Liner Notes for Dave Liebman’s NEW VISTA
by Dr. Chuck Berg

Dave Liebman’s New Vista is an extraordinary adventure. That, though, is what we have come to expect from Liebman, one of contemporary music’s true innovators. Although having just passed the half-century mark (Dave was born on September 4, 1946, in Brooklyn, New York), Lieb is playing with an intensity pulsing with youthful energies.

At the same time, his playing possesses Solomon-like wisdom. On one level, there’s a brilliant reconfiguring of the past, of Dave’s own considerable legacy, as well as those of Miles and Trane. And yet the music springs from the immediacy of the moment. So while imbued with the spirit of the giants, Dave’s impassioned quests once again push past the present and into the future.

In the aptly titled New Vista, arguably Dave’s most accessible project to date, the inspiration comes in large part from Brazil. This, though, is not the bossa nova of your father -- or mother. Indeed, it’s an electro-Amazonian voyage into an exotic and rhythmically charged geo-musical hyperspace, a magical realm in which myth and dream dance with joyous abandon.

Abetting Liebman in fleshing out his Brazilian vision is the working group which has been with the soprano saxophonist since 1991. In fact, this is their seventh recording together. Comprised of guitarist Vic Juris, keyboardist Phil Markowitz, bassist Tony Marino and drummer Jamey Haddad, the Dave Liebman Group is a rarity these days, a band that has managed to stay together and therefore grow.

Indeed, these veterans of the hyperactive New York scene seem to "hear" and "see" with all five senses. With an ESP-like empathy refined through five years of focused research and development, Liebman’s band is an exemplar of musical simpatico. Solos and ensembles flow seamlessly from a common yet inspired source. Adding rhythmic ebullience is Cafe, the wonderful Brazilian percussionist whose accents and colors percolate throughout.

For Liebman, New Vista is a breakthrough. First, there’s a palpable sense of joie de vivre. So along with the searing lines of Coltrane-like intensity, there’s a sly sense of fun. In tunes like "Christmas Socks," one can almost hear a smile. Dave’s renewed examination of rhythm is another defining hallmark.

Indeed, the addition of Café’s battery of percussion instruments reminds one of the role played by Badal Roy’s tablas in Dave’s seminal 1970s’ group, Lookout Farm. It’s not that the harmonic sophistication of Dave’s many collaborations with pianist Richie Beirach has been put aside. Rather, by italicizing the rhythm, Dave has given his Brazilian sketches an urgency hard to resist. Among its many attractions, this is music that will keep toes tapping.

Lieb’s compelling journey begins with the carnivalesque title track. With a blithe melody doubled by Dave’s soprano and Phil’s synthesizer, we’re off to the races and, indeed, to a "New Vista." Compounding a sense of street savvy with sophisticated ensemble routines, there’s an electro-acoustic surge reminiscent of some of Lieb’s most profound work with Miles Davis.

"Estate" is a hauntingly beautiful soundscape. Here, Dave’s plaintive soprano glides over lush harmonic carpets. While showcasing Dave’s heart-on-sleeve romanticism, "Estate" also spotlights the group’s meticulous attention to detail. From start to finish, textures unfold with nuanced surprises, keeping eyebrows raised with pleasures both subtle and searching.

Markowitz’s "Real Dreams" is set to an energizing Latin pulse that buoys one of Dave’s most exhilarating solos. Letting loose with spiraling, serpentine lines covering the full range of his horn, Dave darts across a kaleidoscopic backdrop of constantly shifting rhythms and harmonies. The zesty and wordless vocalese of Cafe and Davia Sacks add further color to a provocative chart mapping an alpha-to-omega array of emotions.

"So Far, So Close" is a poignant melody by Caris Visentin, an accomplished musician and Dave’s wife. Draped over the languorous pulse of an insinuating bossa nova, Caris’s haunting line brings out the broodingly meditative side of Dave’s contemplative persona. It also demonstrates Markowitz’s incisive and intelligent use of synthesizer, an instrument too often given to bombast.

Dave’s "Christmas Socks" is a delight. If one listens closely, one can hear a snippet of "Jingle Bells," albeit it in highly augmented form. One also hears a spirited dialogue between Dave’s soaring soprano and Vic Juris’s laser-intense electric guitar. Dave’s rhythmic panache, his ability to organically suture six- and seven-meter frames, is amazing. Combined with episodes reminiscent of Horace Silver’s soulful Latin strolls, it’s an upbeat and gleeful affair.

Dave’s treatment of the theme from Disney’s "Beauty and the Beast" reminds one of Coltrane’s ability to transform sentimental show tunes like "My Favorite Things" into the stuff of great jazz. Using lots of space and therefore letting the melody breathe, Dave "sings" with impressive warmth.

"Jungle Glide," another strong Markowitz effort, evokes an aura of distant places with a deliciously quirky melody and Cafe’s colorful birimbao. Along with his cascading soprano, Lieb switches to tenor saxophone for a flurry of impassioned shrieks and guttural calls recalling the sturm und drang of late Coltrane. Once again, Juris flies on his chorused-up electric guitar over thrashing currents anchored by Tony Marino’s turbo-charged electric bass.

The group’s caressing interpretation of Antonio Carlos Jobim’s lovely "Zingaro" features a flawlessly doubling of the melody by Dave’s soprano and Vic’s guitar. Here, the haunting mood is elaborated on by heartfelt solos featuring Tony’s resonant bass, Phil’s sparkling pianistics and Vic’s pensive acoustic guitar.

Closing the curtain is Dave’s galvanizing salute to fellow saxophonist Steve Grossman with whom Dave shared the front line in Elvin Jones’s thundering quartet of the early 1970s. Back on tenor, Lieb pounds and pleads. And though "the Trane thing" is definitely here, it’s shouted with Dave’s uniquely own declamatory style. It should be noted that after a long sabbatical from playing the ‘the big horn,’ it’s great to again hear Dave’s robust tenor charging at full velocity.

In a sense, New Vista is a summing up of Liebman’s collective experiences over three astonishingly productive decades at the cutting edge. One hears traces of his important association with the pioneering horn-driven rock group, Ten Wheel Drive, the tenures with the great Elvin Jones and Miles Davis, the world music explorations at the helm of Lookout Farm, the cerebral collaborations with pianist Richie Beirach, as well as the funk and fusion forays with Pee Wee Ellis and Chick Corea.

At the same time, New Vista, can be seen as yet one more protean exploration by a restless creator not content to rest on his laurels. As Dave puts it, "It’s another notch in the eclectic belt." That’s true. And that is a remarkable aspect of Lieb’s virtuosic and comprehensive musicianship.

Even more significant is Dave’s ceaseless quest for excellence. With a massive discography including over 80 dates as leader and co-leader, what is most impressive is the freshness, integrity and staying power of his many and diverse ventures.

Finally, New Vista marks the onset of Dave’s affiliation with Bob Karcy’s spanking new label, Arkadia Records. For Dave, whose many recordings are mostly available only through independent foreign labels, it’s especially nice to again record for a home grown company.

It’s an association that bodes well for all parties, including the listener. Indeed, with New Vista we have the promise of a long and mutually supportive artistic-business relationship that should enable Liebman to take his music to even greater heights.

I have no doubt that New Vista will stand as a landmark in Liebman’s already distinguished career. Its appeals are many. Its impact is immediate. Indeed, it’s serious and joyous fun at the summit by one of our great contemporary artists, saxophonist extraordinaire, Dave Liebman!

—Dr. Chuck Berg
The University of Kansas,
Jazz Times, Jazz Educators Journal,
The Gramophone Guide To CD Jazz