Dave Liebman

All Music Guide:

Saxophonist and educator David Liebman is a forward-thinking artist whose advanced improvisational style and association with trumpeter Miles Davis in the '70s combined to make him one of the most influential and successful jazz musicians of his generation. Heavily influenced by John Coltrane, Liebman has moved from tenor saxophone to soprano and flute throughout his career and more often than not played in a progressive, post-bop style that touched on fusion and avant-garde jazz.

Born in Brooklyn in 1946, Liebman studied classical piano and saxophone before focusing on jazz -- a move he attributes to seeing Coltrane perform live in New York on multiple occasions. He continued his private jazz studies with such artists as Joe Allard, Lennie Tristano and Charles Lloyd while earning a degree in American History from New York University. After graduating, he focused solely on a career in music and quickly became an active leader in the vibrant late '60s "loft" scene in New York City.

After a year with the early fusion ensemble Ten Wheel Drive, Liebman was asked to join former-Coltrane drummer Elvin Jones' band and ultimately appeared on several of Jones' albums in the '70s. This brought him to the attention of trumpeter Miles Davis who hired Liebman from 1970 to 1974. During this period, Liebman toured and recorded with Davis appearing on such albums as 1972's classic On the Corner as well as 1974's Dark Magus and Get Up With It.

Liebman eventually left Davis' band and began working on his own music in various ensembles including The Open Sky Trio with pianist Bob Moses, Lookout Farm with pianist Richie Beirach and guitarist John Abercrombie and his own David Liebman Quintet featuring guitarist John Scofield and Japanese trumpeter Terumasa Hino. This was a fertile, explorative period for Liebman that resulted in a handful of stellar albums including 1974's Drum Ode (ECM), 1975's Lookout Farm (ECM), 1977's Forgotten Fantasies (Timeless), 1978's Omerta (Storyville) and 1979's Doin' It Again (Timeless).

In the early '80s, Liebman formed the cooperative ensemble Quest with pianist Richie Beirach, drummer Billy Hart and bassist George Mraz and later bassist Ron McClure. Beginning with group's self-titled 1981 debut for Palo Alto, Quest has continued to release albums throughout Liebman's career. Also during the '80s, Liebman recorded regularly appearing on myriad albums including Elvin Jones' 1982 album Earth Jones (Palo Alto), 1983's Things We Did Last Summer with trumpeter John McNeil (Steeplechase), 1985's Double Edge with pianist Beirach (Storyville) as well as his own albums including 1985's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (CMP), 1987's Homage to John Coltrane (OWL/EMI), 1988's Trio + One (OWL/EMI) and 1989's The Blessing of Old Long Sound (Newsound).

It was also during the late '80s that Liebman began splitting his time between playing jazz and teaching jazz. An early clinician at the Jamey Aebersold camps during the '70s, Liebman met such jazz educators as David Baker, Jerry Hearle, Jerry Coker and other early proponents of formal jazz studies. These experiences, as well as seeing firsthand the interest and need for jazz instruction worldwide while on tours in Europe, spurred Liebman to found the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) in 1989. Throughout the '90s and '00s, Liebman has worked with the IASJ to promote jazz and mentor students. For his work, Liebman has received several awards in the field of jazz education including being named a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master for 2011.

While retaining a strong focus on jazz education, Liebman remains a vital, creative force on the jazz scene and performs and records regularly. In 2010, he released the big band album Live: As Always and appeared as a featured guest on The Bickel-Marks Group with David Liebman.

Wikipedia:

David Liebman (born on 4 September 1946, Brooklyn, New York) is an American saxophonist and flautist. In June 2010, he received a NEA Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Biography [edit]

Early life & career [edit]

David Liebman was born into a Jewish family in Brooklyn, New York, on September 4, 1946. He began classical piano lessons at the age of nine and saxophone by twelve. His interest in jazz was sparked by seeing John Coltrane perform live in New York City clubs such as Birdland, the Village Vanguard and the Half Note. Throughout high school and college, Liebman pursued his jazz interest by studying with Joe Allard, Lennie Tristano, and Charles Lloyd. Upon graduation from New York University (with a degree in American History), he began to seriously devote himself to the full-time pursuit of being a jazz artist.

In the early 1970s, after recording with Genya Ravan and Ten Wheel Drive, Liebman took the leading role (as President) in organizing several dozen musicians into a cooperative, Free Life Communication, which became an integral part of the fertile New York loft jazz scene in the early 1970s and was funded by The New York State Council of the Arts and the Space for Innovative Development. After one year spent with Ten Wheel Drive, one of the early jazz fusion groups, Liebman secured the saxophone/flute position with the group of John Coltrane's drummer, Elvin Jones. Within two years, Liebman reached the zenith of his apprenticeship period when Miles Davis hired him. These years, 1970–74, were filled with tours and recordings. At the same time, Liebman began exploring his own music, first in the Open Sky Trio with Bob Moses and then with pianist Richie Beirach in the group Lookout Farm. This group recorded for the German-based ECM label as well as A&M Records while touring the U.S., Canada, India, Japan and Europe. Lookout Farm was awarded the number one position in the category "Group Deserving of Wider Recognition"in the 1976 Down Beat's International Critics' Poll.

In 1977, Liebman did a world tour with pianist Chick Corea, followed up the next year by the formation of the David Liebman Quintet with John Scofield, Kenny Kirkland and Terumasa Hino as featured sidemen. After several world tours and recordings by the quintet over three years, he reunited with Richard Beirach. They began performing and recording as a duo, as well as creating the group Quest in 1981. Beginning with bassist George Mraz and drummer Al Foster, the group solidified when Ron McClure and Billy Hart joined in 1984. Through 1991, Quest recorded seven CDs, toured extensively and did many workshops with students worldwide.

1990s & on [edit]

Liebman's present group, formed in 1991, includes guitarist Vic Juris, bassist Tony Marino and drummer Marko Marcinko. With these musicians, he has pursued an eclectic direction in recording projects that has ranged from jazz standards to Puccini arias, original adaptations from the John Coltrane and Miles Davis repertoires, original compositions in styles ranging from world music to fusion, always maintaining a repertoire that balances the past, present and future.

Over the past decades, Liebman has often been featured with top European jazz artists such as Joachim Kühn, Daniel Humair, Paolo Fresu, Jon Christensen, Bobo Stenson and in the World View Trio with Austrian drummer Wolfgang Reisenger and French bassist Jean-Paul Celea. His ability to play in so many diverse styles has led to big band and radio orchestra performances with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra, the WDR and NDR in Germany, the Metropole Orchestra of the Netherlands, the new music group Klangforum from Vienna and, most notably, Liebman was the first improviser to perform with the world famous Ensemble InterContemporain founded by Pierre Boulez in France. On all these occasions, the music is arranged from Liebman's own compositions and improvisations. He has consistently placed among the top finalists in the Down Beat Critics' Poll since 1973 in the Soprano Saxophone category. David Liebman has been featured on several hundred recordings of which he has been the leader or co-leader on over one hundred. Nearly three hundred original compositions have been recorded. His artistic output has ranged from straight-ahead classic jazz to chamber music, from fusion to avant garde, with numerous CDs featuring original arrangements of the music of Monk, Miles Davis, Coltrane, Kurt Weill, Alec Wilder, Cole Porter, Jobim and Puccini.

Liebman has published material on a variety of subjects including instructional DVDs. He has also published chamber music and over the years has contributed regularly to various periodicals, such as the Saxophone Journal and the International Association of Jazz Educators Journal. He is the author of several milestone books: Self Portrait of a Jazz Artist, A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony and Melody, Developing a Personal Saxophone Sound and numerous others, several of which have been translated into other languages.

His teaching activities at universities and in clinic settings have taken him literally around the world as a result of his varied musical directions and expertise on several instruments, along with an ability to articulate the intricacies of the jazz language, aesthetic and technique. Over the years, he has regularly received grantees to study with him funded by the NEA (U.S.), the Canadian Arts Council, as well as Arts Councils of numerous European countries. In 1989, he founded the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ), an organization dedicated to networking educators and students from international jazz schools through periodic meetings, exchange programs and newsletters. Liebman presently serves as the Artistic Director of the IASJ. He scored music for the JazzEx Ballet Company in the Netherlands in the early 1990s and Ocean of Light for Katrina and the Tsunami tragedies in 2006.

Currently, Liebman is the Artist In Residence at the Manhattan School of Music. He has received several distinguished awards including two NEA grants for composition and performance; an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy of Helsinki, Finland; a Grammy nomination for Best Solo Performance in 1998 and Best Arrangement for Big Band in 2005; induction into the International Association of Jazz Educator's Hall of Fame in 2000; Artist Grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts in 2005; and Jazz Journalist Award for Soprano Sax in 2007. In June 2010, Liebman received a 2011 NEA Jazz Masters lifetime achievement award from the National Endowment for the Arts, including a stipend of $25,000.

Liebman and musicologist Lewis Porter teamed up to develop What It Is: The Life of a Jazz Artist, Liebman's biography. Released in March 2012, the book was well received by jazz critics.

Liebman plays a Keilwerth soprano saxophone and uses Drake mouthpieces.