Beirach, Jeff Williams and Ron McLure (taking Frank Tusa's place), I spoke with Eugene and Beverly Gregan. Gene is the artist guru who was a major inspirational figure for me and a lot of people over the years. He is still painting away at Lookout Farm (not an actual farm) in Napanoch, NY. You can believe it that in the early ‘70s after leaving Miles to go on my own, if I named the band after Eugene’s scene, there must have been a strong reason. And a tune on Richie and my first duet record “Forgotten Fantasy” for him.

His paintings have surrounded me for decades wherever I have lived; he of course did several of mine and Richie's early record covers (remember those things!) including "Drum Ode" and "Pendulum." Eugene is in his ‘70s and in perfect health as is his great wife, Beverly. They live like a modern day Monet or Picasso-tending the plentiful garden-cooking perfect healthy food and painting life on a day to day basis as the seasons change and evolve over the years. As an artist he lives in a constant precarious state of financial flux, mainly because he never played the art dealer game (which makes the jazz business look like Buddhism!!) Geno is a combination of street guy and shaman who could create anything from an animal bone, piece of wood, napkin, plate or canvas.

Eugene hipped me to a short U Tube spot on him which captures the essence. The guy is 73!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4wu-hh-u6o

DIFFERENT BUT THE SAME with Ellery Eskelin (sax), Jim Black (drums) and Tony Marino (bass). One of my favorite groups that I work with, we played Cornelia Street Club in Manhattan and Blues Alley in Washington, DC. Ellery received a grant from Chamber Music America to write and record a piece especially written for the group which was the centerpiece of the two evenings. He has a notational system where he writes rhythms to play but you make up the pitches on the spot which takes a lot of concentration. This is a great band and very user friendly for the audience because we push the listening boundary a bit over the edge but with enough references to the jazz tradition to keep everyone’s attention.

UPCOMING ITINERARY:
MARCH: March 2nd, 3rd-Stadtgarten, Koln and Max Ernst Museum in Brühl, Germany with Koln Contemporary Jazz Orchestra conducted and arranged by Heiner Schmitz
March 5th Performance with German group at the Nozart Festival in the Basement-Koln, Germany
March 6 through 13 tour with "Quest" (Richie Beirach, piano-Billy Hart-drums, Ron McClure-bass):
March 6-MACON/France LE THEATRE – SCENE NATIONALE DE MACON
March 7-PARIS/France-Sunset Jazz Club
March 8-PARIS/France-Sunset Jazz Club
March 9-MONTPELLIER/France-Jam Club
March 10-SEVILLA/Spain-Teatro Central de Sevilla
March 11-TERRASSA/Spain Nova Jazz Cava
March 12-OSLO/Norway Cosmopolite Scene
March 13-TORINO/Italy Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi
March 22, 23-Workshop:Guildhall in London, England
March 24-26-Workshop and Keynote Speaker for Jazz Conference, Leeds College, England

APRIL:
Master classes at Berklee College, Boston, MA; master class and concert doing the music of Weather Report arranged by Bill Warfield, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA; master class and performance at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI; Dave Liebman Group at Western Connecticut University, Darien, CT; at 55 Bar, NYC.

INTERVALS-JAN/FEB 2010

2009-12-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

"ON THE CORNER" ONLINE: The entire concert (featuring John Abercrombie and Badal Roy) that I presented at La Cite De La Musique performing the music from the period when I was with Miles Davis in the '70s is online through the end of February as well as my award ceremony for the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government.

paste into browser:

http://mediatheque.cite-musique.fr/VOD/20091219DaveLiebman/

FEATURE ARTICLE:THE JAZZ AUDIENCE
In a past newsletter I spoke a little about this subject, but here is a more complete discussion on the topic:

In the past year I have done extensive traveling outside of my usual European (and on occasion American) circuit, most notably to South Africa and Korea and have some definite impressions about the audiences attending jazz concerts these days.

From what I and others of my generation are observing it appears that the audience we see is definitely “graying” as the average age is rising. As hard proof, a recent survey conducted in the U.S. by the National Endowment of the Arts concluded that the median age of jazz listeners has raised to 46 years old from 42 in 2002, 37 in 1992 and 29 in 1982. There are notable exceptions of course like the student type venues or ”downtown” bars/listening rooms such as the 55 Bar or Smalls in New York City where young musicians play for the door or minimal fee. Most major cities do have these types of places. On the other hand at the Cape town Festival in South Africa and the Joralemen Festival near Seoul, Korea, the audience was quite the opposite: young, apparently upper middle class folks out for the day to hear some jazz, I phones and Blackberrys in hand (of course texting while we play). I have noticed this also in places like Istanbul, Australia, Uruguay, Brazil and in the Eastern European bloc, all visited in the past two years.

The apparent analysis appears to be that where jazz is relatively new, it personifies hipness and sophistication meaning young people are drawn to it not necessarily because they know who “Trane” or “Monk” is or have jazz recordings, but because it is the thing to do. There is nothing new about this. A similar phenomenon was evident in the ‘40s and ‘50s in America and certainly in Europe a bit later. It is true that depending upon the location economics may have something to do with it. Certainly in New York the price of hearing a set in a major club is beyond the means of a student age person, the same being for bigger concerts in the States. On the other hand because of the more extensive subsidy system in Europe, ticket prices are relatively cheap and yet we still see a “grayer” audience on that circuit as well.

From an artistic/aesthetic standpoint what effect do these different audiences have on the presentation of the music? Is it a good thing that at least somewhere young people are coming and should this segment of the population be specifically addressed marketing-wise as is happening for so many other kinds of commerce more and more through the internet? As we all can see, the world if anything has become one large market place, economic downturn not withstanding. There are still a lot of folks with leisure time and discretionary money in the West and more people in that situation at least in some of the developing world as we observe in India and China for example.

Here is where the discussion gets complicated. We are back to the perennial discussion of who are we playing for and the raison d’etre of why we play this music. The stock answer is to communicate. But the truth is that for decades although so-called “contemporary” or “modern” jazz has changed styles several times, one theme in common is the sense that the music has gone beyond the audience’s ability to comprehend it. From an historical standpoint this began in earnest in the 60’s with the first wave of so-called “free jazz” though its antecedents go back ten or more years earlier. I recall lengthy discussions with Chick Corea while on tour with him in the late ‘70s concerning his contention that the value of art should be measured by its ability to communicate. My problem was and is communicate what to whom? After all, a strip tease communicates something of enjoyment and value, at least for a select audience in the right environment!

I have no conclusive answers for this dilemma which as an educator/performing artist I am obligated to share with students and colleagues. And although there are at present and have been countless attempts at educating young people in the K-12 grade levels these years, it doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect as far as the popularity of jazz is concerned. For young artists this subject of who comprises the audience is crucial to their future both artistically and economically. This is a conflict that has been going on for centuries and those of us who have dedicated our lives to becoming proficient communicators of a specific language vis a vis an established art form are on the front line. The crux of the matter is how far does an artist go towards striking a balance between personal honesty and a principled aesthetic code, while at the same time satisfying and building an audience which after all pays for one’s services?

I always put forth the following quandary to my graduating students: Will playing for 20 people in a basement be personally satisfying in the sense of personal satisfaction or does it have to be a small hall seating a few hundred people? Or 5000in the audience and so on? Speculative as this may be, the question remains that each individual artist has to find a personal comfort level that will keep them inspired to go on. Once you make this decision (which we all do either purposely or inadvertently over time), you have in fact to a large degree determined quite a bit about the music you will present. You can’t expect 5000 people to be equally receptive and open towards the same musical intricacy and detail that a small, select, esoteric-minded audience would. To my mind casting aside idealistic goals for a moment, this is just a matter of numbers and common sense. That’s why the programs for these festivals mentioned above usually includes an eclectic mix with some music that MAY be construed as jazz, but for sure you will hear a preponderance of singer-type and commercial jazz acts. (This doesn’t discount that off the main stage you might hear some adventurous local groups.)

This graying/ younger audience discussion does have an effect on how the leader might choose the repertoire in these two different situations. The younger audiences will probably not know who the artists are except for a few experts who are most likely musicians themselves. With the “grayer” public you can be pretty confident they know who is performing and are in a sense paying a return visit to see an old acquaintance(s). Therefore, in the former situation there is an element of having to “win” the audience over that becomes part of the challenge for the performer. Without conceding the artistic imperative one has to consider how to accommodate this kind of public, whereas the “grayer” folks will probably accept more or less anything one plays since they are already fans. For myself, I find this is very true in Europe. My audiences see me in a variety of contexts over a few year period and seemingly are cool about it. It goes without saying that in the case of so-called “superstars” (in jazz or any idiom), their audience often spans several generations and they can do what they want within the expectations based on their history, an enviable position to be in. In theory this means they should have a lot more leeway but of course they may be obliged to play their so-called “hits.”

As I said, there are no final answers to these questions but the discussion should be on the table and noted. As educators, our main responsibility is to be honest and clear about what the options are. The problem of communicating art is a perennial question no matter what period of history under discussion. Every individual artist has to find a way to deal with this in relation to their context in present time, not based on past assumptions.

MISCELLANEOUS
SAXOPHONE MASTER CLASS: My 23rd Saxophone Master Class will take place as usual at East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA (one and half hours from New York City). A description of the activities, past meetings, etc. is available on my site. If you are interested I need a CD of your playing, even with a play along track is fine. I am looking for at least a middle level of understanding jazz basics, chord changes and time feel. The class will take place the first week of August.
Send to: Dave Liebman
2206 Brislin Road
Stroudsburg, PA 18360
USA

NEW WEB SITE AND MANAGEMENT
After decades of working solo I have decided that I should have management and in then fall asked my friend of 30 years Dave Love to take over this role in my career. Dave was the founder and President of the Heads Up label for 20 years, one of the few success stories of the past decade and worked with Michael Brecker, Joe Zawinul, Yellowjackets, Stanley Clarke, Esperanza Spalding and a host of top jazz artists. We are already taking care of dates overseas and have a new web site which is now on line. Please check the new site soon (still www.davidliebman.com); most important especially for musicians are the interviews (under “Publicity”) and the Educational Articles (under “Education”).

PASSINGS
CHARLIE BINACOS: One of the most famous teachers of jazz who had been doing it for fifty years was Charlie Binacos from the Boston area who passed on very quickly from cancer. He may be one of the first to use the correspondence method (using cassettes in the old days). I have a mimeographed (yes!!) copy of a book he wrote on pentatonics in the ‘60s, way before there was a jazz publishing business. He was very influential, teaching students from all over the world with a long waiting list of prospective clients. He always tailored his pedagogy specifically to the student. My wife studied with him and it seemed like he had an inexhaustible resource of material to share. He was nice man who had a profound affect on the jazz education world-a true pioneer.

LUDMILA UHLELHA: Talking about teachers, Ludmila taught for over fifty years at the Manhattan School of Music where I am presently Artist in Residence. She was the first woman graduate in the composition department and most relevant was her open attitude towards jazz composers. She welcomed them to her composition classes, encouraged to write anything they wished and then commented, always with a positive attitude. You have to remember that the classical and jazz worlds did not always get along . This is still true in some places, though much less than previously. Whether it is fear of the unknown (improvisation) or just smugness is not clear. But Ludmila was completely cool. Her most important contribution was the book “Contemporary Harmony” which was written in the ‘60s and remained an underground treasure for years being passed around in hard cover or copies whenever possible. In the early ‘90s I had the occasion to meet her at the Manhattan School before I was teaching there. I told her how famous the book was in a part of the jazz community. She casually mentioned that she owned the rights, something which is quite unusual. I immediately hooked her up with my publisher, Advance Music, and the book has now been available since then and at least in my case, is required reading for my master students at the school. This is the best book on 20th century harmony that I am aware of. She was really an amazing woman who left a gigantic legacy.

RECENT EVENTS

This is a new CD released on the Manchester Crafts Guild label recorded in 1995 at their concert hall in Pittsburg. The group then included Jamey Haddad on drums and percussion, Phil Markowitz on keyboards and piano; Tony Marino on electric and acoustic bass; Vic Juris on electric and acoustic guitars and myself oexclusively on soprano sax and wooden flute before returning to the tenor for the first time in 15 years (which is documented on "Return of the Tenor"-Double Time Records). This live date happened five years into that band's development and was along with another recording "Voyage" (Evidence Records) was definitely the high point for that version of the group, the sound of which I had in mind when I began with these guys in 1991. We are using electronics, synths and colors intertwined with some pretty high level compositiona and two re-arrangements of "Maiden Voyage" and "All Blues." I really like this record because the band is as tight as we ever were. Markowitz is amazing and Jamey's contribution is quite dramatic. Vic is like the second horn and of course as always, Tony holds it all together. Somehow the music doesn't sound dated and I am glad it is seeing the light of day documenting my group of the early '90s.

GIGS: Some nice things in the NY area in November:
-Duo with Phil Markowitz at the Rubin Museum, a beautiful place dedicated to art from India, Bhutan, Nepal ,etc. and now exhibiting the “Red Book: of Carl Jung (last newsletter).

-Two Monday nights at Roberto’s Woodwind Store using the restaurant facility below the store celebrating his 20 years in the business. Featuring two bands a night, (something which is rather unusual these days) the first gig we played opposite Donny McCaslin’s group with Ben Monder and Adam Cruz. I really like Donny; he is absolutely killing on the tenor with a great technique, smoothness and a lot of fire. He joined my group (Vic Juris, Tony Marino and Marko Marcinko) for much of the second set. The second gig in December was opposite Sam Newsome’s group with the great John Hebert on bass and Rudy Royston on drums. Sam is a soprano sax specialist who is definitely extending techniques in the Steve Lacy tradition. I totally enjoyed it. We had a good time with Matt Vashlishan and an old friend from Rome, Maurizio Giammarco sitting in with my group.

-Sketches of Spain at Manhattan School of Music and Dizzy’s Club; no matter how often I play this piece, it still brings up a lot of emotion and feeling for me. I never get tired of it.

-Lewis Porter is best known for his seminal book on Coltrane, but is also an excellent pianist. We had a really nice afternoon gig at Rutgers University with Joris Teep on bass and Rudy Royston on drums, two really nice players.

Also I was able to finally visit the Rutgers Jazz Library, the most famous jazz collection in the world, often visited by scholars for research purposes. Directed by the great Dan Morgenstern, it is an amazing place, most famously housing every article ever written on jazz and miles of CDS, books, etc. Well worth a visit.

AN ECLECTIC WEEK: I often comment on how lucky I am musically to perform in such wide varieties of circumstances, even within the course of a few days. I had just such a week in December:

-Arriving from New York directly to Vienna, invited by drummer Uli Soykal to be part of a night of free jazz featuring the amazing Dutch cellist, Ernst Reisinger, the music was fantastic: two sets of free jazz, meaning no music, not one word about what we would play, just utter spontaneity. These guys (sorry not to have the other personnel names) represented one of the best musical contributions Europe has to offer the jazz world-their high level of expertise at playing free jazz. The most important aspect of this kind of interaction is knowing when to stop a texture and move on, when to solo and when to converse with others, and most of all when to stop because this music is about “events” and happenings, the timing of which is crucial. The five elements of music include most commonly melody, rhythm and harmony (if it exists at all), but also color (sound) and form. Free jazz is absolutely tied to color and form-the how and the when more that the what. This was a great night with an audience (the Porgy and Bess club, one of the greatest around) that is trained to go on the voyage with the musicians.

-Three concerts and a recording with my oldest compatriot, pianist Richie Beirach who has been living in Germany, teaching for the past several years. Although we have re-united “Quest” (with Ron McClure and Billy Hart) a few times in the past several years (and soon again for a European tour in March), Richie and I haven’t played duo in twenty years. And of course, for fans that know us from the “Lookout Farm” days in the ‘70s when I left Miles to begin my career as a leader (will be doing “Lookout Farm Revisited” at Birdland in February), the duo is the lynch pin of our relationship and the various groups we have had. Picking up like we just played the day before, we made a great recording that will be released on a new French label, along with a live “Quest” recording done on the last tour . (More about this in the near future). It was great to be back in the saddle with “the Code” as Richie is known among his peers (for his harmonic language).

-Finally, performing “On The Corner” at Le Cite De La Musique in Paris with John Abercrombie, Badal Roy, Andy Emler, Lynley Martha and Eric Echampard. As part of a several month long Miles tribute, I took some of the pieces I recorded and played during my time with Miles, with a bit of re-arrangement. It was an historic night and really well received by the packed audience. There was an exhibit at the theater of Miles’ entire career with a fantastic book including photos, interviews, all kinds of things arranged in decades and presented beautifully as the French know how to do so well. It took three hours to get through the exhibit which will move next year to Montreal and then hopefully a permanent home can be found for it. This was really amazing and I hope it can be seen by as many people as possible in the future.

-Order of Arts and Letters: At the end of our concert, I was officially presented with the Order of Arts and Letters medal by Claude Carriere, who recorded me many times for Radio France. It was a real honor to receive this medal and I thank the French government and public for their kindness towards me. As I said at the ceremony, one thing about the French public is very true. Once they accept you artistically they remain loyal forever, withstanding fads and the like. Merci beaucoup.

Claude Carrière medal presentation
Cité de la Musique, décember 19th, 2009

"We'll ask you a few minutes patience for a short ceremony that Dave Liebman prepared with great care. For this occasion you can notice the return of the bandana "at the top" – we had not seen him with the bandana for a long time ! Please note that his wife Caris and his daughter Lydia are here tonight, they came especially from Pennsylvania.

A few words about this great man that once again we have been passionately listening to during this concert.

Of course today there was a strong reference to Miles Davis, but since then as we all know, he is much more than only the saxophonist who performed with Miles. He became an artist whose voice is totally original, a master reference especially on soprano saxophone. On soprano and tenor, he seems better than anyone to have penetrate all the secrets of Coltrane.

It's important to mention that, with the same generosity his music reflects on stage, he invests a large part of his life in teaching. He created 20 years ago the IASJ, and he constantly develops new interactions between jazz schools all over the world. He also has, more than any other american musician, the supreme elegance to perform regularly with french musicians !

For all these reasons, and many others that would be too long to develop here, and because you are, Dave, in all domains a Man and a Musician with a capital M – I have the great honour, in the name of the Ministery of Culture and Communication, by virtue of the power which has been vested in me, to remit you the medal of Officier dans l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres."

In January the entire concert and award ceremony will be streamed for a while. I will post the address on my new web site when it is available.
WHAT A WEEK!!

RECOMMENDED
COLTRANE-SIDE STEPS: A box set that is great because it puts all of Trane’s sideman Prestige recordings together from 1957-58. As we know of course, Trane’s rate of progress was incredible as this one and half year document shows. His assurance, tone, speed and dexterity increases on each recording. There is also a track he plays on alto (Gene Ammons record date) which sounds just like his tenor playing. Also a forgotten hero is trumpeter Donald Byrd who plays absolutely perfect lines. As well I received some out takes off of the “Sun Ship” recording from 1965 when Trane was on the cusp of change once again, about to leave the quartet format with McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones to be replaced by Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali moving on to the free period.. “Sun Ship” is really a transition recording as you hear Trane moving on to the next and last stage of his career.

MICHAEL JACKSON WITH OLODUM: The guy was something else as far as talent goes. Find this on U Tube. It’s Michael with the drum school guys called Olodum from Bahia in Brazil, the root of the drum stuff, a group I remember bringing back on LP from my first time in Brazil in 1973 with Miles. Guys then told me they were the real deal. This video is fantastic-the message, the music and the vibe

UPCOMING ITINERARY:
January: Organ Trio gig with drummer Phil Haynes and organist Steve Adams at the Elk Creek Café and Aleworks in Milheim, PA; Bravo Caffe in Bologna, Italy and Alexanderplatz (club name) in Rome with Roberto Tarenzi (piano), Tony Arco (drums) and Paolo Benedittini (bass); concert and workshop at Rimon School, Tel Aviv, Israel

February: California dates: Clinics at Cal State, Fullerton; University of California, Irvine; USC, Los Angeles; Saddleback College, Mission Viejo; gig with Bob Shepard at Vitellos club in Studio City, LA; “Lookout Farm Revisited” with Richie Beirach, Ron McClure and Jeff Williams at Birdland, New York; Different But The Same with Ellery Eskelin, Jim Black and Tony Marino at Cornelia Street Café, NYC and Blues Alley, Washington, DC.

My first recording in 1967 in Stockholm, Sweden with the Lars Werner Band

2009-11-10T17:29:00.000-08:00

INTERVALS-NOV/DEC 2009

FEATURE ARTICLE: MILES AND ME
On occasion for this newsletter I put in articles/interviews that I think would be of interest. I wrote the following article about my relationship with Miles Davis as part of a major festival and book dedicated to him taking place in Paris, where I will be performing the music from “On the Corner” in December at Le Cite de Musique with John Abercrombie, Badal Roy and several French musicians.

With Miles in Belgrade 1973

MILES AND ME
by David Liebman

When a discussion about Miles Davis comes up, my thoughts vacillate between subjective and objective points of view. Being a jazz musician who has studied the legacy deeply, my knowledge of Miles’ music is vast as a result of his having been such a towering figure for forty years of jazz history in so many ways. On the other side, my feelings concerning the man are based on being part of his group and our interaction for a period in the 1970’s as well as sporadic contact until he died. It goes without saying that his effect upon me has been enormous. Therefore this overview of Miles Davis is both personal and analytical. I begin by recounting my first gig with the Prince of Darkness.

IN THE BAND

When I found myself on the bandstand with Miles in January, 1973 for the first time I was figuratively speaking being split in half. At the time, I was a member of drummer Elvin Jones’ group for a year and a half. Elvin was very significant in my life years before I played with him in his position as a member of John Coltrane’s “Classic Quartet.” I saw the group live many times during the 1960’s in the clubs of New York as a teenager. It was Trane who directly inspired me to become serious about jazz and to recognize that this music (and art in general) went beyond entertainment and ordinary surface values. When I got the gig with Elvin in 1971 assuming saxophonist Joe Farrell’s chair it was beyond a dream come true. I was playing with one of the master drummers of all time in my idol’s position. Obviously this was a major event for me changing the course of my life.
I had informal contact with Miles through musicians like Chick Corea and Dave Holland, the three of us residing in the same Manhattan loft building during the early 70s (he actually came over for dinner one night); also through musical peers drummer Lenny White, conga player Don Alias and of course my saxophone bud from Elvin’s group, Steve Grossman who had already been with Miles for a brief period. In the summer of 1972 I participated in one of the “On The Corner” recording dates. At the end of the session Miles passed by me in the control room and in that infamous raspy voice said: “Join my band!” I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but in any case I replied to the effect that I was with Elvin and wouldn’t leave him, bringing to an end our brief exchange.
A few months later I was playing with Elvin at the Village Vanguard, our regular gig in New York. Miles came down and hung out a talking to me about his music with great enthusiasm (he had just released “In Concert”) and urging me to join his group. Elvin was muttering something like: “What’s he doing here?” By the end of the second night when he returned again I told him it was up to “Emperor” Jones (as Elvin was known). Around four in the morning Miles called to say that Elvin agreed meaning I was to play with Miles that coming Friday night at the famous Fillmore East Theater early in the evening (which re-opened for that one night and then closed forever), return to the Vanguard to finish the engagement with Elvin and the next week in Boston at the Jazz Workshop. After that I would become the saxophonist in the Miles Davis Group. To finish this incredible tale, the next night when I showed up at the Vanguard, Elvin hugged me and said: “If Miles Davis wants you, you have to go.” End of story!
So on Friday night, Jan 12, 1973 I got on the bandstand with Miles Davis at the Fillmore East, all plugged in (my horns-tenor, soprano and flute were all drilled to accommodate microphone pickups that day for amplification), not knowing anyone in the band except tablaist Badal Roy who was with me was on the “My Goals Beyond” recording with John McLaughlin in 1972 and drummer Al Foster from jam sessions in my loft. That I had no idea what I played or what was happening on the bandstand that night would be an understatement. The energy, volume and sheer textural density was overwhelming. After the gig I returned to the Vanguard in time for the remainder of the first set. It felt like I had gone from the future back in time; from the 21st to the 20th century on the most significant night of my professional life. I was to become part of history playing in the same position as Coltrane, Bird, Wayne Shorter and others alongside the most important musician of the past decades whose sidemen by and large became significant forces on their own. That was the “baggage” which was undeniably part and parcel of being in the saxophone chair with Miles Davis.
For the first few months before he cut the band down, the instrumentation was tablas, electric sitar, guitar, organ, drums, congas, bass, myself and Miles. Playing mostly concerts and relatively short sets it took me months to truly “hear” what was happening and what my place was in the music. You had to figure out what to do on your own. There were no written charts and Miles said almost nothing to me or anyone else from what I could observe about the music. What we played has been well documented on tape and many live bootleg recordings that are available including on U Tube. It should be noted that with this group live performance was the main event. In fact, in some ways one could say that hearing any of Miles’ groups live was the best way to understand the essence of what was going on musically throughout his entire career, not withstanding some landmark studio recordings. With the level of musicians Miles had in his groups throughout history the live experience was always amazing.
As I point out several times in this article Miles was the quintessence of a true jazz musician in that he trusted, invested in and savored the moment meaning spontaneity was everything. From my standpoint this was the saving grace during this period since the actual content of the music was not something I was impressed with, sounding to me disorganized, chaotic and VERY loud. To be honest and risking sounding a bit pompous, though I was grateful and honored to be standing next to a legend and all that implied, I couldn’t help but think about how wonderful it would’ve been to play some of the challenging and sophisticated music from Miles’ past, particularly the “Miles Smiles” quintet-anything but this cacophony!! However, I must admit that hearing the music over the decades, what we played sounds better than it did at the time. Maybe this kind of retro-appreciation is a natural by-product of the passage of time or just me, but slowly I could hear what Miles was trying to accomplish. Though the artistic and aesthetic merits can be analyzed ad infinitum there was no doubt that he had a concept in his head.

THE MUSIC

There are some artists in any field who because of their prolific nature over an extended period of time, any analysis of their work necessitates it be described in terms of various periods. Painters like Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso are examples of this while in jazz there are Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and Miles to name a few who clearly demonstrate this point.
With Miles it begins with the Charlie Parker/Birth of the Cool bebop era in the 1940’s followed by the various quintets during the 50’s and 60’s which includes the Gil Evans collaborations. All of these stages are replete with their own specific musical attributes and stylistic characteristics. Most important for the purposes of this writing there is the seminal dividing line in the Miles Davis legacy occurring in the late 1960’s simultaneously on several musical fronts leading to the “electric” period:

-shift from acoustic to electric setting especially the use of electric bass rather than upright

-concept of jazz-rock based on ostinato bass lines which meant at the time jazz-like soloing played over a rock type rhythmic feel

-choices of sidemen who were not jazz musicians as such coming from other styles such as bassist Michael Henderson, drummer Ndugu Chancellor, etc.

-use of percussion and “world music” instruments (Airto, Badal Roy, Mtume)

-less or no “tune oriented” compositions replaced by ongoing vamps with the consequent effect of more limited harmonic movement

Even in this so-called electric period which remained Miles’ modus operandi for the remainder of his life there are dividing lines. For example between the early recordings “Filles De Kilimanjaro/Miles In The Sky/Silent Way” which retain a jazz sensibility to the cacophonous “Bitches Brew” and rock-jazz “Live at the Fillmore” with Jack DeJonette, Chick Corea, etc., (incredibly a band that was not too well documented in the studio); as well there are stylistic differences between the “Live-Evil” band with Keith Jarrett, John McLaughlin and the “Dark Magus/ On The Corner/Get Up With It” groups that I was part of; then there are the “Agartha/Pangea” live recordings which delve even further into sound and color; finally the 1980’s decade where the direction was towards a more pop oriented sound.
The period when I was with Miles (1973-74) continuing through 1975 when he took a “sabbatical” can be seen as an expansion of the musical elements described above evolving towards more and more abstraction as time went on. ( In my opinion when Miles returned to performing in the 1980’s many of these innovative musical aspects were watered down resulting in a less distinctive and more generic style, albeit more palatable to a new generation of listeners. Interestingly though, Miles’ playing itself still remained brilliant at times. In any case this is in itself a separate and controversial topic on its own.) Some of the musical developments during my period with Miles were further developments of the earlier innovations, emphasizing the incredible speed of change that was occurring during this period.

- increased use of electronics resulting in a thicker and varied textural density; wa-wa pedal on the trumpet; use of the Yamaha organ; chorus and delay on my saxophone; Mtume’s drum machine, Pete Cosey’s percussion instruments

- more “accidental” harmonic dissonance; two and for a period three guitarists playing together (Reggie Lucas, Pete Cosey, Dominique Gaumont); non- tonal organ chords played by Miles

- even less use of formal compositional devices, forms and melodic statements with instead an almost total reliance on simple and extended vamps (in terms of duration during a typical set) as well as a continuation of Miles’ penchant for ongoing segues between tunes

- increased rock/ funk underpinning in which rhythms overlapped and were spread out between various rhythm section instruments (Sly Stone concept)

- solos that were not so much developed as they were episodic or short vignettes

Miles’ playing, though fundamentally retaining the main ingredients of his basic style changed in some dramatic ways. The use of the wa-wa pedal and pickup on the trumpet meant that the very unique and incredibly individual trademark sound that Miles Davis had on his horn since time immemorial was transformed, arguably gaining something unique in the process. Whether it was the effect of how he heard himself through the pedal or other contributing factors his playing became even more rhythmically pronounced as well as very focused in the middle of the beat. (The best jazz musicians treat the pulse with a loose and flexible attitude pushing and pulling the beat at will. I have always thought that Miles’ sense of pulse was among the most accurate of any jazz musician in history.) His “jabbing” rhythmic style (not unlike boxing, something Miles was very into both as a participant and observer) was interspersed with flurries of notes consisting of indistinguishable pitch runs and occasional long tones thrown in. All of these stylistic mannerisms were played in a dry sonic context without reverb or delay heightening the stark nature of Miles’ rhythmical approach even more. His note choices ranged from very diatonic/in the key lyrical phrases combined with blues scale motifs to completely out of tonality asides. Of course whatever came out of his horn still retained a melodic contour with on occasion nursery-rhyme type melodies thrown into the mix. All of this as always in Miles Davis’ case was executed with élan, bravura and a unique sense of space and timing which remain historically the most distinct aspects of his overall style. There is no doubt in my mind that Miles was thinking within a certain set of parameters concerning his trumpet playing during this period.
Finally there is the way he framed all of this as a bandleader of the various groups during this electric period. Prior years had seen Miles play a solo, leave the stage, returning often in the middle of someone else’s statement to start up again (usually the piano solo). During my time he was an ever present force on stage, something which had its effect on the sidemen. Not only did he not leave the stage but he would stand with his back to the audience, staring at all of us through gigantic dark sunglasses nonetheless!! Marking the beat physically with his body, nodding in the direction of someone to solo, he might unexpectedly cue the band to execute uneven “stop” time episodes in the midst of a phrase, a traditional device from older jazz styles. And there was the Yamaha organ which was a kind of precursor to the whole keyboard technology about to be unleashed in the next few years. Miles would splash down clusters and triads at will thereby orchestrating the live performance even further. As mentioned above, vamps and ostinato bass figures melded together and overlapped. Though there was a loose format to our live performances there was little predictability meaning the music could change drastically from night to night. To sum it up, Miles was a real and looming force on the bandstand whether he was actually playing or not.

THE UNSPOKEN-BEYOND THE MUSIC

It is commonly accepted that among the arts music is the hardest to describe in real and measurable terms. We cannot hold music in our hands, not withstanding a manuscript which is meaningless until it is heard. The effect of music can barely be quantified in universal terms because of its subjective nature. Among musicians themselves generalizations about music are usually suspect and as the saying goes one cannot account for taste. We try to assess and describe music verbally in our various roles as interested listeners, musicians, teachers and journalists, but in the final analysis what sounds like something to one person may or may not have any bearing on another listener’s opinions. (Just go to any web site where people comment on a U Tube performance for example.)Yet we know and feel in our hearts and souls that there is something spiritual, universal and meaningful in great music which is valuable to recognize. The same can be said when you stand next to greatness, especially in a live performing situation where everything is focused on vibration, nuance and present time. These fleeting moments and the subtle lessons incurred constitute the unspoken and implied elements of any art, but even more so for those mediums in which performance IS the form itself (theater and dance as well as music). I had a golden opportunity to observe greatness in action and learn from it, only a few feet away from me on a nightly basis.
When Miles went on stage there was no past or future. As mentioned, it was all about present time, the essence of true improvisation and what most of us as jazz musicians strive for daily when playing. I have recounted to students and interviewers how concentrated Miles became in the moments before we hit the bandstand. Quiet, subdued and seemingly deep in thought, the whole band could sense his vibe before we walked out. It wasn’t so much dramatic as it was penetrating and you could feel that serious business was about to commence. (I felt the same with Elvin Jones, but in his case it would begin when the stick hit the cymbal.) For me, it was a lesson in owning and trusting the moment, two intangible aspects of playing that I have tried to absorb into my own musical personality.
Another point concerning Miles’ playing and bandstand persona was his complete confidence in whatever gesture he made whether in his own playing or something having to do with directing the band. One never felt a second of doubt. This meant that anyone within playing range could by osmosis, transfer Miles’ strong sense of conviction and self in their own playing. I certainly doubted myself to some degree at this stage of my life, but with his energy going on in such close proximity there was no chance to think about it, something that is particularly true in the recording situation which has its own and unique set of variables differing from the live arena. You realize that when the light is green anything you play may be heard anywhere, anytime and forever-the ultimate judgment day! This posterity aspect of recording can easily develop into a nerve racking experience depending upon one’s personality. But once again with Miles Davis you just had to concentrate and be on his case-watching, listening and ready to jump into the fray when called upon.
Learning is a long term process. One doesn’t just cognize an idea or concept and expect the light to go on the next day. This is especially true for music where it takes a certain amount of time for the instincts and mind, body and ear to get it all together in some consistent, well balanced package. We learn something new using all of these techniques at hand from the technical to the emotional to the intellectual, employing different and appropriate aspects of these learning tools in varying proportions and sequences depending upon one’s learning methodology combined with the scope of the material in question. The goal remains the same: to unify the mind, body and spirit in order to make a meaningful artistic statement. The lessons I learned from being around Miles Davis took a decade or more to firmly take root. This pertains to everything from instrumental grafts that I have incorporated on the soprano saxophone gathered from observing Miles’ trumpet style, especially in the rhythmic realm; the being in the moment aspects I have alluded to; focusing the other musician’s energy as a function of leading a band; and gaining the confidence necessary to enable musical events to occur with spontaneity and regularity. In the 1980’s I would find myself thinking of Miles in the middle of a solo which might alter or inspire a fresh direction as needed. It still happens on occasion, but obviously less so as that period of my life recedes with the passage of time.

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS

Without going into too much detail, suffice to say that Miles’ public and personal demeanor were in some ways similar but in other aspects vastly different. To my mind, it appeared that Miles’ basic shyness led to a desire to be left alone. Miles was more than a jazz trumpet player; he was a symbol of many things to different people and unless he limited access he would’ve never been left alone to think about music. This apparently contributed to the popular image of Miles as aloof or at times mean spirited. Though he had various addictions, illnesses, distractions, etc., there was no doubt in my mind that music always came first.
Miles was a macho type of person and respected that kind of persona. Speaking for myself there is naturally, as a product of upbringing and environment, a “New York aspect” to my personality which he seemed to empathize with. As well, because of childhood polio and its subsequent effects on my leg, I think Miles respected my energy and persistence in spite of any handicap. This was highlighted during my time with him because of increasing problems he was having with his own legs as a result of a car accident. I am not implying that we were buddies in the typical sense but there was some good and positive rapport for sure. (Apparently, he trusted me to recommend saxophonist Bill Evans when he began to play again in the early 80’s.) Personally, we got along quite well and spent time hanging out on the road since for the most part he didn’t like to be alone. He was well aware that I (and drummer Al Foster) were “jazzers” who knew in detail about his musical past which seemed to contribute towards a particular bond. In any case, there were numerous examples of his generosity and personable behavior, for example when he called me offering financial help during some hard times I was going through nearly ten years after I left his employ. Of course there were rough episodes to be sure, especially when his natural penchant for drama (an aspect of his playing which was undeniable), combined with the need to relieve a feeling of “ennui” or general boredom with life during this period, could at times lead to some “problems” to say the least. Also his health was fragile and he was at times heavily medicated during this time.
In the final analysis, having performed and traveled with Miles Davis was a major contributing factor not only for my career, but towards molding who I am both musically and as a human being. Though I didn’t know Coltrane personally it appears that the two of them had in common their love and respect for the serious work of creating highly sophisticated and eternal music.
As Miles once reminded me in dramatic fashion, being with him made me in some ways part of the jazz blood line back to Louis Armstrong. Consequently, I have tried to maintain the integrity and honesty which I observed and felt through my experiences with Miles and Elvin Jones. I had the best possible training a person could ask for-a real time apprenticeship with masters of the art-the Prince and the Emperor-a privilege and honor that I have gladly accepted with a concomitant sense of responsibility during my allotted time on this planet. For that opportunity I am eternally grateful.

Stroudsburg, PA USA
Fall/Winter 2008-09

RECENT EVENTS
DUO TOUR WITH MATUESZ KOLAKOWSKI: Some years ago while on tour in Poland with trumpeter Piotr Wojastik I met Matuesz who was then a sixteen year old pianist. We began to correspond with him sending me clips of his playing for comments. Last year, we did a gig at the Jazz Standard in New York, the first time we met, playing standards. I was totally impressed by his breath of knowledge (especially harmonically), his technique(classical chops of course) and as well a very cool demeanor for such a young guy. A recording of that night was released in Poland and I went over to do several concerts with Mateusz. He is the real deal, having recently won some sort of classical contest playing the extremely difficult Prokofiev Second Piano Concerto. Quite an impressive talent who will be known in the near future I’m sure.

KOREA:My first time in Korea was for just two days with pianist Hey Rim Jeon, bassist John Lockwood (Boston stalwart) and Terri Lynne Carrington. Happily I can report that despite my article in the last newsletter about the graying of the jazz audience, this festival outside of Seoul was attended mostly by young people. So the following may also true-that in countries where jazz is relative new, young people are naturally attracted to it, most likely for its newness and hopefully for its energy and message. I must say the programming was excellent the day we played: Dee Dee Bridgewater with a big band, guitarist Scott Henderson with Jeff Berlin on bass and Dennis Chambers on drums, our band and one other completely different group. Thoughtful programming, something I don’t see that often.

DIFFERENT BUT THE SAME: I really enjoy this group with Jim Black on drums, Tony Marino on bass and Ellery Eskelin on tenor. I stick exclusively to the tenor in this group and am in awe of how Jim plays. He combines elements of rock and jazz, odd meter stuff, great technique and imaginative use of coloristic effects. We have a great time and the music changes nightly. Ellery has truly developed a style of his own incorporating avant garde techniques with a solid background in the traditional jazz language. European audiences and especially the German public really love this way of playing-edgy, but grounded with hints of lyricism sprinkled throughout the intense energy.

BOX SET AVAILABLE OF MILES-GIL EVANS COLLABORATIONS
I am very proud of this three CD set put out by Jazzheads Records (jazzheads.com) of the three great works that Miles and Gil did in the late 1950s. When I recorded Sketches of Spain eight years ago there was no talk of releasing anything, but conductor (and head of the jazz program at Manhattan School of Music) Justin DiCioccio who conducts the music with students from the Manhattan School of Music persuaded me to put the live performance out on the school’s label. A few years later, we followed with “Miles Ahead” and just last year recorded “Porgy and Bess.” I have often spoken about how certain aspects of Miles’ trumpet playing influenced me directly on soprano sax, especially matters of phrasing and nuance. With these three projects, though I certainly was attentive to what Miles played, the challenge was to balance being true to the music as it was recorded and yet at the same time to transcend it and feel the music on my own. Justin is a great conductor who brings the best out of the students and truly understands matters of orchestral balance and rhythmic accuracy. The word “student” hardly describes these young professionals, the cream of the crop of Manhattan’s student body, who so enthusiastically took part in three different configurations of performers over the course of this decade. Of course having a classical conservatory right there in house means that we were able to take care of the more exotic instruments that Gil used so well: French horn, tuba, oboe, bassoon, a variety of flutes (no saxophones), clarinets, harp and percussion. With occasional interludes and the like, I feel we achieved the balance between respecting the original, yet setting the music in present time.

JUNG-ROBERT FRANK-SHAKESPEARE
Recently availed myself and the family to one of the great things about New York, its cultural sights. I'm a big fan of Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist. His book "Memories, Dreams and Reflections" remains one of my favorites and inspired an entire solo recording in the '80s. Recently his family allowed the publishing and translation of his Red Book which is on view at the Rubin Musuem (coincidentally next to the actual auditorium where Phil Markowitz and myself are doing a duo concert on Nov 20 which will feature my composition "Jung"). It is in essence his diary with drawings and detailed dream description/analysis. He was a first class painter as seen from the art work in the book. Fascinating to read some of the pages.

Robert Frank-The Americans:By chance, another Swiss man, this time the still living photographer Robert Frank who in the 1950s recieved a Guggenheim grant to travel around America and photograph. This 50th anniversary showing of the book "The Ammericans" at the incredible Metropolitan Musuem of Art features the photos up to peruse, all in black and white depicting another side of the U.S. that was not ready for prime time during the supposedly copasetic Eisenhower years. True reality pics which were very influential in the field of realistic photography.

Hamlet-For her 18th birthday, my daugher wanted to see the movie star Jude Law in this Broadway rendition of the Shakespeare classic. I can't pretend to understand much of the dialogue over the three plus hour course of the play. (I think Shalespeare makes free jazz seem easy to decipher!!) Nonethe less, the power of the drama and the fine acting reminds one of why Shakespeare is still with us so many hunreds of years later.

RECOMMNDED U TUBE CLIPS
Herbie Hancock with Jack DeJonette and Dave Holland absolutely burning in a time, no changes style. True masters playing at the top of their form in a style that they were so important in creating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwT5bRUeGAU&feature=related

Keith Jarrett burning, both comping and soloing on “East of the Sun’ with Charles Lloyd.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01CQgotKp4g&feature=related

Spinal Tap on jazz-the ultimate parody with some truth in it-hilarious. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wscZhvj_lH4

Trane: From France during the Antibes Festival-a burning “Impressions.”
http://www.cymbalholic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35624

Trying a G soprano in Copenhagen

ITINERARY
NOVEMBER: “Sketches of Spain” with the Manhattan School Orchestra at Manhattan School and Dizzy’s Club, NYC; Dave Liebman Group at Roberto’s Woodwind Store, NYC; Dave Liebman Group at Keystone College, Scranton, PA; Duo concert with Phil Markowitz at the Rubin Museum, NYC; Dave Liebman Group at the Falcon, Marlboro, NY (opening of new venue).

DECEMBER: With Lewis Porter Quartet, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ; with Uli Soykal at Porgy and Bess, Vienna, Austria; Duo with Richie Beirach at Casa de Jazz, Rome, Italy; Jazz Werkstatte Cafe, Berlin, Germany; Altes-Pfandhaus, Cologne, Germany; “On The Corner” rendition with John Abercrombie, Badal Roy, Eric Echampard, Andy Emler, Lynley Marte at Le Cite De Musique, Paris, France.

From the 70s-Lieb and Richie

INTERVALS-SEPT/OCT 2009

2009-08-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

FEATURE ARTICLE: THE STATE OF THE MUSIC
A recent NEA survey (http://www.jazz.com/jazz-blog/2009/7/7/ugly-news-on-the-jazz-audience) has caused a lot of discussion in the press with articles in the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, etc. The main point is something I have discussed here before –the “graying” of the audience. Like the classical scene we play for a few people and they are not getting younger. As you would expect, the retort was that there’s a lot going on in Brooklyn, etc., (off the beaten path so to say) and that the Web (twitter, facebook, etc) will eventually come to the rescue replacing the old model of record company/artist promotion and so on-you get the point. Yes, there is activity on the web with the young cats doing their thing and of course jazz education at $40-50,000 a year tuition (at least in the States) seems to keep going somehow. The young musicians of course use all sorts of contemporary devices and sounds to get their point across musically which is de rigor for any younger generation. But as Justin DiCiocchio, who heads the department at the Manhattan School of Music pointed out after he attended a series of classical concerts at Tanglewood (famous summer series), the musicians (composers in this case)are basically playing for a public made up of peers/other musicians, something I can definitely relate to in jazz. I am not talking about student type clubs or summer festivals which are obviously slanted to a particular audience. As well, much of the music has moved past the audience’s ability to comprehend it, not just as a blip on the screen like with late Trane and the avant garde of the ‘60s (which arguably lead us to the land of fusion and its offshoots as a way to get the folks back in the seats-world music taking that role now it appears.) We have to remember that the advent of be-bop was also met with derision for its “difficulties” in winning the audience which was at the time used to the big band and Dixieland era. In the case of bebop there were social reasons why it eventually prevailed (beatniks, counter culture eventually leading to the 60s, etc.), something that is not happening now in any shape or form. If anything recent history demonstrates complacency at its zenith.
Yes, we have a problem, compounded by the turning out of thousands of over qualified students year in and year out, though my contention is that they are receiving the best overall MUSICAL education they could in this day and age when they study jazz. (Read the article below by Ronan Guilfoyle on jazz education concerning this and other relevant points.) I have no solution or answers. History has a way of changing things faster than humans can keep up with. Examples abound in art-Mozart’s music got a little out of fashion and so on. Of course, I as a performer am grateful when the audience attends and enjoys the music for which I and the band get paid. But to be honest, I really am not thinking about their reaction. I am more involved with how good I can be on the saxophone amidst the musical discussion taking place in the moment with my musical compatriots. Was I or this music supposed to ever really reach a lot of people? Sure, I need to make a living but maybe the only way is to keep the music separate from that ever present reality----I don’t know? I am lucky so far and feel blessed, but for the future it just may be true that we have seen the light and it is dimming. As noted, history has its own inevitable flow and things change to say the least. Interesting to see in ten years what will happen.

MISCELLANEOUS

PREZ AT 100: Some great stuff is on the web about Lester Young celebrating the 100th anniversary of his birth, especially comments by Ethan Iverson (thebadplus.typepad.com) centering on Prez’ personality, which in the end is the bottom line concerning the communicative power of a performing artist. If there is any music more personally revealing to the core than jazz, I would like to know. Of course, there is plenty of music in the world which brings out the personality of the performer but for us in the West besides the blues, jazz is as close to the real deal as it gets. When you get past the music, the technical, etc., you are left with the artist’s vibe and take on life. As Iverson points out so well, Prez had a discernible vulnerability and a feeling of tenderness in his playing with a generosity towards the other musicians that can be felt and heard. We are after all who we are and for those fortunate and skilled enough to transcend their instrument allowing them to approach the true core of their being, it can’t help but be apparent to the sensitive listener. In the final result, what we really hear is that person talking to us. It’s all soooo personal.

WWW.JUSTICEFOR JAZZ ARTISTS.ORG: An organization in New York set up through the musician’s union trying to get the clubs in New York to be equitable and righteous towards working jazz players. This is a great site with a lot of info about jazz in general, but most important it represents a way of trying to rectify some of the problems that working jazz musicians encounter in the Apple.

WEST SIDE STORY: I took my family to see the revival on Broadway which brought back all kinds of memories. First of all, I remember the original show on Broadway in the ‘50s and then the movie. Being a New Yorker and a teenager at the time, the whole gang thing was significant to me. (Of course, any problems then pale to what we have in our time.) In the early ‘90s I spent a few months with Bernstein’s score and came out with a recording on the now defunct Owl label from France, arranging the music for multi keyboardist Gil Goldstein and myself in a duo setting. I relistened to my CD and must say I enjoyed it immensely. In fact I spent a few days updating the reharmonization I originally wrote on the beautiful and prayer-like “One Hand, One Heart.” Great music all the way and with Steven Sondheim barely out of his teens at that time. Lately I have been checking out Sondheim’s music which is really sophisticated in the manner that the melody, harmony and rhythm all intersect along with some pretty high level lyrics. His music is generally not going to be sung in the shower, but as art, it is right up there.

JAMEY AEBERSOLD AT 70: I have said on many occasions that Jamey should be the recipient of the Medal of Freedom for contribution to American culture. Everyone jokes about the playalong records and hearing Jamey’s count off, etc., but through this music played by some of the best rhythm section guys in the business and his keen sense of organizing much of the jazz educational material written in the past decades, he has definitely contributed to keeping the music alive (apropos the entry above on the subject). I would venture to say that for the most part, anywhere on the planet where there is at least some interest in improvising jazz, you will find an Aebersold playalong. As well his summer clinics which have been operating for nearly forty years are legendary-people of all ages and levels doing jazz all day for a week. I know he was an important model for me when I began teaching and I have the greatest respect for what he has accomplished. By the way, he is believe it or not, a very funny guy. Happy 70th Jamey.

LIVE FROM THE PAD: This teleconferencing thing is obviously happening in many walks of life and of course in the teaching arena. But to be able to go downstairs into my studio and critique students from across the planet from Adelaide, Australia for an hour and a half is definitely nice. Bassist/ educator Todd Coolman arranged the class with a colleague and sure enough there we were at 9PM on a weekday night checking out a really nice group of musicians from their class in Australia. Soon-we won’t even have to get out of bed!!

OUTSTANDING LECTURE-BENJAMIN ZANDER: I was not familiar with this artist prior. However this talk on Chopin is fantastic and not just from the musical standpoint, but for the deep wisdom and passion displayed about life in general. One statement, though on the surface may appear a bit dramatic, makes the point that when you leave a person(s) or situation, the last thing you say to them could be the last thing they remember about you-something to ponder.
http://patrickmclaughlin.blogspot.com/2009/07/benjamin

PASSINGS
RASHIED ALI: This is a bad one. I don’t know the exact details but it seems like something went wrong in the hospital that shouldn’t have. In any case, Shied was one of the most important drummers to come out of the ‘60s and though he isn’t lauded in the same way that Elvin or Tony are, he was a groundbreaker and essential to what Trane did in his last years. Rashied’s playing with John was texturally quite light, though it may have appeared on the surface to be bombastic as a result of the group’s incredible energy level. Above all it was insistent and seamless with no “ones,” no bar divisions, just a beautiful carpet for Trane, Pharoah and Alice to work their magic over. The release of the live Newport Festival concert from 1966 (which I attended) is incredible and should be required listening. As I have said so often, the late period of Trane has been widely ignored and misunderstood. Suffice to say, it wouldn’t have gone down the way it did without Rashied. I played with him on more than a few occasions over the decades and though he was tagged as a “free” drummer (implying no steady pulse), he loved to play time and in fact was reluctant to do otherwise. As I wrote in a newsletter a few years ago, I saw him and Sonny Fortune in duo playing “Impressions” for an hour and a half in a Paris club. It was astounding. From a personal standpoint, Shied was a sweetheart of a man, hip as they come and always ready to play. We’ve lost a great one.

TED KENNEDY; MICHAEL JACKSON; WOODSTOCK: Somehow these three events all have something in common from my standpoint. On the surface, Kennedy, the great liberal Democrat who forwarded the type of agenda I grew up with in a liberal home in the ‘50s (continuing the FDR agenda) doesn’t have much in common with Jackson or Woodstock. But as I see it, it is my generation in its last third of life with the tide of history moving inexorably onward. Jackson was very talented and hit the universal pulse but was arguably doomed from the start like Elvis and Hendrix and in a way Coltrane, all for different reasons yet with things in common. Woodstock was the end of a feel good time when at least a part of my generation (a small percentage in the end) were able to slip under the radar just enough to feel empowered before Nixon and the rest of his ilk took over for a few decades. We did leave an effect: women’s rights, sexual freedom (for a minute at least, before AIDS); civil rights and more. Senator Kennedy took care of business which he did as well as could be expected in our political system. But in the end, universal health care, one of the four responsibilities of a righteous government (defense, education and culture being the others) looks unlikely as the concept grates against the profit motive, unheard of in European countries in the health arena. Underneath all the prosaic descriptions we have been fed about capitalism, the sad truth is that basically there is a class system at work, which though it may appear to be surreptitious is in the end the bottom line. In any case we did the best we could and we aren’t finished yet, though the light is getting dimmer.

GEORGE RUSSELL: Talk about ahead of his time, I have a recording from the mid ‘50s with a small group playing George’s music which was clearly way ahead of its era harmonically speaking. Russell was an innovator, a real artist and craftsman who went to places that few others did and took the time to write an important thesis (Lydian Concept) which was required reading for a generation. As well, he spent years teaching at the New England Conservatory and was a mentor to several generations of arrangers and composers. (The George Russell Smalltet -The Jazz Workshop Bluebird/ BMG 6467-2-RB)

FROM OTHERS:IN DEFENSE OF JAZZ EDUCATION BY RONAN GUILFOYLE
I think it’s fair to say that in the jazz media, jazz education (or at least formalised jazz education in institutions) gets a bad press which is ironic, since many from outside jazz find the idea of it both intriguing and admirable. I once had the good fortune to spend some time with the great American classical composer John Adams, and when he found out I was a jazz musician he went into a eulogy about jazz musicians and their abilities, comparing them to classical musicians and expressing the opinion that fully trained jazz musicians were generally superior to classical musicians these days due to the incredible range of their abilities. His son is a jazz bassist and Adams told me about watching him playing in an ensemble in his school, playing Wayne Shorter tunes. Adams expressed amazement at the harmonic sophistication of those young musicians and their ability to undertake something as challenging as that.

Yet playing through the repertoire of Wayne Shorter’s music is precisely the kind of activity that draws the ire of jazz education’s critics - ‘everyone learns the same stuff’ is the mantra – or one of the mantras – used to reinforce the argument that jazz education has a negative impact on jazz and its practitioners.

Before going further, I should explain that I myself am not a product of the jazz education system. I learned how to play this music in a way that would have been familiar to earlier practitioners – mostly from playing gigs. The jazz scene in Ireland in the late 70s was a throwback to an earlier era in that it was essentially a bebop environment – Broadway and jazz standards, little or no originals, and everyone was supposed to know every tune from memory – no Real Books (I think I saw my first one in 1981 – it was like seeing the Dead Sea Scrolls!). I read music books, picked up whatever info I could from other musicians and figured stuff out for myself – there were no jazz schools here then.

Now, thirty years later I am the head of a jazz programme here in Dublin – a typical jazz performance degree programme with eighty students, with content typical of this kind of education.

So I see both sides of the argument – I see the benefits I gained by being self-educated: self-reliance, development of instincts, ability to think on one’s feet and take decisions without always being told what to do. And I also see the disadvantages to that mode of learning – lack of access to useful (and sometimes vital) information, and making the kind of mistakes for years that could have been set right by a good teacher in 10 minutes. For example: although I knew most of the major and minor modes (found them in a Rick Laird bass book!), and could play them, I was playing them for years before I found out that they were related!

Having been involved in starting a school from scratch here in Dublin, and having seen the positive effect of that in the local jazz community, and having been able to give young musicians access to the kind of information and resources I didn’t have at their age, I’ve always been somewhat exasperated by what I see as the knee-jerk attacks on jazz education. Usually these take three forms:
1) Jazz education turns all who partake of it into clones.

2) The proof of jazz education’s failure is the fact that though there are more practitioners than ever before the percentage of great players hasn’t got any higher.

3) What is the point of turning out jazz graduates when there are no gigs?
To take each one of these in turn:
1. Jazz education turns all who partake of it into clones.
The first thing to remember when dealing with this argument is that academic music education, of any sort, is not ideal anyway. In music schools we tell students that you must learn X amount of information in X amount of weeks, but of course students are always of differing abilities and may have different life circumstances, and while one student may absorb the information fully, another may struggle. In non-academic ways of learning music (such as the one I undertook) you spend as long a time with a piece of information as you need or want and then move on. And in traditional cultures (and in rock music for example) this is primarily the way to learn music. But in western society we have developed a system of education which is geared to educate the many rather than the individual. While this is ideal for certain subjects (science and math for example) it is less than ideal for music. But for better or for worse, this is the structure we have and the one we have to deal with.

If you want to train young musicians in the techniques of music, and give many of them access to that, rather than a few hand-picked individuals, then you don’t really have a choice other than the academic model – for economic reasons if for no other. It would be clearly impossible to take students in and keep them in school until such time as they felt ready to move on, treating each one individually, so that student X spends three years on harmony while Y spends 6 months on the same subject. It’s just unworkable – an open ended school is just not a practical possibility – for the school or the students. If you discard the academic model you must also discard many of the students - there is no other way to educate larger groups of people efficiently.

Having accepted the jazz school as the most practical model in which to operate, you then have to make a decision as to what to teach. The argument that the schools all teach the same stuff, therefore making all students into homogenised clones, is an argument based on the idea that the older practitioners were helped by the fact that they didn’t go to school and their originality was predicated on their differing knowledge. But their originality was the result of their originality – it had nothing to do with their empirical knowledge or lack of it. What a lot of critics forget about is that most high level jazz school courses are staffed and run by professional jazz musicians. These are musicians who deal with the realities of playing the music, and who are aware of the skills necessary to survive in the professional milieu. And it is largely these same musicians who decide the curricula for the schools – not some faceless bureaucrat. So the information that is provided is largely that body of information which professional musicians agree are basic prerequisites for a life as a professional jazz musician. This basic information – harmonic, technical and rhythmic as well as repertoire – is generally agreed by most professionals to be part of the essential toolkit of the contemporary jazz musician.

Yet the writer James Lincoln Collier says: “With students all over the United States being taught more or less the same harmonic principles, it is hardly surprising that their solos tend to sound much the same. It is important for us to understand that many of the most influential players developed their own personal harmonic schemes, very frequently because they had little training in theory and were forced to find it their own way.”
So – there we have it, the noble savage syndrome – for the sake of your creativity and originality it’s better to have no training. It’s hard to know where to start with the refutation of an argument this stupid. It’s like suggesting that if you want to become a writer it would be better to to be illiterate and figure out the rules of English yourself, rather than go to school and be taught how to read, how spelling, grammar and syntax works, and being directed towards great writing of the past. Yet this is the bizarre subtext of much of the criticism of jazz education – in order to be creative and original it’s better to be uneducated. But though these writers idealise the self-taught musicians of the past, how many of these same jazz greats would have taken advantage of educational institutions had they been available to them? Most I’d say. And if they had, would it have stifled their creativity? Would Coltrane have sounded like a thousand other saxophonists of he’d gone to a jazz school? To suggest that he would have is to deny his innate genius and originality.

And the English writer Stuart Nicholson makes similar claims to Collier: “Today, hundreds of thousands of students and thousands of teachers study a narrow repository of stylistic inspiration, which for many students has resulted in both a similarity of concept and execution.”
Ignoring the hyperbole of the ‘hundreds of thousands’ claim (I doubt if there’s that many jazz musicians of any stripe in the whole world!), Nicholson uses this argument to attack the US jazz scene, claiming that it is the jazz education system that has largely contributed to American jazz stagnating while European jazz forges ahead. This argument conveniently ignores the fact that most European jazz schools teach (with variations) the same basic core curriculum as their American counterparts. European jazz schools take the American system as their basic model, so all of these young European musicians that Nicholson lauds so highly come from a very similar educational background to their US counterparts.

And as to the charge that jazz education produces only clones, consider the following musicians:
Brad Mehldau, Jim Black, Branford Marsalis, John Scofield, Tom Rainey, John Abercrombie, Joe Lovano, Greg Osby, Jeff Watts, Pat Metheny, Scott Colley, Bill Frisell, Brian Blade. All of these have spent time in jazz educational institutions – are they all clones?

2. The proof of jazz education’s failure is the fact that though there are more practitioners than ever before the percentage of great players hasn’t got any higher.
Schools do not teach creativity nor originality nor do they stifle it – creativity and originality have always been in short supply. We are educating the many, but in the end, only a few will ‘get it’ so to speak. The number of musicians of real creativity, the ones who are head and shoulders above everyone else, have always been in the minority. And contrary to the mythology, the pre-jazz education scene was not always peopled by complete originals – Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Lester Young, and Bud Powell (to take just a few examples) all had droves of disciples who tried to emulate their heroes. Jazz has always been peopled by a few innovators and many imitators. The imitators either find a personal wrinkle for themselves within the canon created by the innovators, or they just vapidly regurgitate the surface gestures of the great ones. It was the same in 1930 as it is now.

What a good school will do is provide the environment that will give anyone who studies there access to information which will help them towards their goals. A student’s originality will not be created by a school, nor will it be destroyed by it – original people will always be original people. No matter how many people go through the jazz education system the percentage of true originals will not rise. However everyone coming through the doors of a good jazz school will be given access to tools which will help them create a musical career for themselves should they wish to pursue it. Jazz schools cannot manufacture creativity, but they can facilitate in speeding the journey of the truly creative while giving a good music education to those who may not be among the elite in terms of originality, but who nevertheless are talented and wish to partake in the great musical tradition of jazz.

3. What is the point of turning out jazz graduates when there are no gigs?
This is a genuine concern among jazz educators and musicians, and recently Ethan Iverson wrote the following in his blog: “There’s positive aspects to jazz education, but I do worry about how corporate and money-driven it can seem, especially now that the bubble has burst. As we all know, not only do young players fresh out of jazz college have trouble finding gigs, but for musicians of all ages the current market is completely over-saturated, making it extraordinarily difficult for anything to have any economic value whatsoever”
While it may be true that gigs are getting harder and harder to come by, the question has to be asked, is this the only value that jazz education has – economic value? The bassist and educator Todd Coolman puts it very well: “We have to quit thinking of college as a vocational school. College, to me, is a place where you go to learn something, to develop intellectual and social skills so that you can become a contributing member of society. No one needs to go to college to learn to play jazz, anyway. In the same respect, college doesn’t create a brilliant economist.”
This point is well made – the idea that teaching the techniques of an art form becomes devalued if there is not immediate or automatic economic benefit to the student is simply wrong. Surely the main point of getting an education is to become educated? The benefits to young people of being involved in jazz are manifold. For example, one of the things that I find most attractive about jazz is the democratic and social nature of the music. The music is brought about by the efforts of a group of people working together, and communicating with each other. Yet within the tradition of this sociable music, the idea of individualism is not only encouraged, but highly prized. So here we have a music which is completely dependent on co-operation between the participants, yet which at the same time encourages each to make as personal and individual a statement as possible. What a wonderful ethos for young people to be involved with!

Another benefit of being in a jazz school and one that’s never even noticed by the critics of jazz education is that schools provide a space in which communities of jazz musicians can exist. In previous times these communities were centered around gigs and clubs and jam sessions, but this environment has almost entirely disappeared. The jazz community has become dispersed, and one of the few places where it still exists is in jazz schools. With the possible exception of New York and a few other larger cities where some gig-centred socialising by musicians still exists, the only place where large groups of jazz practitioners foregather is in jazz schools. Schools not only create a teaching environment, they also provide a place where information can be exchanged, gossip caught up on, new recordings discussed, gig information exchanged, tips for work opportunities given and camaraderie shared.

Like anything, jazz schools are not perfect – in the wrong hands they can churn out graduates without any consideration for the individual. But in my experience that’s the exception rather than the rule - most schools have dedicated teachers with a real love of the music and its traditions and a genuine concern that their students have access to it. In the schools students learn the basic techniques of the music and hopefully are also exposed to the creative ethos of jazz. They provide community environments for musicians whose love of a minority music sets them apart from the mainstream.

I’ve just returned from the International Association of Schools of Jazz annual meeting in Lucerne, where 50 high level jazz students from schools all over the world – from Japan to the US, from Finland to Israel, from Russia to Brazil - got together for a week and played music together and got to know each other through the medium of jazz. I watched them perform six concerts of very high level creative music put together after only three days rehearsal, and watched their mutual delight in sharing this experience with each other. Try telling THEM that the jazz education system was a negative influence on their lives and creativity!

GUNTHER SCHULLER IN CONVERSATION with Frank J. Oteri-2009: From one of the greatest writers (“Early Jazz” and more) and musicians on the planet some very interesting comments concerning the proper perspective on commercial music:
I would too (to reach 200 million people!) but that will never happen. And that's why we have something we call popular music. That is for a mass public, and that is fine. But in human beings there is this capacity for a higher level of art, whatever the art form is, that will always have less recognition, and less support than what is more broadly accessible. If you make the music very easy and simple, you'll get a bigger audience; there's no question about it. There's even a big difference between homophony and polyphony. If you write a nice little melody with a nice little accompaniment, boy, you're in. But if you now make a polyphonic, contrapuntal thing, you lose half your audience right away. I've analyzed this all my life. And I'm smiling as I say all of this. I'm not complaining about anything. It's just that when people try to pin me down about whether I happen not to like this or prefer that, it isn't that simple. For every intended work of art—be it a rock piece or whatever it is—I look at its quality as it was created. I have a pretty analytical mind and I see the good things, and I also see the things that are very commonplace. There's nothing wrong with commonplace, except don't try to elevate it to the level of the highest art. I think we have to keep these things straight to some extent because you get very confused, especially in a world where everything is publicity and selling and labeling and promoting. Man, you can sell the most unbelievable crap and make a million dollars with it. We live in a dangerous world where anything can be made to sound better than it really is and sold. And I think some of us just need to be on guard about all that. But, you know, we all live together.

RECENT HAPPENINGS
IASJ; CHROMATIC MASTER CLASS; WE THREE TOUR: The 19th ANNUAL JAZZ MEETING took place in Lucerne, Switzerland with over 20 countries and nearly 40 schools represented. With fifty students and another sixty administrators and teachers, beautiful weather and great venues, the meeting was another great success as they all are. After so many years of these meetings it is easy to become complacent about what we do, but when I am finished and hear the final concerts by the just formed international ensembles, I am really proud of the contribution we have made with the IASJ on a very personal, one to one level. Next year for our 20th anniversary we will be where we started and maintain our official office, the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag, Netherlands.

Alpen horn demonstration at IASJ Meeting-Switzerland

Ensemble performance at IASJ Meeting

The 22nd CHROMATIC MASTER CLASS had eleven participants from all over the world. With a uniformly high level and several repeat saxophonists (youngbloods), I really enjoy condensing a four semester course into five days. The point is to get the folks exposed and interested in going further into this particular harmonic realm. Phil Markowitz gave a great class analyzing the second, slow movement of Bartok’s Fifth String Quartet. I maintain that if you listen to the six quartets, you basically have the last 100 years of music. Next August I will return the SAXOPHONE MASTER CLASS format. Interested students should get in touch with me after Jan 1 2010 and send an example of their playing. (Details on my web site.)

Rehearsal with master class students for performance at the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA

WE THREE TOUR with Steve Swallow and Adam Nussbaum included a few nice festival gigs around Europe. Steve and I go back to my first heavy gig, exactly forty years ago with Pete LaRoca, playing the Village Vanguard with Chick Core and other places in the Apple. He plays elegantly while his compositions are among the most logical ever written, always with a little twist and sense of humor including above all perfect harmonic voice leading, something so clearly enunciated in this chordless trio. And Adam could swing harder than anyone these days. I love working with these guys.
WE THREE

NEW RELEASES ON JAZZHEAD LABEL-PORGY AND BESS, MILE AHEAD, SKETCHES OF SPAIN with myself as soloist and the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra conducted by Justin DiCiocchio

UPCOMING EVENTS
September: with the Dave Allen Group at 55 Bar, NYC; COTA Festival in Delaware Water Gap, PA with Evan Gregor Group and Dave Liebman Group; Dave Liebman Group at the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA; 55 Bar, New York City; The Falcon in Marlboro, NY; master classes at Manhattan School of Music and Lehigh University.

October: Dave Liebman Group at Chris Jazz Café, Philadelphia, PA; Polish duo tour with pianist Matuesz Kolakowski; Seoul, Korea Jazz Festival with Hey Rim Jeon Group featuring Terry Lynne Carrington and John Lockwood; European tour with “Different But the Same” featuring Ellery Eskelin, Jim Black and Tony Marino.

INTERVALS:July/August 2009

2009-06-23T06:58:00.000-07:00

INTERVALS-JULY/AUGUST 2009

RECENT EVENTS

THE ROAD CALLS: My schedule for May through the beginning of August has been so intense that with only a few days at home, this will be an abridged newsletter.

FRANKFURT BIG BAND WITH RICHIE BEIRACH AND JIM MCNEELY: The radio big band tradition is something that only exists in Europe and for the most part was begun after World War II when state run media was the norm. Though many of the bands usually situated in larger cities have disbanded, in Germany there are a few still active-Cologne, Hamburg and Frankfurt are the most known. (There is also a parallel symphony orchestra tradition in these places.) The German tradition of art for art’s sake is historical and no less true for jazz. They have a very high respect for the music which is shown in the way productions proceed. The equipment, personal treatment and general care musicians receive is legendary. Most of all, there is good pay and an inordinate amount of time spent rehearsing and recording. Basically, the goal is to have either a live radio performance or studio version for future presentations. Usually the music will be heard several times over the next years and on occasion finds its way to public release. The radio band tradition has enabled hundreds of musicians to make a living (band members are paid very well for a steady job with benefits and legal rights) and have a forum for their writing and performing careers. The archives of these long standing bands is full of music made by everyone of note who has played jazz and is always regarded as a great opportunity when one is hired.

Over the years I have done several projects with various arrangers, but most of all with Jim McNeely. He has written a lot of music for me, most notably his arrangement of “Sing, Sing,Sing” for which my big band’s performance gathered a Grammy nomination a few years ago. Coming out of the Thad Jones-Bob Brookmeyer Vanguard Orchestra tradition, Jim is one of the best in the business and has been able over the years to be regularly hired by the major radio bands in Europe. In this case with the Frankfurt HR Band the project was to include my oldest compatriot, Richie Beirach, on piano featuring original music by both of us and one by Jim. Just as legend goes in the case of Duke Ellington, writing with a particular musician mind is something highly valued by arrangers. In this case, Jim has recorded with me on several CDs and as a young musician coming to the “Apple” in the ‘70s from Chicago, got to hear the first group I had with Richie, “Lookout Farm” as well as with Bob Moses in the “Open Sky Trio.” With all of this history, Jim is the perfect writer to be able to take the rather singular approach to harmony that Richie and myself have explored. The arrangements he did were completely on the money and as a whole program truly portrayed a vision and unique sound, especially in the well worn and traditional big band format. I encourage the use of a lot of doubles for the saxophones (all kinds of flutes and clarinets) and Jim really challenged this amazing band in Frankfurt which they accomplished at the highest level. We are hoping for a release in the future. Overall this was one of the best musical experiences I have had. To hear one’s tunes orchestrated at such a high level is a real experience.

Richie and Jim

MILES OF MILES: During the latter part of May, around the time of Miles Davis’ birthday I did two separate gigs celebrating the Prince of Darkness. At Merkin Hall with several musicians I was not familiar with alongside Karl Berger on piano, Badal Roy on tablas and Kenny Wessel on guitar, we did several pieces from “On The Corner.” Incredibly we played the first tune on the record just called “On The Corner” which brings up a story I have told often concerning being called to the studio and walking in towards the end of the session, seeing all these musicians of note (McLaughlin, Corea, Hancock, DeJonette, etc.) standing around silently while Miles Davis was mumbling something. He pointed to the microphone for me to play and without headphones I could not make out the key of the vamp because everyone was plugged in. In any case the solo that opens the original recording is recorded forever, so this was a nice memory. Later in the week at the Iridium club along with bassist Victor Bailey, drummer Leon “Endugo” Chancellor, trumpeter Tim Hagans, altoist Rudresh Mahanthappa, keyboardist John Beasley, Miles’ nephew on drums, Vince Wilburn and several Indian musicians including Badal Roy, we performed music from the release “Miles In India” which a few years ago received a lot of attention. Putting some of Miles’ tunes in this “exotic” context is interesting and hearing Tim Hagans is always a pleasure. He goes right for the chromatic notes from the first beat. Whenever you play any of Miles’ music, it’s amazing because you see the absolute breadth of what he did across four decades.

MISCELLANEOUS GIGS: Playing with French (actually Portuguese-Algerian born) pianist Jean Marie Machado for several gigs is always nice because he is such a fine composer and serious artist. Quartet with guitarist Phil Robson and Jeff Williams on drums (original drummer with my first band with Richie Beirach ”Lookout Farm”) at the Cheltenham Festival in England was burning as was one trio performance with my Dutch mates Eric Ineke on drums and Marius Beets on bass for the Wings Festival in Groningen, Netherlands. We have a recording coming out playing the music of Kurt Weill, following up on our “Lieb Plays Alec Wilder” of a few years ago (Daybreak Records).
RECOMMENDED

CLARK TERRY:One of the hippest musicians who ever played, Clark Terry, who will be 89 in December just beat a problem with one of his fingers and in this video is playing for the doctors and staff: http://tv.jazzcorner.com/view_video.php?viewkey=10e55a13bb9d78e7fddd

REMEMBERING ERIC DOLPHY: Often overlooked, probably the greatest “doublers” adn improvisers who ever played the reed instruments is remembered by his parents: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5Tk5D6qWCY

THE FROG-Someone to Watch Over Me: The Life and Music of Ben Webster by Frank Buchmann-Moller: I must admit that I haven’t listened that much to Ben, but when I have of course I, like everybody falls in love with him. His graceful and elegant approach to ballads, the forceful blues playing and most of his complete control of tone and nuance. The book is way over the top with comments about every track he recorded and every gig, but it does give insight into what the early jazz guys lived like on a daily level, both musically and personally. One thing is for sure—they played all the time!

PHILLIP ROTH-PATRIMONY: Once again Roth gets it absolutely right. This chronicle of the slow death of his father is riveting and I would say a must for all of us losing our parents.

PASSINGS

JARMO SAVOLINEN: A warm person and great pianist from Finland, Jarmo’s passing is particularly sad for the long term members of the International Association of Schools of Jazz where his presence graced many of our meeting throughout the years. Our condolences from the IASJ go out to his family. We will observe a moment of silence at the 19th Meeting in Lucerne at the end of June.

CHARLIE MARIANO: The real deal, a guy who could play anything and was a beautiful sprit as well. He lived long and well and will be remembered by fans and musicians alike.

ITINERAY

JULY:19th Annual Jazz Meeting of the IASJ in Lucerne, Switzerland; tour with “We Three” (Adam Nussbaum and Steve Swallow) in Europe-Fribourg, Switzerland, Merano, Italy, Copenhagen, Porquerolles(Marseilles), France; performance with saxophonist Romano Pratesi in Rome (with Adam Nussbaum) and Florence (Daniel Humair).

AUGUST: Chromatic Harmony Master Class, East Stoudsburg, University, Pennsylvania; clinic and performance at workshop with pianist Armen Donelian and saxophonist Marc Mommaas in Hudson, NY.

On a sailboat in the Rhine River

INTERVALS_DAVID IEBMAN NEWSLETTER-MAY/JUNE 2009

2009-05-06T05:18:00.000-07:00

RECENT:

To my friends:

Those of you who know me have probably heard one of my rants about awards in music like the Monk contest, Grammys, etc. even collegiate festivals-events that I will not take part in as a judge because of the wrong message I think it sends that music is competition, etc.

But of course, I am human and like anyone else appreciate being acknowledged by prestigious institutions. Maybe it is hypocritical tow hat I say above, but so be it. In any case as some of you know I have been awarded a nice honor by the French government, the Order of Arts and Letters-second level-Officer. A lot of heavies in all fields have gotten the order but in jazz only a few. No money-I think some kind of pin, but it's nice and the truth I have spent the most time in France playing and in collaborations with their own musicians. I have always maintained that as far as culture goes, the French can't be beat.

Also I have been appointed Artist in Residence at Manhattan School of Music, where I have been teaching the graduate level for ten years. It means more money and more contact with undergraduate students. It is the best program around with the highest level of serious jazz students.

To all my friends who have supported me, those in the business past and present who have helped me and to the musicians whom I have played with, much thanks--most of all to my family, Natalie and Harold Visentin, Caris and Lydia who bear the brunt of my ceaseless activities and time away from home.

Peace
Lieb

here's a link about the Order of Arts and Letters:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordre_des_Arts_et_des_Lettres

RECENT EVENTS

ENSEMBLE INTERCONTEMPORAIN: The several concerts I did with this incredible ensemble (founded and still lead by Pierre Boulez) in Paris at Le Cite de Musique will stand as one of the highlights of recent years. It is the first time they invited an improviser from the jazz world. The conductor for this event, a great musician from Finland who is doing a lot of guest conducting all over the world, Susanna Malkki, came up with the idea of highlighting several tracks from my recording done live at the Willisau Festival in Switzerland a few years ago where I played my first ever full solo set. The tracks she chose were from initially recorded on “The Tree” (solo soprano on Soul Note from the early 90s) and “Colors” (solo tenor on Hat Hut from the mid 90s). Between her and myself we chose three composers-Italian bassist (and head of the jazz department at the Paris Conservatory) Riccardo Del Fra with whom I have worked and recorded with over many years; French arranger Christophe Dal Sasso who wrote charts on some of my tunes which we recorded together and Finnish composer, Timo Hietala. Though the material they were asked to arrange was the same for all of them, somehow the variety of music they wrote worked out ranging from chord changes to intervallic motifs, pure coloristic and ambient sound and so on. I was pretty free to play what I want and must admit it was one of the most challenging gigs I have had, to come up with so much improvised material over one hour and fifteen minutes.

Of course this ensemble is famous for their reading and playing skills which are unbelievable. Each musician is a soloist on their own and to hear the tone they produced from their instruments was exhilarating. Three percussionist filled the whole stage with drums, gongs, celestas, etc., all of which were incorporated. (It could be said that the 20th century style has done the most for liberating percussionists from their former rather sedate role in previous eras of classical music.) After two concerts we then gave an abridged Saturday morning performance to nearly 1000 children, explaining what improvisation is, the various instruments in the orchestra and so on. The music we played confirms my feelings about how inclusive jazz is, borrowing from all styles diverse elements to be transformed by a performers and composers. There is no music in the world that allows, in fact demands this “borrowing” system. I think the musicians of the ensemble were very impressed with the improvisation they witnessed, since we, as jazz musicians, never repeat anything the same way, even in rehearsal. We are hoping to do more next year in some other European capitals.

With the composers and conductor

DEXTER RIDES AGAIN: Two nights playing the music of Long Tall Dexter at the Iridium in New York with George Cables, Eric Alexander, Lonnie Plaxico and Billy Drummond were a real change of pace for me. These guys really know that music…in fact Lonnie and George of course played with Gordon. It’s great when guys really know the inside stuff beyond the written page. (We used Aebersold’s Volume 82 for lead sheets-thanks Jamey!!) Playing all Dexter tunes it struck me that so much of pure be bop is uplifting and joyous music, often played by people who were prejudiced against, often had drug problems and never really made much money, whereas guys like me who come from pretty secure bourgeois backgrounds play so much dissonant, melancholy and “down” music. It’s interesting what the human spirit is capable of doing.

Band at the Cape of Good Hope

CAPETOWN, SOUTH AFRICA FESTIVAL: With my group (Juris, Marino, Marcinko) we flew all the way down to South Africa for what is basically a pop festival featuring mostly African groups. But being one of two jazz groups (along with drummer Al Foster’s quartet) gave us a golden opportunity to stand out and really play a nice set. Also I got a chance to teach a little with an old student who is running a great program at the University of Capetown, Mike Rossi, as well as play with my old buddy from Israel, Micu Narunsky, who is becoming quite a wine maker in his own right. Of course mention must be made of the amazing natural beauty of the country. We went to where the whales from Antartica gather to mater every year, where the Indian Ocean meets the Atlantic, the Cape of Good Hope with its many ship wrecks, etc. What a beautiful place and what changes from the apartheid period.

The Indian meets the Atlantic

DUO WITH WOLFGANG REISINGER/ QUARTET WITH PHIL ROBSON: I always enjoy playing duo with Wolfgang. He is a drummer par excellent who uses electronics with great taste and sophistication. As well, guitarist Phil Robson’s trio with Jeff Williams (my first drummer in Lookout Farm in the 70s) and Dave Whitfield on bass is a lot of fun to play with. Phil is a great guitarist out of the Martino-Wes bag with good compositional instincts.

DIMI AND THE BLUE MEN: On my web site under Special Features you can read about my trip a few years ago to the country of Mauritania in the Western Sahara desert and how we heard the music of singer Dimi Mint Abba everywhere went. I wrote a tune dedicated to her that I have recorded with Ellery Eskelin (“Renewal”on Hatology) and play with my own group called “Dimi and the Blue Men.” The Blue Men refer to the tall and thin gentlemen of Mauritania who wear blue robes and gracefully dance like birds. Through a long story, I was able to arrange a series of concerts in Paris with Dimi and her group, my two friends who went with me to Mauritania (saxophonists Ric Margitza and Jean Jacques Quesada) along with Jack DeJonette. Unfortunately because of my commitment to the Ensemble Intercontemporain I wasn’ t able to actually perform in the concerts, BUT I did have a chance to hang with Dimi for an afternoon and play with her band. Happening the same day as the children’s concert mentioned above by the Ensemble, it was quite a change to go to Dimi’s hotel room in Paris and play her music (all in the key of G). She is fantastic, soulful and very hip, accompanied by guitar (kind of country and western twangyish), electric bass and one big drum. I had a great time that afternoon and hopefully there will be some more concerts coming.

SIGN OF THE TIMES: More “wonderful “news from the real world. Manny’s and Patelson’s music stores, one where everybody bought something in midtown Manhattan, the other one a major repository of classical sheet music are both closing. These were fixtures of the music world in the Apple and unfortunately just like what is happening to newspapers, it is sad to see the demise of such institutions. I guess there will be nothing left of the “old” world when they get finished with us!

RECOMMENDED
STEVE LACY CONVERSATIONS edited by Jason Weiss: The king of the soprano saxophone, this collection of interviews by Steve over his career is a fantastic read of a man who was witty, very observant, honest and artistic to the core. When someone like Lacy talks about “his” music, it really is about all music and very illuminating. A sample: “A jazz musician is a combination orator, dialectician, mathematician, athlete, entertainer, poet, singer, diplomat, educator, student, comedian, artist, seducer, public masturbator and general all around good fellow. As the diversity indicates, no matter what you do, some people are going to like it and other people not. Therefore, all you can do is to try and satisfy yourself by trusting the man inside.”

U TUBE-JAZZ HISTORY UNLEASHED: The thing about U Tube from the musician’s perspective is that anyone can see masters of another period performing. Where do all these clips come from? Here’s an address which lists all the cats alphabetically on U Tube.
http://ahsjazz.googlepages.com/youtubevideolinks

TRANE PRACTICING FOUR: Fantastic to hear John playing through this epic tune with someone (maybe Philly Joe) playing brushes on what I assume is a phone book. Trane-practicing anyway he could.
http://www.larrysimprovpage.com/?q=audio/by/title/trane_practicing_four

TRANE AGAIN-GIANT STEPS: This tune and solo has got to be the most copied of all time in the sense of such a variety of people playing and using it in so many different ways. There was a version of the solo going around with computer graphics that matched the notes and another guy playing it on an unusual instrument, etc. Here’s yet another phenom with a guy playing the bass line in one hand and keyboard in the other. It is the absolute perfect complexity about “Giant Steps” that just seems to appeal to so many people from all parts of the musical spectrum.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeJt1cB7AA0

GENIUS: THE MODERN VIEW: A very interesting article recommended by my boss at the Manhattan School of Music, Justin DiCioccio concerning so-called “genius” and what it takes to be great. Written by David Brooks in the Times Op-Ed column, stating the obvious but always good to hear observation that it isn’t genetics that makes greatness, it’s hard work. Even Mozart, whom my students know I always place as an example of someone who seemed to be born with his melodic umbilical cord connected to the “force” (or whatever you call the divinity) had to get it together and take care of business:
“What Mozart had, we now believe, was the same thing Tiger Woods had — the ability to focus for long periods of time and a father intent on improving his skills. Mozart played a lot of piano at a very young age, so he got his 10,000 hours of practice in early and then he built from there. The latest research suggests a more prosaic, democratic, even puritanical view of the world. The key factor separating geniuses from the merely accomplished is not a divine spark. It’s not I.Q., a generally bad predictor of success, even in realms like chess. Instead, it’s deliberate practice. Top performers spend more hours (many more hours) rigorously practicing their craft.”

WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN by Lionel Shriver: I got to this book because Lionel is married to Jeff Williams who was the drummer in my first band as leader, “Lookout Farm” after I left Miles in the 70s. (We have renewed our partnership in the past years playing with guitarist Phil Robson in England.) Lionel is quite known in the fiction field. This book is absolutely devastating in its intensity and very well written with tremendous use of vocabulary. It is a portrait of a Columbine type kid who offs a lot of people one day at his high school. Written from the stand point of the mother as letters to her departed husband, it gets very deep concerning the human condition. Lionel, like Phillip Roth whose books I have recommended in the past really notices everything, their implications and nuances. You can’t put this down.

ITNERARY
MAY:DL Group at the Belarussian Chruch, Brooklyn, NY; duo tour of France with Jean Marie Machado including Marseilles, Coutances, Le Havre(workshop also) , Valence(with workshop), Arles, Avignon; Iridium in New York playing Miles In India.

JUNE: Sketches of Spain at Bourg en Bresse, France; trio with Erik Ineke and Marius Beets at the Wings Festival Gronigen, Netherlands; HR Big Band with Richie Beirach and charts by conductor Jim McNeely, Frankfurt, Germany; IASJ 19th Annual Jazz Meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Incredible-getting younger and younger-with Steve (drums) and Darryl Johns (bass-TWELVE YEARS OLD!)playing "Footprints" at recent gig

Wednesday, December 31, 2008 INTERVALS-DAVID LIEBMAN NEWSLETTER-MARCH-APRIL 2009

2009-02-28T21:41:00.000-08:00

RECENT HAPPENINGS

PANEL DISCUSSION:JEWS, BLACKS AND JAZZ
Along with Don Byron, author Jeff Melnick, Stanley Crouch and myself we “engaged’ in a public discussion on this subject at Jazz at Lincoln Center. It appears they have been doing panels on controversial subjects in recent years, moderated by the excellent Lewis Porter. Crouch’s reputation precedes him as is well known in the jazz community. He has a propensity for antagonizing folks, obviously enjoys being a provocateur (in this case on Don Byron a bit), and of course was Wynton Marsalis’ media mouthpiece for his rise to fame. But he is super educated, conversant in jazz history and actually interesting to listen to. The same could be said about Don Byron. Melnick wrote a book concerning the overall relationship between Jews and Blacks both politically and in the music world during the 20th century. To be honest I can’t really tell you what points were made, but one thing is for sure-we have a black President but never had a Jewish one!! In fact the whole discussion to my mind is besides the point. All cultures have been prejudiced by someone, somewhere; all cultures have music as part of their history; and all people play the “blues,” in one way or the other. If there has ever been a more INCLUSIVE music than jazz, I don’t know it. I think Martin Luther King says it perfectly:

On the Importance of Jazz
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Opening Address to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
“God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create—and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations. Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music. Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.
It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls.Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down.
And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith. In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone.”

BIRDLAND WITH RANDY BRECKER, BILLY HART, MARC COPLAND AND DREW GRESS
What fun to be with Randy, my friend for forty five years at Birdland with a stellar rhythm section. He plays so effortlessly that it boggles the mind. It “appears” that he makes no physical effort at all to play the trumpet. I have always considered him the best of all—yes, the best!! And we play great together, never having to think about it, especially with a rhythm section like this. Randy also joined my regular group for a gig at the Baltimore Art Museum playing the music of Trane and Miles-now that was really fun!

Review from the New York Times-Jan 29 2009 by Nate Chinen:

“During an expectant lull in his first set at Birdland on Wednesday night Dave Liebman broke the silence with a question. It came as a rising chirp on soprano saxophone, and immediately there was a sharp answer, from the trumpeter Randy Brecker. Both musicians paused and then plunged ahead, parrying and feinting, interrupting and restating, worrying their notes into a tangle. The exchange felt contentious but cordial, as if these two partners were rekindling a long-running debate.
At least that’s one way to characterize the dynamic between Mr. Liebman and Mr. Brecker, whose relationship spans more than four decades. A sympathetic pair of improvisers, they have worked together only sporadically: their available body of work grew significantly last year with the release of “Pen dulum,” a three-CD set of material from a 1978 Village Vanguard engagement. (It’s available through Mosaic: mosaicrecords.com.)
As on “Pendulum,” Mr. Liebman and Mr. Brecker are working this week with a coloristic but aggressive rhythm section and tackling a mix of standards and originals. Their tandem improvisation was a prelude to “All for Bird,” a tune by Mr. Liebman. Later they closed with something from Mr. Brecker’s book, a hard-bop shuffle called “Dirty Dogs.”
The contrast between these two players was striking, especially on what seemed like an unfamiliar theme: “Like It Never Was,” a dark-hued waltz by the group’s bassist, Drew Gress. Taking the first turn through the form, Mr. Brecker proceeded with caution, clearing a space for each phrase, pushing forward a steely tone. Mr. Liebman, on tenor, was more casual, beginning with a blurry parabola of notes. Then he stopped, scowled, shifted his weight, scratched his head and resumed with a more rhythmic conceit.
Mr. Liebman has long been pegged as a post-Coltrane improviser — he does his part to encourage that reputation — but here he also drew deeply from the prewar tenor palette, evoking a figure like Chu Berry. On an oddly harmonized version of the Lee Morgan classic “The Sidewinder,” he told his story almost vocally, smearing some lines and barking others, playing up the husk and grain of his tone.“The Sidewinder” doubled as a showpiece for Mr. Brecker, whose exceptional control over the horn hasn’t slackened since the “Pendulum” era. Summoning a clipped, Lee Morgan-like articulation, he managed a series of jagged, leaping intervals before concluding with a whinnying sigh.
Along with Mr. Gress, the band’s rhythmic engine was the drummer Billy Hart, who worked hard, lashing the beat to a supple pulse. In the piano chair was Marc Copland, digging furrows and softly tolling half-dissonant chords. On the whole the band sounded better as the set wore on, but its front-line rapport was strong throughout.”

FRANCE WITH BOBO STENSON, DANIEL HUMAIR, JEAN PAUL CELEA
Playing with some of the best European cats is always fun and places me in a different gear because their rhythmic approach is so loose and varied, incorporating a lot of rubato melodies. Pianist Bobo Stenson is truly a unique player with burning energy and a great harmonic sense, with influences ranging from Paul Bley to McCoy Tyner. Daniel Humair who played with Bud Powell, Dexter Gordon and everyone is a walking history of European jazz , while Jean Paul Celea has a tone on the bass that is about the biggest I have ever played with. Always fun to be with these guys and people truly enjoy the interesting mixture of influences.

INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTIAN McBRIDE AT THE HARLEM JAZZ MUSEUM
The Jazz Museum is a space in Harlem housing memorabilia, books and features a variety of activities. Administered by saxophonist Loren Schoenberg and Christian McBride, the Artistic Director, there is really a nice feeling in the room. Christian and I had a ball talking together-it is a lot of fun to be “interviewed” by a musician in the know who has particular questions that especially interest him.

COMMENT: Puzzle: Why did the family (I assume) put the first seven notes of “Solar” (a tune that Miles supposedly “borrowed” from guitarist Chuck Wayne) on Miles' tombstone at Pinelawn Cemetary in the Bronx? I mean of all the tunes to choose! www.death2ur.com/milesdavisgravesite

RECOMMENDED: MONK PLAYING ROUND MIDNIGHT
This U tube segment features an incredibly focused version of the classic by Monk in trio. The touch, clarity and simplicity is as clear as can be. Thelonius was such a unique voice with a rhythmic feel unparalleled in jazz. http://www.jazzonthetube.com/page/7.html

UPCOMING EVENTS
I will be doing something quite unique in Paris during the second week of March at le Cite De Musique. The Ensemble Intercontemporain, considered the foremost group playing contemporary music in the world was founded by Pierre Boulez in the 70’s. This is the first time they are inviting an improviser from the jazz world. It is well know that Boulez himself doesn’t like jazz much, but through one of the musicians I was invited by the conductor, Susana Malkki. Three composers have been chosen: Italian bassist Riccardo Del Fra (who is also in charge of the jazz program at the Paris Conservatory), French composer Christophe Del Sasso (with whom I have recorded) and straight from the contemporary classical world Finnish composer Timo Hietala. They were given several of my solo soprano and tenor improvisations from two of my recordings, “The Tree” and “Colors” both recorded in the 1990’s. Using my solos as source material the three gentlemen have arranged them with all kinds of orchestral colors and new material featuring this incredible ensemble of thirty one musicians. I did something similar year ago with a similar ensemble, the Vienna based Klangforum playing music written by guitarist Wolfgang Muthspiehl. Recent decades have thankfully seen the line between the jazz and classical fields blur. The two worlds have more in common that previously imagined. This is indeed a great honor for me. The site is: www.ensembleinter.com

MARCH: The Iridium in New York playing the music of Dexter Gordon in a quintet with Eric Alexander and George Cables; Ensemble Intercontemporain(above); master classes at the Paris Conservatory with the classical saxophone students of Claude DeLangle and the jazz program; the Dave Liebman Group at the 55 Bar, NYC and the Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA; the Dave Liebman Group at the Capetown Jazz Festival, South Africa.

APRIL: Central Florida University, Orlando; St. Mary’s University, Winona, Minnesota; duo with Wolfgang Reisinger at Porgy and Bess, Vienna, Austria; with the BBC Big Band at the Cheltenham Festival, England; residency at Trinity Conservatory, London, England; premiere of original piece “Passings” commissioned by the Commission Project for soprano sax, oboe, viola and cello at the Manhattan School of Music.

FEATURE ARTICLE
In the 80’s when I was writing “Self Portrait Of A Jazz Artist” I did a lot of thinking about the artistic process. There is a magazine published in my area of Pennsylvania as part of the Al Cohn Collection, which is a resource of information, books, recordings, etc., that began with saxophonist Al Cohn’s music and has grown to become a repository of materials springing from the very positive jazz scene we have out here in the Pocono Mountains. As part of The Note, here is a new version of my thoughts on the artistic process:
Reflections on the Artistic Process
Vincent Van Gogh, in a letter to his brother Theo, wrote: “Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not something accidental, but are willed. What is drawing? How does one learn it? It is working through an invisible iron wall that seems to stand between what one feels and what one can do.”
An artist is a person who attempts to be in touch with his/her inner self in order to communicate this information to others through their expertise in an abstract endeavor (i.e. an art). An artist’s body of work is autobiographical and, at the same time, a means by which the artist communicates both individual and universal experiences that all people share.
There are technicians (craftsmen) and there are artists. The former are technically trained and have the expertise necessary to produce works in their particular field. For some, these works may be convincing as art. But artists offer something more than just craftsmanship. They are aware of their role and need to express something of relevance about life through their art. From one perspective, the difference between art and craft can be compared to the difference between art and entertainment. Though great art can entertain, in the final result, entertainment is transitory while art is eternal. As well, meaningful art not only educates and raises consciousness but also challenges the recipient to be emotionally open to what is being offered. Art reveals one’s inner self to both the artist and the receiver.
The artist should strive to be cultured and aware of mankind’s eternal quest for freedom, beauty, and truth though the ages in all its manifestations, including artistic endeavors, but also through observation of all aspects of the human condition. Understanding matters of philosophy, history, the spiritual world, psychology, the humanities, etc., while at the same time empathizing with humanity’s successes and failures, all add to the reservoir of emotion and feeling that the artist calls upon when creating.
A central tenet of artistic creation is the dichotomy between the desire to be universal yet, at the same time, individual and unique (something that an artist is constantly working on). It is a polarity which as well mirrors the human condition. The artist is constantly striving towards expressing and integrating these two aspects to achieve a workable and intriguing balance. As Albert Einstein wrote: “Universality is a part of real greatness.”
All human beings are linked together through the timeless, universal chain of history and events. The artist is an example to others of man’s innate desire for freedom of expression through the ages. Once the artist has grasped the significance of this role, the next thought inevitably follows: that art should inspire people to better themselves and the world while serving as a means of perceiving the continuum of past, present and future.
Music is the most abstract and least concrete of the arts. Sound is intangible, offering the listener unending interpretative options. Bearing some commonalities with the field of mathematics, music finds expression in numbers and a symbolic language. One common element that music shares with certain other art forms is in the performance realm. Drama, ballet, even poetry at times, all have to be communicated in real time for the art to be realized. This concept of present time, trying not to be in the past or the future (which some refer to as “being there”), is an extraordinary aspect of performance and comes into play even more so for an improvising artist.
Art is a reflection of the varieties of people and cultures throughout the world. In music, there are differences in style, instruments, and content. When one considers, for example, geography (Greek odd-metered rhythms, Brazilian sambas, German polkas) or ethnicity (Jewish cantorial prayers, Gregorian chants, Hindu ragas), the possibilities are limitless. Hopefully, these contextual differences which one’s art naturally reflects do not obscure the universal qualities that all humans feel beyond culture, religion, and politics. The variety of styles and idioms available at any given moment of history serves to function as a transitory vehicle through which the artist expresses him or herself.
Much of the power of expression in a work of art is derived from its rhythm, which is omnipresent as a direct manifestation of the ebb and flow of life. Paintings, sculpture and poetry all have rhythmic characteristics as do the more obvious fields of music, drama, and dance. In the final analysis, rhythm is what moves people emotionally since it is basic to the human condition. Capturing a meaningful rhythm at just the right moment is a serious artistic challenge, especially in the performing arts. Rhythm exerts a major influence on the principle of tension and release, which will be discussed in a future column.
Mastering an art form is only the beginning of the artistic process. Communicating one’s art to the world-at-large completes the work. This “real world” process requires desire, courage, and discipline on the artist’s part in order to bring one’s artistic creations to the outside world. There exists a view that the value of an artistic creation depends upon its ability to communicate. This notion implies that the bigger the audience in attendance, or the more enthusiastic the approval it receives, etc., the higher the value of the art. Though this is arguable and dependent upon many outside factors, it does raise the point that art should somehow communicate to the lay audience. The essential consideration here is that the “ivory tower” image of artists creating masterpieces merely for themselves or for some esoteric circle is not a positive one. Communication completes the artistic process and involves an intense effort towards that goal.
The primary challenge for the artist is to decide to whom (s)he wants to communicate and to what extent. Simply put, at what level of sophistication does the artist manifest their work? Can we compare the kind of pop art that surrounds us daily to the level of emotional depth addressed, for example, in Picasso’s Spanish Civil War masterpiece “Guernica?” An artist should be aware of whom they are creating for. It could be said that one’s art implies a pre-destined audience and milieu upon its very creation. The artist has already made a choice by the nature of the work itself.
Tension and release
A successful artistic statement should include emotional as well as technical content to be fully balanced. The full range of human emotions (love, sadness, joy, anger, etc.) provide the source material from which an artist draws to create, while the intensity of one’s passion fuels the process. How an artist balances emotion and technique in relation to one of the primary aesthetic principles of artistic creation, tension and release, is a major factor contributing towards the success of a work of art.
From the technical standpoint, achieving a convincing balance between tension and release is concerned with how the artist uses available options of a particular artistic parameter. If a painter has to decide upon the right tool for portraying a specific figure, the appropriate selection may depend on the story line and what aspect of the picture needs to be emphasized or minimized, thereby influencing his choice of a thick or thin bristled brush. In music there is the juggling of dynamic levels which dramatically influences the denouement of tension and release in a performance or composition. This ever present ebb and flow of tension and release is determined by subtle and intricate technical matters to be chosen by each artist accordingly. Balance and contrast within the constraints of tension and release are omnipresent in artistic creation. An artist’s work should be flexible enough to absorb the extremes as well as the subtle shadings inherent within the tension and release principle.
Appreciating Art
A deep appreciation and understanding of an art form results from a combination of spontaneous emotional responses and familiarity with the work itself. The former is inexplicable and largely intuitive while the latter is developed through education aimed towards understanding the processes taking place. People have an inherent fascination and curiosity in knowing how things work. When one appreciates the thought and discipline involved in producing a work of art as well as emotionally enjoying it, admiration and respect follow. The bottom line to appreciation is education and repeated high level exposure to the art at hand. For the artist him or herself, it is important to be able to judge and enjoy work in one’s field in an objective manner, taking into account personal taste and the potential of a natural competitive element, especially if the work is in the same area of expertise.
Grafting
A commonality to most serious artists is the quest for fresh information in one’s field as well as the ability to learn new material. Knowing how to learn assumes recognition of useful information, followed by comprehension of the concepts involved, concluded by incorporating the material into the artist’s already familiar milieu. The concept of “grafting” can be helpful when confronted with incorporating new material. This is the transference of concepts or techniques from one area to another, possibly quite removed in context from the source itself. It may also mean translating ideas from one medium to another. For example, many of the harmonic concepts of the outstanding 20th century classical composers have been “grafted” to the jazz language throughout its relatively short history. Instrumentalists might graft techniques which are natural to a specific instrument to their own, thereby creating a new context for the concept. Over the years, I have had several guitarists comment to me that they were trying to emulate a saxophonist’s concept of line construction, purposely avoiding the habitual finger patterns that are natural to their instrument. Visa versa, on the horn I have often tried to imitate the way a guitarist or Indian flautist bends notes. Grafting is a major tool for discovering new combinations.
Artistic Stages
The first stage of the artistic process involves absorption of principles and techniques that have already been accepted as standard in the field and the ability to duplicate these concepts up to minimum criterion. For a time, this may mean that the long term and overall goal of formulating an individual style is temporarily put on hold. After this imitative stage, the artist personalizes past and contemporary styles, meaning active participation in real world activity happening in the field. As this participatory process evolves, some artists will progress to the third stage of innovation. That is contributing something unique, potentially of major importance in the field but it could also be subtle as a different way to play something on one’s instrument or possibly a new fingering, etc. From the personalization (second) period onward, further study of technique and past achievements in the field broadens the expressive power of the artist’s work enabling a wider range of emotions and ideas to be conveyed. Study of the past need not be an obstacle to creativity, but rather a source for conceptualizing the present and future. Bela Bartok wrote “that only from the entirely old can the entirely new be born.” In jazz, study of older styles and artists can result in fresh insights when “grafted” onto a modern concept.
Stages of artistic growth reveal themselves in more obvious ways during the beginning years. For example, being able to recognize significant improvements in technique and conception at an early point of musical development can be easily noticed by simply hearing two recordings of oneself from several months apart. After the beginning stages improvement appears to be measurably slower since progress is more subtly revealed. An artist must maintain a sense of positive reinforcement at this stage. This is psychologically crucial, especially during times of frustration and self doubt which many artists go through at this stage or at one time or another. When I was working with drummer Elvin Jones, I asked him how he heard himself after so many years. He said that the ability to execute something with more ease than previously was indicative of musical growth for him. The mature and long practicing artist recognizes this activity as the refining and editing process. What is more important as the years roll by is that the artist vigilantly places oneself at the center of the creative storm dealing with any new challenges that arise in the field. Process becomes more important than results at this later stage of development.
When one looks to the past in the study of an art form, (s)he should aim at finding the original source of a style. Obviously, current exponents of a particular style may initially serve as source material and inspiration. But for true and honest artistic growth, second (or later) generation artists are not the most effective tool for learning what came before. For example in jazz, a student interested in the Coltrane style should be studying the music of the master himself, not me or some of my contemporaries. Our value to the learning artist is useful, concerned with how we each took one aspect of Coltrane’s music and developed an individual approach. (Of course, in the years to come, who can predict from where the new source will come?)
Being Objective
At the outset of the artistic process a student practices and learns on a mechanical level with little reflection about any deeper implications. This is advantageous for beginning learning of the craft which is after all to a large extent, rote memorization. As one matures past the early stages, a certain degree of self consciousness may occur which can complicate the learning process for a time; the danger being that one’s mind gets in the way of the laborious (and daily) discipline necessary to hone the craft. Clear objectivity is important at this point, meaning one must address the technical issues at hand and let the psyche slowly collect impressions, feelings, etc., which will eventually find their way into the personalization stage. The challenge is maintaining awareness of one’s weak points and organizing an approach towards improvement. As the craft is fine-tuned, achieving a balance between negative and constructive criticism improves over time.

On the subject of craft, it should be noted that in many cases artistic breakthroughs have been accompanied by technical innovation. Examples are numerous such as Picasso’s cubist renderings of the human anatomy or James Joyce’s stream of consciousness. In jazz, the instrumental technique has been extended or enlarged with every major breakthrough. Louis Armstrong extended the playing range of the trumpet; Charlie Parker seemingly doubled the fluidity of the saxophone; John Coltrane extended the range of the tenor sax; John McLaughlin, Cecil Taylor and Art Tatum pushed the technique forward on their respective instruments and contributed to the evolution of the entire music as an art form. For a beginning artist, technique can lead to more knowledge and advances, but craft should never supersede content. Self awareness and objective evaluation on the part of the artist is crucial at all stages of development.
Gaining Artistic Control
If there is one universal axiom which applies to the arts, it is that the process is arduous and lengthy. The results of study and practice must be seen in a long-term context. Certain technical and conceptual skills are learned quickly, but the more subtle aspects take time and perseverance. For the jazz improviser, one must find an acceptable balance between habit and spontaneity. Musically, habitual response means that a musical idea can be executed in real time without conscious thought, while spontaneous expression breathes life and immediacy into the gesture. Under the category of habitual responses in jazz are skills such as acquiring a convincing rhythmic feel, control of the idiomatic nuances of phrasing, instrumental mastery and tone, all encased in a viable soloistic concept. Longer term areas include composition and arranging skills, band leader experience and a deep grasp of personal expressive devices which immediately identify one instrumentalist from another. Real hours spent in a consistent study/practice routine are mandatory, no matter how naturally gifted one may be, while patience with a view towards long range results is necessary. Though one may feel pressured by the outside world at large to mature rapidly, this music demands a minimum amount of time, measured in years to yield positive results and a feeling of accomplishment. The pianist Bill Evans wrote: “An individual style develops out of a person’s musicianship and artistic need. It comes from being committed over a long period of time to a comprehensive musical development.”
On a more subtle level concerning artistic control, sensitivity can be developed but intuition is inborn. It is that inexplicable element which to some degree all people have about something(s). When intuition is involved the results appear to have come about due to no specific cause. (Maybe intuition is the result of knowledge gained from past lives?) An artist should trust their intuition as it is an important element of the creative process and continues to develop as one matures. Sometimes it is just a “feeling” that a choice one way or the other should be made. For improvising musicians, intuition is very important because there is so little real time to make musical decisions in the moment
Inspiration
In the beginning stages of the artistic process, inspiration comes from one’s idols, mentors and hopefully peers. The desire to emulate someone more advanced spurs the young musician on. Once the budding artist has their basic craft together as described above (which also assumes an understanding of the history and traditions of the art form), inspiration comes about as a by-product of being human. Life’s everyday interactions and the universal emotions that all humankind experience-love, birth, death etc., if observed as such provide ample opportunity to inspire one’s work. On a more subtle and personal level are experiences gleaned from the inner psychological states or “passages” of life as one matures. Self awareness of these cycles should, can and in the final result must inspire artistic creation. In actuality one’s art is a running autobiographical account of a life, available for all to witness, enjoy and for better or worse, judge. Being a true artist from this point of view is a challenging job, especially on the psychological level.
As a case in point as I traveled through my own passages, the titles of original compositions reflected an ever changing focus as I grew. The way I write, titles often precede the actual composition suggesting a musical idea to pursue. At first, inspiration for the titles came about as my subjective reflections of the world in relation to a personal and obviously self centered world view. Inspiration came from people, places and experiences that directly affected my life. In the next stage motivation derived from thoughts concerning society, the past and the world at large. Presumably, the later years reflect the individual in relation to the cosmos, spiritual matters and the passing on of eternal verities to future generations; in total the accumulated wisdom of a life. Of course, each stage coexists with and reflects knowledge gained from remembrances of past feelings, thoughts and events. This is what keeps the process fresh and ongoing-the mixture of old and new experiences-past with the present. Any artist who is aware of his or her surroundings and their relationship to the world theoretically could never run out of material for inspiration.
Matters of Personal and Artistic Balance
“Paying dues” is an expression which describes life for all people, not only artists. Resistance is necessary at times in life for forward motion to occur. When life and work are flowing satisfactorily positive energy is being stored up for the next cycle of trials and tribulations. What goes up must come down! Observing life’s cycles, it does appear that in periods of stress humankind calls upon both the best and worst in behavior. For an artist, heartfelt inspiration and real inner strength are often revealed at such periods and may result in personal creative pinnacles. Unfortunately it appears that artists, possibly because of their heightened sensitivities, are more prone than their fellow man to succumb to frustration, depression and self-pity which can lead to self-destructive tendencies and life styles. One of the challenges of an artistic life is how to experience and gain insight through life’s experiences while achieving a living and working balance within oneself and with the world at large. It certainly appears that sooner or later most people strive for some sort of balance in their life. There are times (especially in youth) when “being out of rhythm” may actually be helpful towards attaining self-knowledge. But ultimately, a realistic sense of balance is essential for a long, healthy and for an artist, productive life.
In the art itself, the matter of balance is concerned with the seemingly contradictory tendencies of control and freedom. The challenge is to use both aspects at the most constructive moments. Specifically in the area of improvising an ideal aesthetic balance might be described as total control of the language and tools of music, instrumental virtuosity, mental and intellectual depth along with a personal flow which allows these and other factors to mix together spontaneously producing lasting artistic results. The musician who sports a flashy technique to the detriment of musicality is an example of a poor balance. Another example of imbalance is the overly intellectual player who evidences little true passion. As in life, so goes art-a constant search for balance between opposite tendencies; the ultimate yin-yang paradigm.
Consistency and Growth
One criterion of what constitutes a professional in a particular field and especially in the performing arts is consistency. The ability to maintain a minimum standard with occasional leaps into greatness is expected. If one considers creativity as an ongoing process of problem solving (for example, the improviser hones in on one specific musical challenge posed by the composition be it harmony or rhythm, etc.), the professional is an individual who knows how to confront a new or intriguing “problem” in a disciplined and seamless manner with the audience none the wiser. Stravinsky writes in his Poetics of Music to the effect that “the more art is controlled, limited, worked over, the more it is free.”
By the time an artist has reached their second to third decade of the process, they are particularly ripe for creative breakthroughs. One still retains the energy and enthusiasm of youth, yet is mature enough to solidify personal goals not driven by the expectations of others. Furthermore, if an artist has any worldly success (in material terms the ability to economically survive as an artist), this individual will have garnered some personal, if not public rewards. A sense of pride and accomplishment will be present yet at the same time there is ambition enough to attain further goals. The competitive element is still smoldering in one’s thirties driven to some degree by a combination of ego and peer pressure. As well there is the understanding that financial security can insure one’s artistic development and freedom to create will continue unabated. These “real world” forces may help stimulate an artist in a positive fashion as long as they are viewed in a proper perspective and do not control one’s life. In general it appears that by the time the next stage is reached the artist’s creative life is running along, one way or the other. Outside of any physical issues that accompany aging, the positive side for an artist is that one has had years of experience. Artistically, this equates to technical and emotional control and a level of inner freedom which allows the artist to dig deeper towards finding their own uniqueness.
Personal Issues
Artists face the same problems and challenges as anyone else in their personal relationships. Because of their unique lifestyle and heightened sensitivities there are potentially more complications than the norm. Especially in the performing arts, there is the ever-present danger of playing the same role in real life as one does in performance. An “attitude” and a public persona are necessary for the performer who faces a live audience (what actors refer to as the “fourth wall”). This reality vs. performer aspect can be tricky and balance is necessary between these two often contradictory forces at work, sometimes on a daily level. For some artists constant travel also places extra strain on relationships but there are untold creative rewards in seeing and experiencing the world. One does eventually recognize that what they do, though it does separate them from others in some respects, is after all a job like any other. After the flush of youthful adventurism, life usually calms down into a routine not so different from what takes place in the “real” world.
Western society from the Renaissance on has given special status to the artist, resulting in great works as well as heightened neurosis. It’s true that an artist who achieves fame in modern culture becomes a celebrity possibly enabling them to create without everyday mundane concerns. However, there is the danger and temptation of commercialization and its deadening influence on creativity. In this cultural milieu an artist is a prime candidate for anxiety and other mental (as well as physical) pressures. In more traditional societies the artist was a member of the community like any other person, fulfilling a specialized function necessary for the well-being of the populace, no different than the farmer or whomever. This framework was and in some parts of the world still is conducive to creativity in different ways than the orthodox Western framework. No matter the context or period of history, every artist within a given culture has to deal with the world they live in, finding a way to accommodate their creative impulses while at the same time forging ahead for the sake of their own sanity as well as the art and its tradition.

Communication
Concerning communicating art to the world at large, if at times it is difficult for the artist themselves to understand other works in the field, it may be easier to empathize with how the inexperienced public can have problems in comprehension. It’s important that the artist realize what impression a work has on an audience and without sacrificing quality attempt to present the work with as much clarity as possible. The desire to communicate with large numbers of people is a specific goal unto itself and for some the primary one. If an artist can somehow keep a distinction between the artistic merits of a work and its success as measured by popularity and acceptance, (s)he will remain on healthy artistic ground. One factor should not be a barometer of the value of the other. A successful commercial piece can be highly artistic and memorable, using Picasso’s Guernica or Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony as two prime examples, but these exceptions and others like them are not the norm. An artist must keep these matters in perspective.
In the final result an artist’s sense of humanity is what we see, hear and feel. How the artist sees themselves in relation to the outside world is reflected in their work. Everyone is responsible for their own actions and beliefs, even to some degree in societies where freedom of expression is curtailed. In any given situation there is a point where outside factors, though influencing the results, cannot be used to justify one’s actions or beliefs. This is when a person’s sense of humanity, compassion, respect for others, moral and ethical codes, etc., intersect a creative act. In the final result, an artist’s body of work is a clear indication of where they stand in relation to the world as potential seer, critic, observer, destroyer or creator of beauty and truth.
Everything one does has an effect somewhere, somehow and at some point in time, though it may not be contemporaneous. One never fully recognizes the real world influence a work of art can have. To my mind, if an individual perseveres in their chosen field and discovers through the artistic process the positive and life affirming values of creation, much has been accomplished, at least on a personal level, if nothing more. Like a ripple in the water, the effect will eventually be felt downstream. Being involved in the creative process and all it signifies, a person has taken upon themselves the responsibility of looking inward to communicate something of value to the world using their chosen art form as the vehicle to accomplish this. That is at the minimum, personal bravery of the highest order with the potential to change the world!

This is the medallion I wear every day on a chain around my neck communicating my belief in a "universal' religion.:

________________________________________

PASSINGS:GERRY NIEWOOD
This is so sad…much like what happened to Bob Berg some years ago; a great musician, a family man and beautiful cat who has paid his dues is lost out of nowhere just going to a gig. There are no words that can express the sadness that his family must feel for his loss, as well as for guitarist Coleman Mellett. We travel a lot and the percentages, though small compared to other forms of travel increase for us because of the frequency. All of this is so easy to explain in words on paper but so hard to accept. My condolences to son Adam and the Niewood family for their loss.

“FATHEAD” DAVID NEWMAN: Living a long and productive life, Fathead, like Stanley Turrentine, Hank Crawford and Grover Washington came at jazz from the blues side-the root with embellishments; therefore always swinging with a straightforward message to communicate.

INTERVALS-DAVID LIEBMAN NEWSLETTER-JANUARY/FEBURUARY 2009

2008-12-31T07:38:00.000-08:00

THE ART OF FILM SCORING
Next to cartoons which demands new music (usually very fast tempos) every ten seconds or so, writing film scores is truly a high art. I recently watched a movie from the 50’s called “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” which incidentally is the story of a singer who I had no knowledge of, Lillian Roth, her rise and fall from alcoholism, etc. But it was the score by one of the best known film writers Alex North that was incredible. Musicians like North, Bernard Herrmann, Elmer Bernstein, etc., were obviously well educated in both 20th century music and jazz, clearly evidenced in their harmonic choices. Of course the use of real orchestras makes a difference and as we all know that is a thing of the past for the most part. In the North score I heard a flute choir, acoustic guitar and flute duo, French horns with muted trombone and so on--rich, varied and truly high crafted orchestrations. It was real art-to match the visual with the aural and enhance the story line; what a great challenge that does still exist to some degree thankfully in our time with Zimmer, Morricone, Isham and others.
In a similar vein talking to one of my students about the “old days” of recording just ten years ago before the computer where although we did cut and splice tape, musicians had to self correct mistakes of timing, intonation and assorted other tasks mostly on their own. I have to think that without the reliance on machines, one’s musicianship was well tested, consequently leading to general and continual self improvement. Of course the young musicians these days are better trained and maybe they wouldn’t have to correct as much, but there is something scary about the need to develop and improve musical skills when with the click of a button, matters of intonation, placement of beat and more can be corrected and made PERFECT. So…the way of the world….

LANG LANG ON CHOPIN
Watching a great interview with the young, popular and controversial Chinese classical pianist Lang Lang on I was stuck by his analysis of Chopin’s music which he summarized (and demonstrated on U Tube) with three points: color, lyricism and poetry. I would say these are universal axioms which in jazz equates perfectly. Color is the sound that emanates from one’s instrument which is the first thing heard by the listener even before a musical shape is formed; lyricism refers to all the elements of phrasing, specifically the ability to “sing” a melody convincingly; poetry is rhythm, particularly the flow of music which includes the space between notes and phrases. Beautifully described by an elegant pianist.

SUMMER MASTER CLASS IN CHROMATICISM
My master class this summer will be on “A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Melody and Harmony” which is the title of my book on the subject and constitutes the course I teach in the graduate division of the Manhattan School of Music in New York. It is open to all instrumentalists and emphasizes composition as well as the use of chromatic devices while improvising in any idiom. The dates are July 28 through Aug 2, 2009 held at East Stroudsburg University, East Stroudsburg, PA which is about one and a half hours from New York. Please go to my web site and on the main page click Saxophone/ Chromatic Master Class for information.

NEW PRODUCTS
DAVE LIEBMAN GROUP LIVE:FURTHER CONVERSATIONS-True Azul: This is a great set recorded live in 2007 at the Mayfair Arts Festival in Allentown, PA which shows the group in high energy performance mode covering an entire gamut of styles from a reharmonized standard, “Green Dolphin Street” to the world music strains of “Anubis” and burning jazz “Victim.” Vic Juris who has been with me since 1991 really shines on this recording showing what a real guitarist can do besides the obvious which is to provide color and ambiance, comping and composing. AVAILABLE ONLY THROUGH DOWNLOAD: I tunes, Amazon, etc.

DAVID LIEBMAN TRANSCRIPTIONS: This is a collection of very detailed transcriptions of myself playing on standard material such as “Milestones” “Mr. PC ” “Green Dolphin Street” “Autumn in NY” and more. With analysis, extraction of phrases, a summary of how to use the material and a CD itself with the actual recorded solos (not normally part of transcription books), this is a very specific look into my style when I play on more or less standard chord changes. Available through Jamey Aebersold: www.jazzbooks.com or direct link:
http://aebersold.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=LT&Category_Code=

FROM STUDENT TO JAZZ ARTIST: TALKS WITH DAVID LIEBMAN: In a three hour MP3 format, I talk with altoist Matt Vashlishan (who has collaborated with me on several publications) and bassist Evan Gregor (my web master), both long time students and friends, answering a range of questions basically centering upon the concerns that arise in that period of time when a student is finishing their education and about to “officially” embark on a professional career. This is advice gleaned from over 30 years of observation and my own interaction with students. Some of the topics covered are: leading a band, business matters, traveling, social relationships and more. Available through www.advancemusic.com

HILARIOUS: My good friend and compatriot from Ireland, bassist/composer Ronan Guilfoyle was in Vietnam and found the following in a store. This is the height of bootlegging-it's hard for you to see here but the writing lists the members of the MJQ; the cover and inside folder also lists the MJQ and the tunes they play BUT with pictures of my group taken from my web site! The DVD itself is the MJQ playing in germany in 1987.This is the height of ridiculousness. I have to make a poster out of it. I mean, do I look like Milt Jackson?

RECENT EVENTS: DL GROUP AND DUO WITH MARC COPLAND
In a period from mid October through right before Xmas I did two back to back European tours and two Midwest swings. I counted probably around 40 hotel rooms, 50 train stations, a couple of thousand miles driving and I can’t count how many planes. I am not complaining but it is daunting when I look at these figures because the tours I am talking about are one nighters and hard travel. We don’t have limos or private planes or much help until we get to the gig. My gratitude to the guys in my band and Marc for all their help in lugging valises and instruments. But of course in the end, the music and the audience’s response is worth it. I see more and older listeners are “getting it” (which for better or worse seems to be the majority of the audience that I see outside of colleges of course). As discussed in my last newsletter, with the DL Group we are recording in January and have been performing a chosen repertoire of Ornette Coleman, all original arrangements. With Marc Copland who is an harmonic master, the music ranges from spontaneous classic standards (“My Funny Valentine” “Impressions” “Round Midnight” to original compositions. I want to mention one new, very chromatic piece I wrote for Barack Obama called “Enfin” which in French means FINALLY-an ode to the long process and path that got an African American elected and the importance of this event in the long struggle against racism. We also do another very challenging piece called “Vendetta”. It’s great to be able to play with a musician with such a high level understanding of harmony. I am fortunate in this respect because after all, a horn player does not normally concern himself with such intricate questions of voice leading, dense chord voicings and inner voice movement, all the subtle musical elements that a pianist deals with everyday. This observation of course leads to the opinion that being a REAL pianist is by far, THE most challenging instrument-PERIOD! With the greatest respect to you guys…….

RECOMMENDED:
Stand By Me-a great song being sung across the world simultaneously; truly the universal power of music at work:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM
Sax Summit performance at Baltica Jazz-July 08:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWjyz1X2m_I
PHILLIP ROTH: EXIT GHOST: I am a complete fan of Roth. I think his writing is fantastic and very psychologically accurate about people and what is happening in the moment. I felt that way reading Dostoevsky also-nothing escapes the eyes of this type of writer. The latest book “Exit Ghost” is probably depressing to some concerning the end of life, but for me, I found it fascinating and of great interest as to how one handle this inevitable passage. Highly recommended but not for the faint hearted.
PASSINGS: HUB TONES
We all know that in the past decade or so Freddie Hubbard was not really playing much, but the truth is that if had stopped playing after the late 60s, I would still say the same thing about him, which is that he was the best of all time for me. His sound and ideas, his fire, his tunes and most of all his time were all incredible. He had the widest beat of anyone and made you really feel the pulse. He did it all-in and out harmonies-soft and loud-abstract with the blues, etc. He influenced everyone who is serious about jazz.
LESSONS FROM HUB TONES
I received two lessons inadvertently from Hub for which he would be surprised. On a recording session under Jimmy Cobb's leadership in the early 80's, I arranged one of my tunes for three horns: Freddie on flugel, Pee Wee Ellis on tenor and myself on soprano wiht a great rhtyhm section icluding Larry Willis and Walter Booker. Of course I was quite nervous about the tune, the arrangement, Freddie Hubbard, my shadow, etc-you get the point!! We did a take and of course there is that silence which occurs after the ringing of the cymbals subsides-who will talk first? The arranger, the leader or the "heavy" (Hub) in the room because turthfully everyone was in awe of Hub in and out of the band that day. Finally, in what seemed a lifetimge Hub says let's listen and of course I get the middle seat in the booth since it is my tune. Now, not that the tune was very hard, but there were some tricky things you had to stay alert about in the bridge (tune is "Picadilly Lilly"). Hub fluffed a note or two and of course though I was aware of it during the take, I was not about to say anything. To my mind at that point in my development as a jazz musician, guys like Freddie Hubbard ALWAYS got it perfect. After a few seconds, Hub yells from the back: "Liebman-that wasn't right-was it?" I answer the obvious and he says something like "I guess we have to do it again." Of course, by the third take he owned the tune!! Though it was never released, I learned an important and what might appear simplistic truth thanks to Hubtones which is that the best are that way BECAUSE they want to get it right. To what extent it is a matter of ego and/or artistic determination, the point is don't let anything go by that can be improved, no matter who you are.
About ten years later in the early 90's, Hub was a guest with the local college band where I live in Stroudsburg, PA. The school is East Stroudsburg University and the great director who invited heavies like Hub in to play with a basically non-professional student band (no jazz major, etc) was my good friend Pat Dorian. As part of the gig, Freddie was asked to give a q and a in the afternoon for the general public. Knowing about Freddie and his legendary temperament, I was really wondering how his attitude would be for the afternoon session. Well, he was gracious, informative, modest and great all around. I went back stage to see him and commented on his "performance." He said that he had never done anything like that and he was actually nervous. I assured Hub that he was stellar. This was the very beginning of a period we are still in where no matter who you are, you will probably be ginving a clinic somewhere, sometime. I mean if Miles or Duke were around, they would be required to do it. In the early 90s's this was not common and it made me realize that a change has come when someone like Freddie Hubbard has to talk about his art to the public and like a playing gig, they will be judged on that "performance" as well.

Thanks for the lessons Hubtones!

TRANE AGAIN:Killing,capsulized version of "I Want To Talk About You" with textbook example of the way John took the ii-V progression to another level in the bridge particulary on last chorus before head; Elvin and McCoy at their best:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR9ixWP-P9I

ITINERARY(please go to venue for exact dates and times):
JANUARY-With pianist Bobby Avey Quartet at Deer Head Inn, Delaware Water Gap, PA; TV show with DL Group playing Ornette Coleman music at WVIA (PBS), Pittston, PA; public interview with Loren Schoenberg at the Jazz Museum, Harlem, NY; talk with Lewis Porter, Stanley Crouch at Jazz at Lincoln Center on “Jews, Blacks and Jazz”; four nights at Birdland, NYC with Marc Copland, Randy Brecker, Billy Hart, Drew Gress
FEBRUARY-France tour with Bobo Stenson, Daniel Humair, Jean Paul Celea; clinic at the Woodwind and Brass Shop, Paris, France; master classes at the Paris Conservatory; performance with the Jazz Studio Orchestra Bari, Italy; performance with Tony Arco and Enrico Intra at Scimmies, Milan, Italy; workshop at the Civica Scuola di Jazz, Milan; DL Group at the Baltimore Art Museum; DL Group at the Philadelphia Art Museum; with the Ed Saindon Group at University of New Hampshire; clinic and concert at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff

INTERVALS-LIEB NEWSLETTER-NOV/DEC 2008

2008-11-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

BARACK:Writing a tune for this historic event called "Enfin" which in French means FINALLY; vindication of the jazz fathers who put their lives on the line playing this music called jazz as way to express the outrage and humiliation felt by all African-Americans for the way they were treated by the white race in America. People do learn-things do change-"Alabama" was only forty five years ago!!

ITINERARY (please go to venue for exact dates and times)
NOVEMBER: Dave Liebman Group at the Falcon Arts Center-Marlboro, New York; 55 Bar-New York City; Deer Head Inn-Delaware Water Gap, PA; Blue Wisp-Cincinnati, OH;University of Indiana-Bloomington, IN; Washington University-St Louis, MO; Green Mill-Chicago, IL; Bloom School of Music-Chicago, IL; Firefly-Ann Arbor, MI; Manchester Crafts Guild-Pittsburgh, PA; East Erie Turners-Erie, PA; Albright-Knox Art Gallery-Buffalo, NY

DECEMBER: Performance of Sketches of Spain-Cite De Musique-Paris, France; Duo tour with pianist Marc Copland-Trier (GERMANY);Oslo (NORWAY);Firenze (ITALY);Bruneck (ITALY);Paris (FRANCE);Caen (FRANCE) ;Dudelange (LUXEMBURG); Frankfurt (GERMANY); Lausanne (SWITZERLAND);clinic in Uster (SWITZERLAND); NEAR ZÜRICH)
St. Gallen (SWITZERLAND)

LIEB GROUP IN EUROPE
It has been awhile since I took my group to Europe and it was a record breaker in some ways. Fourteen straight one nighters which includes a solo concert on my night of arrival in Germany (most consecutive gigs ever for me without a break); most trains in one day (four); earliest clinic (Trondheim, Norway at 8AM) followed by another clinic a few thousand miles away in the afternoon and gig at night (Tromso); finally, the latest concert I have ever played beginning at nearly 1AM in Cork, Ireland followed by a departure at 4AM for New York. As it is said in a song: “(S)he works hard for a living!!” But of course playing every night is such a rarity and so good for you that it is worth it in the end. We are working on an Ornette Coleman recording and the music had a chance to come together over these two weeks.

Talking about Ornette, I chose nine tunes out of nearly one hundred I had to pick from. I have no idea how many tunes Ornette has written but it must be in the several hundreds. His tunes have a kind of uniformity that you see in Monk for example-every tune is a version of the same thing but with countless variations. And of course, lyricism is the most outstanding element. My choices seem to come down to a lot of the earlier works, even a few with chord changes like “The Blessing.” As usual I have added harmony in some cases and abstracted some of the heads. The other guys in the band each contributed an arrangement as well (Juris, Marino and Marcinko). We will record in January for a label as yet unknown, but most improtant the effect on my playing is already evident. Ornette is Mr. Triad and thinking in thirds, both major and minor is a very particular way to play. I am enjoying the project very much. Besides the European tour, as you see in the itinerary below we have ample opportunity to work the music out even further.

Photo by Umberto Germinale

HOMAGE-AMADEUS AND TRANE
By coincidence in the past few weeks I visited the homes of both John Coltrane (Long Island, New York) and Mozart (Salzburg, Austria). The Coltrane grave with both John and Alice is situated in a beautiful cemetery right in the middle of Long Island, a peaceful and serene site with at this point just a grave stone. The house where Trane lived his past few years is in pretty bad physical shape and needs a lot of work but here is a committee of well meaning folks trying to get it together. It was dramatic I must say to see the room where he wrote the music for “Love Supreme.” As well it was gratifying to know that his last years were spent in a beautiful setting with his kids able to run around and enjoy life. That day, Ravi Coltrane and I did a lecture at the local library for the public to raise their awareness of who lived in their midst.

Mozart’s home is a bit of a tourist trap but one thing that stuck me was the map of all his travels and the fact that one third of his short life was spent on the road. Think about travelling in the 18th century-horse drawn carriages trespassing around in the mud; no heat or light or toilets; freezing weather, incredible conditions to live under and yet write the most incredible music up to that time. Like Bach, he didn’t get along to well with the folks from his city of residence. Can you imagine what it was like to be a musical genius in a society like 18th century Austria?

RESPECT-THE SENIOR ASPECT
I like to describe to students about the unspoken hierarchy at work in the jazz world. When someone is “senior,” meaning he is ahead in years and experience you give it up to him. Recently surfaced is a letter that Sonny Rollins wrote to his idol, Coleman Hawkins. It is the epitome of what the word respect means-it is humble-it is poetic-above all it is heartfelt. This is what I wrote to Sonny:

Newk-Your letter to Hawk not only reflects upon your humility and respect for your "father" but as you make clear, it places the qualities of what it is to be human front and center, even above the music. I have always felt that we are chosen (and privileged beyond our wildest dreams) to be messengers of humanity, mostly through the art, but more important as "human" examples of the search for truth, beauty, spiritual meaning, etc. Being clear about these matters is something I have always noticed in your demeanor through interviews and even today, reading your heartfelt responses to the guestbook entries on your site. We all love you Newk and wish you continued health. I hope to see you soon again in person (Carnegie Hall was too crowded) and maybe get a chance to play with you.
Love
Lieb
Here is the link to Sonny’s letter to Hawk: http://sonnyrollins.com/rollinslettertohawkins.pdf

NY NOSTALGIA
You have to have grown up in New York to relate to the recent demise of Yankee Stadium. Sports unites people, especially in a city environment. The Yankees, Brooklyn Dodgers and NY Giants were three teams in my childhood who all played baseball in New York. When the Giants and Dodgers left for the West Coast it was a gigantic blow to the city with the Yanks staying on. “The House That Ruth Built” is now a thing of the past like the roller coaster, Nathan’s hot dog and more. Time marches on and we get older, but what a great memory. Mickey Mantle was my first idol at eight years old, right before Elvis!

LONG DISTANCE MASTER CLASS
At the Manhattan School of Music where I teach they have a long distance learning center linked up with a facility in Ottawa, Canada. This is the second time I did a session where I listen to a combo play and make comments. It’s really a special situation that of course is not the same as being there in person, but suffices as a way to have contact with folks you might not otherwise meet. Wave of the future? The link is: (put into your browser)
http://distancelearning.msmnyc.edu/archive/MOTR-Liebman-16September2008.htm

LIEB IN CHINESE
Well, I guess I have arrived. My “Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound” is now translated into Chinese. It is already in German, Japanese, Czech and unauthorized in Italian and French. I am officially an American export!!

SPECIAL GUYS:TONY MARINO
Bassist Tony Marino has been with me since 1991 in my group and accompanying me on more records than anyone else (save Richie Beirach). Tony is a phenomenon to all that know him. Self taught, coming from an area of Pennsylvania where jazz is non existent, a family man with three kids, Tony fits the description they used to describe James Brown: “The hardest working man in show business.” Anyone who hears Tony shakes their head and says to me: “ Where has he been-where does he come from, etc?” Given another set of circumstances Tony would’ve been a jazz superstar. Meanwhile those of us in the Pocono Mountains have the privilege of playing and knowing this selfless, gracious man and killing musician. I have never heard Tony raise his voice or get angry.

We have a festival founded by Phil Woods that has been going on for over thirty years in my area, the COTA Festival in Delaware Water Gap on the weekend after Labor Day. I usually play there with the group; my daughter takes part in a Jazz Mass; Bob Dorough, Urbie Green, Phil Woods and others are regular participants-it’s a real local hang. Tony’s two days this last September may be a bit less than typical, but not by much. It isn’t just the logistics of what he does, it is the stylistic changes that he endures in the course of a day. At COTA he played with the JARO Big band (repertoire), the Dave Liebman Group, the Jazz Mass ( been doing that since the beginning of the festival), a group lead by drummer Tom Whaley and as well played with me at the Jazz Gallery in New York with Ellery Eskelin and Jim Black (“Different But The Same”) on both nights. To top it off he had a club date on the Sunday at the new casino in our area, Mt. Airy Lodge. This guy goes beyond the call of duty and always does the job-a phenomenon.

JIM BLACK
While I am pointing out special individuals I hope that you are familiar with drummer Jim Black who is an absolute one of a kind artist and musician. I have never seen such intense creativity on a night to night basis. He is always a pleasure to play with and represents to me the prototype “new” drummer coming out of rock, world and jazz, all integrated with a unique sound and touch on his instrument.

RECENT EVENTS
Miles in India: Producer emeritus Bob Belden put together a record last year with a long list of ex Miles alumni combining with a slew of Indian musicians transforming tunes like “Silent Way” and “All Blues” into Indian flavored pieces. We did a big concert at Davies Hall in San Francisco with Ndugu Leon Chancellor, Robert Irving, Vince Wilburn, Badal Roy, Pete Cosey, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Steve Thornton and a bunch of Indian musicians with of course Wallace Roney doing the Miles thing. I must say it was pretty nice-loose and colorful and very audience friendly. There wasn’t much for me to do but I enjoyed hearing the Indian cats go at it.

Badal Roy and Michael Henderson-It must be Miles Davis season because the next week I did a gig with my old friend tablaist Badal Roy from John McLaughlin days("My Goals Beyond"), Miles' group ("On The Corner") and my first group "Lookout Farm," along with the bassist who was in the band with me when I was with Miles, Michael Henderson. With Kenny Wessel on guitar and Steve Gorn on bansuri flute we had a nice gig at the Hartford Jazz Festival. As I write there are at least three movies in the works about Miles. They can’t let him go-nor should they!

Canadian Group-One of my oldest and best students is saxophonist Mike Murley who lives in Toronto.We have kept our relationship going over twenty five years since teaching at the Banff Institute in western Canada in the ‘80s. Along with drummer Ian Froman who is a great Elvin-inspired player and bassist Pat Collins (subbing for Jim Vivian) we have done some gigs over the years and released a live record (“Day and Nite”). We had a nice weekend in Toronto doing some concerts and workshops playing some burning straight ahead jazz.

Duo with Mateusz Kolakowski-A few years ago a young Polish pianist began communicating with me and sending recordings. I finally got a chance to play in duo with him at the Jazz Standard. He is definitely one of those phenoms you hear about from Eastern Europe-full of technique and ideas, but what was most gratifying to me was that he was quite aware of my harmonic language as if we had been playing together for awhile. I look forward to making more music with Matueusz, who is now about 21 years old.

Peace
Lieb

INTERVALS:DAVID LIEBMAN NEWSLETTER:SEPT/OCT 08

2008-09-01T20:00:00.000-07:00

SPECIAL FOR OCTOBER ON SATELLITE RADIO(SIRIUS)
I will be hosting "Trane Tracks" which is dedicated to John Coltrane's music. It will be on Sirius Radio, the Pure Jazz Channel #72 (www.sirius.com/purejazz) airing every Saturday in October at 8PM Eastern time with a replay on Wednesdays at 12 noon ET. Great music and my commentary.

BLAST FROM THE PAST
FORTY YEARS AGO:THE PUBLIC BEGINNING OF MY JAZZ VOYAGE
In September, 1968 my group which included Mike Garson on piano,Lonnie Ruthstein on drums, Kameron Brown on bass and Randy Brecker on trumpet was selected by Jazz Interactions to play opposite the groups of Elvin Jones and Roland Kirk at New York;s Town Hall-talk about being nervous!!

THE ELDERS:I don’t often take part in the large European summer tour schedule, which is usually reserved for banner name groups and as a sign of the times, more and more pop music under the guise of jazz. There is a real kind of “battalion” mentality when you do these festivals, meeting your compatriots in a city, playing before or after them, to be followed by a meeting again across the continent a few days later; maybe breakfast and then adios. I remember doing my first tours with Elvin Jones as part of the then George Wein produced Newport Festival on the road, where six or seven groups would barnstorm across Europe and meet on occasion at a big, day long festival. On this recent jaunt with Saxophone Summit, we were able to hear Wayne Shorter two times, once with the group he has had for years along with the Imani Woodwind Quintet which was absolutely special. Then there was Ornette Coleman with two basses and drums. I am so glad to see Wayne and Ornette hold the same group together over years, which to my mind is essential to musical growth. Others change by the season, to their detriment in my opinion. One night in Copenhagen stands out, having seen Wayne and Ornette play, talking at night with Lee Konitz and meeting Phil Woods (my Pennsylvania neighbor) in the lobby that day-all into their late 70 ‘s and more, still hitting, still involved. It never ceases to amaze me.

Meanwhile our Saxophone Summit tour was fantastic with everyone playing better than ever. It is true that even at our stage of playing for decades, improvement is still apparent. One gig on our tour stands out because it was in Pamplona, Spain where they have the running of the bulls, which has been going on for centuries. Though we didn’t see the actual running (takes a few minutes at 8AM for a week or so), the crowds of people were amazing, all dressed in white with red scarfs. We played at 12:30 AM and had to leave the open air venue we played navigating the most people I have ever seen congregated, peacefully and happily. What a vibe!!

RECOMMENDED
Pablo Picassos amazing Guernica painting in 3D; really makes you think about what he saw in his mind’s eye.
http://www.lena-gieseke.com/guernica/movie.html

PASSINGS
JOHNNY GRIFFIN:Definitely one of the fathers, the Little Giant played with such conviction, grace and strength, not to mention speed. He was one of the great contributors to the legacy.

JOE BECK AND HIRAM BULLOCK:Two very different guitarists, each forging his own individual voice.

MUSICANS TAKE NOTE: I have just found out about an organization which appears to function like the old Record Manufacturers Fund to which record companies contributed a certain amount of money that was allotted to artists in relation to the recordings they did in any one year. This organization seems to do the same for all the most recent forms of recordings released-internet, etc; the Alliance of Artists and Recording Companies. Just go on line to join and get the info.
www.aacroyalties.com

TO WATCH:Nice clips from Sax Summit’s concert at Symphony Space last year commemorating Coltrane’s birthday, one playing “Expression” with Randy Brecker sitting in; the other doing my arrangement of “Cosmos.” (Paste into your browser)
http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=r-wl-QXqRPU&feature=related

http://fr.youtube.com/watch?v=Hk9qJ418vRI&NR=1---cosmos

RECENT EVENTS
GEORGE GRUNTZ AND ORCHESTRA:The legendary Swiss pianist and arranger George Gruntz invited me to play with a full orchestra in Germany for a few days joined by James Morrison, the serious Australian multi instrumentalist (saxes, trumpet, trombone, etc). It is indeed something special when you get in front of a large group like that which is really enjoying being part of a musical experience so different from what they normally do.

SAX MASTER CLASS::For my 21st year of the master class, I had the most participants ever ranging from ages16 to 60, coming from Argentina, Chile, Europe, Canada and all over the states. My guest was Steve Wilson who is a real gentleman and fine musician. He told a great story about his “initiation” into the NY jazz scene. He was asked by alotoist Dick Oatts to sub with the Mel Lewis Orchestra at the Vanguard on a Monday night in the mid 1980s for the second set. When he looked over the music during the break, he was thrown by all the mess, the double codas and penciled in stuff, the shaky music stands and the like. He described the second thoughts in his mind as to whether he would survive the night which he obviously did in great fashion. One observation stands out-how everyone who soloed played their butts off and he had never heard their names before-just the high standard of NY cats. The point is well made that NY is known for the high density per square bandstand inch of great players. Next year, my class will be on the “Chromatic Approach to Jazz Melody and Harmony.”

BARGA,ITALY:An unusual idea for a festival occurs in this beautiful old town near Florence, Italy which has been going on for over 20 years. They feature original compositions of an artist for arrangers to write big band charts. There is a competitive element with a jury to decide on the “best” chart (something I don’t agree with in principle), but some of the arrangements of a few of my older tunes from the 70’s were really great. The band, made up of musicians from the Toscana area was conducted by one of Italy’s most well known musicians Bruno Tommaso. This area of Italy is amazing with a feeling of community and a positive balance of living and working which appears very comfortable. The food-well, forget it!!

IN DELAWARE WATER GAP,PA-With Phil Woods, Bobby Avey (piano), Evan Gregor (bass), Bill Goodwin (drums) at the Deer Head Inn for a clinic.

ITINERARY
SEPTEMBER:Jazz Gallery in New York with “Different But The Same” Group (Ellery Eskelin, Jim Black and Tony Marino); Dave Liebman Group at the COTA Festival, Delaware Water Gap, PA; duo performance with Polish pianist Mateusz Kolakowski at the Jazz Standard, New York; Deer Head Inn with pianist Dave Lantz, Delaware Water Gap, PA; solo performance at art show opening of Kathy Kyvinskas at the Dutot Museum, Delaware Water Gap, PA; performance with drummer Phil Haynes and organist Steve Adams at the Elk Creek Café, Milhiem, PA; Saxophone Summit at the Regatta Bar, Boston, MA; lecture with Joe Lovano and Ravi Coltrane for the Coltrane House Fund at the Huntington Library, Huntington, NY

OCTOBER:Miles in India Project at Davies Hall, San Francisco, CA; with Badal Roy and Michael Henderson at the Hartford Jazz Festival, Connecticut; solo performance at the Jazz Kongress, Freiburg, Germany; European tour with the Dave Liebman Group: Trondheim/Tromsø/ Molde/ Lillehammer-Norway; Nancy/Quimper, France: Köln, Germany; Vienna/Salzburg/Völkermarkt-Austria; Genoa, Italy; Cork, Ireland; performances and workshops with Mike Murley and Ian Froman in Toronto, Canada

Coltrane’s funeral in 1967-Albert Ayler on tenor; Richard Davis on bass

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN-September 23!!

INTERVALS:DAVID LIEBMAN NEWSLETTER-JULY/AUGUST 2008

2008-06-29T13:15:00.000-07:00

Blast from the past with Chick Corea 1978

SAXOPHONE SUMMIT: With the release of our second Telarc recording “Seraphic Light” I feel a combination of both sadness and joy. The passing of Mike Brecker who with Joe and myself formed the group ten years ago is still something that I find hard to accept. As I wrote when he passed, more than his incredible musicianship and the thrill of hearing him on a nightly basis with Sax Summit, there are the great memories of our thirty five plus year friendship beginning in my New York loft on West 19th Street, which Mike subsequently lived in for years after I moved on. On the other hand, having Ravi Coltrane (whose mother Alice passed the same day as Michael) in the group lifts my spirit for several reasons. Ravi is a wonderful musician, advancing in leaps and bounds with a very different and contrasting style from Joe and myself. His legacy represents the underlying premise of Saxophone Summit, which is heavily influenced by the music of the late Coltrane period. Most important, Ravi’s very humble, easygoing and sincere personality fits the group like a glove.

Those of you who know me realize that keeping the same rhythm section together is an important part of my philosophy. The likes of Phil Markowitz, Cecil McBee and Billy Hart confirm a true sense of continuity and flow. With Ravi who is in his early forties, we now have a group that spans thirty years and a big part of jazz history. As I talk about in the liner notes, this new recording is really two in one. Each member of the group contributed an original composition, all of which are different, comparatively accessible and not too extended. This is balanced by my arrangements of the late Trane pieces: “Expression” “Cosmos” and “Seraphic Light.” We invited brother Randy Brecker to join us and contributed a lively tribute “Message to Mike” based on a line his brother often played. I am very proud of this recording and hope a lot of folks will listen to it. Video wizard Bret Primack was with us in the studio and did a short piece on each of the members of the group:
http://planetbret.com/saxophonesummitpodcasts.htm (paste in browser as with all links provided here)

BRET: I have been working with Bret for fifteen years, first with my mailed “Intervals” newsletter, while in recent times he has been very active filming and interviewing Saxophone Summit. In his field, there is no one better for videography, interviews, etc; basically anything to do with new forms of media. Artists who would like to get something new and different happening should go to this site for Bret’s proposals for promotion: http://www.jazzepk.com/
Here’s Bret’s description: “A Jazz EPK is a 3-5 minute video used to promote a recording featuring audio excerpts, photos, and info about the artist, music and personnel, which is posted on the web to market the music and reach the largest possible audience. Jazz EPK was created by Bret Primack, aka, the Jazz Video Guy, to help artists utilize new media to promote their music. "YouTube is now 60% of all Internet traffic," Bret explains. "There are one hundred million people every day looking for compelling content on YouTube alone so online video has quickly become one of the best venues to engage an audience. This new medium allows an artist to communicate a message on multiple levels - via visual imagery, the spoken word, music and visual text. With online video artists and labels can reach a huge potential audience for a minimal investment."

COMMENT

THE RISE OF THE REST: I read a very interesting article in the May 12 issue of Newsweek by Fareed Zakaria. As someone interested in history and familiar with the ebb and flow of historic cycles, it is pretty clear that the 20th century was the American one, as the British had it before, and the Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, etc., all had their day in the sun. The import of this article is that the 21st century is poised to be the Asian century with China and India leading the way. This article, besides pointing outlining how America is being bested in some areas, the truth is that it doesn’t have to be this way if only America would wake up and be truly a world power, meaning opening lines of communication and reaching out in this completely interconnected world we inhabit. Let’s hope that things will change here in the States from such a parochial vision to a larger, more open world view.

RHYTHM IS THE THING: I went to a recital of vocalists which my daughter Lydia took part in our area. The material was classical or semi classical, all with piano accompaniment. Listening to these sometimes lovely voices, the main observation was that on the whole, the weakest point is rhythm-the ability for these teenagers to keep the beat and especially not rush. Also there is the question of concentration; in this case meaning keeping the intensity up after the first minute or so. In general, it could be easily generalized that teenagers for the most part may indeed have concentration problems, but this is different because it is music and not academic material per se. It is really a matter of experience and training. I am convinced that early musical education should emphasize rhythm practice for all students. Keeping a steady beat is evidently not necessarily part of the genetic code.

THE GREYING AUDIENCE: There is a disturbing trend in jazz audiences that appears to me to be increasing, which is the average age of the audience. This is true both in Europe and the States and of course does not take into account playing at colleges, etc., where the younger demographic is a given. It is mainly at festivals that I increasing see an older audience. When you look at the films of concerts in the 60’s for example, at least European, you definitely see younger people. As in most things, education is the key.

RECOMMENDED

LENNIE TRISTANO: I studied with Lennie in the 60’s for about a year, something I was definitely not ready for at the time. But there were no other “jazz” teachers and it was good luck that I got with him, because it made me see that this music was something which could be studied to some extent. Tristano’s place in jazz is very important and controversial. The recording “Intuition” from 1949 is truly revolutionary and his two main “students,” Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh says a lot about Tristano’s teaching and influence. For me the main point is that all three of these guys had something DIFFERENT to say in spite of the gigantic shadow cast by Bird, Dizzy and Bud at that point in history. “Bad Plus” pianist Ethan Iverson writes some interesting things about Lennie’s perceived attitude towards the rhythm section and its wider implications. Also there are some notable sound clips as part of this article: http://thebadplus.typepad.com/dothemath/2008/05/lennie-tristano.html

YOU TUBE: Juggler-unbelievable:http://youtube.com/watch?v=H8f8drk5Urw

MOVIE: “The Bucket List”-Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman play two guys with terminal illness who set out to do things they always wanted to do, hence the title (“when you kick the bucket, etc….”). They visit the Taj Mahal, Mt, Everest etc. Yes-a sentimental movie and maybe only for those 60 and up, but I found it very compelling and emotional. In one way, isn’t life just a big preparation for death?

MASTERS AT THE BEGINNING: Recently I have heard Bird in 1940 with Jay McShann, Trane on alto (sounding a lot like Bird) in 1946 (“First Giant Steps”) and Lester Young from the new Mosaic box set with Count Basie. It is so interesting to hear these guys at their formative stages, when whatever they heard just flowed without thought or design. Of course, the polish of the future is not present but the freshness and the timeliness (considering what else was happening musically at these periods) is astounding. Singularity and conviction are traits that are present from the beginning, whether or not the craft is polished.

RECENT HAPPENINGS

IASJ MEETING IN RIGA, LATVIA: Because of my commitments to Saxophone Summit I could not attend the 18th Jazz Meeting of the organization I founded, the International Association of Schools of Jazz. This is the second of our meetings to take place in what may be considered the new West. The meeting was opened by the President of Latvia. In many of the Eastern European countries, jazz is truly considered something special. Next year we will be meeting in Lucerne, Switzerland. Here is the most recent list of countries represented in the IASJ, noting that in some cases there may be several schools represented: Austria, France, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Israel, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, USA, Portugal, Spain, Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Estonia, Great Britain, Greece, Latvia, Norway, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Australia, Canada.

GIGS: In May I had a great gig with John Abercrombie joining the World View Trio (Wolfgang Reisinger on drums and Jean Paul Celea on bass) at the Le Mans Festival in France. John is amazing-he can play anything and make it great. In Rome and Milan I played with one of the venerable masters of Italian jazz, pianist/arranger Enrico Intra. We immediately hit it off playing some very lyrical free music. Trumpeter Tim Hagans is not only a master improviser (sitting in with Quest and Sax Summit at Birdland this year) but a killing arranger and leader of a big band in the north of Sweden for the past 12 years, Norbotten Big Band. He and a few of the members took some of my originals and did a beautiful job on them along with several performances. At the Friends of Central Pennsylvania Jazz Festival, I did a set with singer Kevin Mahogany playing some of the Coltrane/ Hartmann material along with Phil Markowitz on piano, Charles Fambrough on bass and Yuron Israel on drums. Kevin is a real baritone, actually reminiscent of Hartmann and Billy Eckstine with impeccable pitch, swinging time and no theatrics. He is a joy to work with. The Dave Liebman Group (Marino, Juris and Marcinko) had some nice festival work in Telluride, Colorado (talk about lack of air at 8000 plus feet!-opposite Dr. John and the Neville Brothers-strange programming to say the least); the Rochester and Edmonton, Canada festivals.

With Enrico Intra

GIGS TO COME

JULY: Sax Summit European tour; performance with George Gruntz in Villengen, Switzerland; workshop at the Litchfield Jazz Festival, Conneticut; Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, PA with Gene Perla, Vic Juris and Mike Stephans.

AUGUST: Twenty first Saxophone Master Class at East Stroudsburg University, Pennsylvania (22 participants from ten countries attending) with guest Steve Wilson; with Ric Margitza, Jean Jacques Quesada, Pierre Bethmann, Peter Giron in Bordeaux, France; concerts in Poland with Jacek Kochan; Barga Festival in Italy doing Liebman compositions in Big Band setting.

Sign of the times-demolishing Sony Studios-NYC

Discarding orignal trunks holding equipment for first "Lookout Farm" European tour-1974