Label/Year: Resonance Records, 2017
Lineup - Dave Liebman: saxophone, flute; Joe Lovano: saxophone; Phil Markowitz: piano; Ron McLure: bass; Billy Hart: drums.
We couldn’t have asked for better! Two veterans and top-notch horn masters like Dave Liebman and Joe Lovano playing together the bright music of John Coltrane in the commemoration of his 50th anniversary on Resonance Records.
Regardless their different styles, approaches, and timbres, the co-leaders seamlessly adjust their eloquent phrasing and give a new life to these iconic pieces.
Compassion: The Music of John Coltrane features the striking duo accompanied by the also experienced Phil Markowitz on piano, Ron McLure on bass, and the great Billy Hart on drums.
“Locomotion”, an electrifying hard-bop tune first recorded in 1957 as part of the acclaimed album Blue Trane (Blue Note), immediately gets the band together for a ‘crazy motion’ as the title suggests. The vivacity that arises from the rhythm section’s coalition instigates Liebman and Lovano to draw vigorous and articulated melodic sequences full of oblique angles and action-reaction momentum.
The effervescence winds down for “Central Park West/Dear Lord”, a smooth medley where Lovano controls the first part with soulful enthusiasm while Liebman is in charge of finding benevolent melodies and take them to the second, as an ode to the Creator.
The mood changes once more on “Olé”, a lavish modal piece that takes us to Spanish traditions, in the present case, more exciting and less harmful than their bullfighting. Sweet flute intonations set the right tone and are quickly joined by the percussive scratches drawn by the piano strings. Moments later, McLure and Hart underpin a Latin-tinged groove that invites the horns for an urgent, magical feast à-la Coltrane. The tune ends with McLure’s bass ruminations.
Both “Reverend King” and “Equinox” bring hope into the world as true conveyers of a beneficial spiritual aura. The former, a push-pull rubato, is built with bowed bass, flute, and cymbal’s splashes; the latter, flowing at a slightly faster pace than the original, is a minor blues coated with Liebman’s rapturous soprano flights, Markowitz’s poised linkage of chords and melodies, and Lovano’s heartwarming tenor strains.
The rhythmic sophistication of Billy Hart stands out on “Compassion”, an almost 18-minute devotion that also expands with the saxophonists’ igneous phrases, which converge into unisons and then scatter up to uproars that go in and out of focus.
Liebman/Lovano quintet strikes with ravishment and gusto, showing their reverence for Coltrane’s legacy while exhibiting their own special gifts.
In addition to knowing inside out the territory they’re stepping into, refinement and dynamism became keys in the process.
Grade A-
Favorite Tracks:
01 – Locomotion ► 03 – Ole ► 06 – Compassion