Search - Dave Liebman :: In a Mellow Tone

Quite a start for the fledgling Zoho label . . .

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 06/20/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

". . . landing Harvey S, Vic Juris, and Dave Liebman for half its initial releases. I haven't heard the Juris yet, but if it's anywhere near as good as Harvey S's Texas Rumba and this fine disc, it will be quite something.In a Mellow Tone strikes me as even better than last year's excellent Conversation. Recorded a year and a half prior to Conversation, it employs the same band save for long-time Liebman associate Jamie Haddad in the drum chair instead of newcomer Marko Marcinko. And that, perhaps, is the difference. Haddad is, simply, a great drummer/percussionist, very coloristic and entirely simpatico with the Liebman sound. Moreover, I think there's both a wider variety of moods and, contradictory as it sounds, more cohesiveness to this group. Plus, Liebman plays more tenor, which I think is his better instrument.Often, it seems as if jazz players take two different paths to greatness--either an early meteoric flash followed by slow decline (e.g., Sonny Rollins), or a slow, steady ascent to the top (e.g., Joe Lovano). Dave Liebman, probably in his early 50s, has followed the second path; he is just now coming into the greatest years of his playing. Long regarded as Coltrane disciple, he more and more seems to have articulated an approach on both tenor and soprano that, although definitely derived from Coltrane, is clearly his own.Highlights include the title cut, rather radically reharmonized and featuring some very mellow Juris guitar voicings (this is surely his best playing anywhere on disc); "Child at Play," a simple-sounding but deceptively urbane piece inspired by Liebman watching his daughter and some friends playing at their local schoolyard; "The Sun King," a very world-jazz number featuring some exotic percussion courtesy of Haddad, very nifty flamenco guitar stylings, and Liebman's haunting wooden flute and dancing soprano; the neo-boppish "Chant"; a gorgeous, languid reading of "My Heart Will Go On," an achingly beautiful ballad; the Sci-Fi-ish "Romulan Ale," the only Vic Juris composition, with its intriguing bass line and Latin-from-mars rhythmic sensibility; "Change Up," a Lennie Tristano number featuring some very nimble unison lines for guitar and soprano; and the amazing "Vamp to Life," which kinda sums things up with the whole band cavorting and conversing at the highest level. Hmmm. I seem to have highlighted almost the entire disc. Always a good sign.Very highly recommended."