Evan Parker Dave Liebman - A free jazz fan's dream gig

"Musician's musician" is the kind of compliment that often arrives with a faintly disparaging comment attached. But, since the legion of musicians who have appreciated the New York-born saxophonist Dave Liebman runs all the way up to Miles Davis, it is hardly just an insider's recommendation.
Since then, Liebman has matured into one of the most technically fearsome and musically curious jazz players in the world. Currently touring with British guitarist Phil Robson, bassist Aidan O'Donnell and expat American drummer Jeff Williams, Liebman appeared at the Vortex in two shows at the weekend - with the group, and then with improv-sax star Evan Parker and free-jazz drummer Tony Bianco.
The quartet gig featured originals and a few jazz classics, including a nod to Wayne Shorter as the finale. Some of the music resembled the late Michael Brecker's jostling postbop, with poignant ballads and a little Balkan folk-dancing music. Through it all, Liebman would frequently echo Robson's probing phrasing and bluesy slides, or swap phrases with an urgency that would swell into a collective wail. The two-sax group with Evan Parker (finally a three-sax group, with Julian Siegel joining in for the finale) produced a more intense and fierce all-improvised music, most of it proceeding over Tony Bianco's seamless drum rumble. But the contrast between Liebman's mix of postbop phrasing and empathetic abstract sounds, and Parker's explosive free-tenor runs and birdsong-like soprano sax lines teemed with such urgent life that regular themes were not needed to reinforce the sense of narrative movement. The rapt, packed house was clearly gripped by the storytelling skills of the participants in their own spontaneously evolving language.

Line-up:

Evan Parker - soprano & tenor saxophones (left channel)
Dave Liebman - soprano & tenor saxophones, Indian bamboo flute (right channel)
Tony Bianco - drums
Julian Siegel - tenor saxophone (on 'Chariot')

WHAT DID THEY PLAYED THAT NIGHT?

Conversations In The Could (Parker / Liebman / Bianco)
Chariot (Parker / Liebman / Bianco / Siegel)

SOURCE	FM	SOUND QUALITY	A+	FORMAT	MP3	BITRATE	224	TRACKS #	2
LOCATION / VENUE		London		Vortex		DATE		7/01/08
NOTES:		I splited the two tracks in 4 parts… made easier to listen