Label: Cellar Music Group, 2023

Personnel - Dave Liebman: soprano saxophone; Peter Evans: trumpet; Leo Genovese: piano; John Hébert: bass; Tyshawn Sorey: drums.

Master saxophonist and improviser Dave Liebman put together a quintet of such mighty force for a 75-minute free jazz session at Smalls in New York. The captured live is not always brilliant, but the interaction between virtuosic musicians who command their instruments with excellence, worth your time.

Trumpeter Peter Evans is a superb partner in the frontline, who armed with focused brass work and inventive language, is impressive right from the start. His ideas are caught up by Liebman, who plays with an outer clarity that astonishes, and especially by Argentinian pianist Leo Genovese, whose winding phrases and deft harmonies simultaneously provide density and color. With the emotions running rampant at this early stage, John Hébert, an in-demand stalwart bassist versatile both in comping and improvisation, makes his instrument sing.

The transition to the middle part is pacific, with Liebman giving a self-possessed speech. He is subsequently joined by Evans, who enjoys a few minutes with just Tyshawn Sorey’s drum cycles underneath. The drummer, even sounding more straight-ahead at this juncture, still surprises. After piano and bass pour forth with energy, there’s an extended abstract moment of quietness that leads to a residual rhythmic stuttering that finishes off this middle section.

Taking down the guardrails of written music, Liebman probes complex melodies that expand and contract across multiple rhythms. “The End” evolves within a relaxed conversational atmosphere until reaching a heated final climax. Stimulating music.

Favorite Track:
01 - The Beginning