Dave Liebman

David Liebman was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 4, 1946. He began classical piano lessons at the age of nine and saxophone by twelve. His “epiphany” was hearing John Coltrane perform live in New York City clubs such as Birdland, Village Vanguard and Half Note as a teenager. Throughout high school and college, Liebman pursued his jazz interest by studying with saxophone guru Joe Allard as well as jazz musicians Lennie

Tristano and Charles Lloyd. Upon graduation from New York University (with a degree in American History), he began to seriously devote himself to the full time pursuit of being a jazz artist. In the early 1970s, Liebman took the leading organizational role as Founder and President of Free Life Communication, a cooperative of several dozen young cutting edge musicians intent on performing around New York in venues outside the traditional jazz club situation. Free Life became an integral part of the fertile New York "loft" jazz scene in this period and was funded by the New York State Council of the Arts and enjoyed a residency in the “Space for Innovative Development” which was a renovated church funded by the Rubin Foundation as a home for the arts in midtown Manhattan along with several other notable avant-garde performing groups…the Alwin Nikolais and Murray Louis ballet companies along with Joe Chaikan’s “Open Theater.”

After one year spent with Ten Wheel Drive, one of the early jazz fusion groups, Liebman secured the coveted saxophone/flute position in the group of John Coltrane’s ex-drummer, Elvin Jones. Within two years, Liebman reached the zenith of his apprenticeship period when the legendary trumpeter Miles Davis hired him. These years from 1970 thru 1974 were filled with tours, recordings and the incredible experience gained by being on the bandstand with two masters of jazz. At the same time, Liebman began exploring his own music-first in the Open Sky Trio with Bob Moses and then with pianist Richie Beirach in the group Lookout Farm. This group recorded for the German based ECM label as well as A&M Records and touring the U.S., Canada, India, Japan and Europe.

In 1977, Liebman did a world tour with pianist Chick Corea followed by the formation of the David Liebman Quintet with John Scofield as featured sideman. After several world tours and recordings by the quintet over three years, he reunited with Richard Beirach forming Quest in 1981. Beginning with bassist George Mraz

and drummer Al Foster, the group solidified with the addition of bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart. Through 1991 the group recorded seven CDs, toured extensively and did many workshops with students worldwide, garnering high critical praise worldwide. The group has reunited for tours and recordings since 2005.

From 1991 through 2012, the Dave Liebman Group featuring guitarist Vic Juris toured and recorded nearly twenty CDs representing a very eclectic direction that ranged from jazz standards to Puccini arias, adaptations from the John Coltrane and Miles Davis repertoires, as well as original compositions in styles ranging from world music to fusion and free jazz, always maintaining a repertoire that balances the past, present and future. Over the past several decades, Liebman has often been featured with top European musicians such as Martial Solal, Joachim Kuhn, Daniel Humair, Paolo Fresu, Jon Christensen, Bobo Stenson, Michel Portal, among others. His reputation as someone who can play in many different idioms has led to big band and radio orchestra performances with the WDR, NDR and HDR throughout Germany; the Metropole Orchestra from the Netherlands; “New Music” groups Klangforum in Vienna; the Ensemble Intercontemporain from Paris; Avanti from Helsinki, Finland, playing music specially commissioned to feature Lieb's unique soprano saxophone style. David has been featured on over five hundred recordings, of which he has been the leader or co-leader on nearly two hundred with several hundred original compositions published. His artistic output ranges from straight ahead classic jazz to chamber music, from fusion to avant-garde and world music. Other ongoing performing/recording combinations that Lieb is involved include the Dave Liebman Big Band, the group “Different But The Same” featuring saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, drummer Jim Black and bassist Tony Marino; the “We3” trio with bassist/composer extraordinaire Steve Swallow and long time Lieb associate Adam Nussbaum on drums; “Saxophone Summit” with Joe Lovano and Greg Osby; duo work with pianists Phil Markowitz, Richie Beirach and Marc Copland.

His newest group “Expansions” formed in 2013 features musicians from the new generation of jazz players living in New York; Bobby Avey on piano, Matt Vashlishan on reeds, Alex Ritz on drums along with the perennial Tony Marino on bass. The music for this group reflects current trends and styles being played by the new crop of jazz players. Their first recordings “Samsara” “The Puzzle” “Live” (double CD)are released on Whaling City Sound.

Lieb’s published materials include a wide variety of books considered classics in the field as well as instructional DVDs and chamber music (Aebersold Publications, Caris Music and Advance Music): Self Portrait of A Jazz Artist, A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony And Melody, Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound, several of which have been translated into multiple languages. Liebman’s biography is titled “What It Is-The Life Of A Jazz Artist” in conversation with Lewis Porter (Scarecrow Press).

His teaching activities at universities and in clinic settings have taken him literally around the world as a result of his varied musical directions and expertise on several instruments, along with an ability to articulate the intricacies of the jazz language, aesthetic and technique. Over the years, he has regularly received grantees to study with him funded by the NEA, the Canadian Arts Council, as well as arts councils of numerous European countries. In 1989 he founded the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ), an organization dedicated to networking educators and students from international jazz schools achieved through periodic meetings, exchange programs and newsletters with membership representing schools and universities from nearly forty countries.

Liebman was awarded the highest honor granted in jazz by the U.S. government in 2011, NEA Jazz Master as well as the Order of Arts and Letters from the French government and an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy in 1997 (Helsinki, Finland). Liebman presently serves as the Artistic Director of the IASJ, guest lecturer at the Berklee School of Music Global Jazz Institute and Master’s Degree instructor at the Manhattan School of Music. He has consistently placed among the top three finalists in Downbeat and Jazz Times polls since 1973, gaining the top place several times.
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David Liebman & The CNY Jazz Orchestra: If a White Horse from Jerusalem...

Read "If a White Horse from Jerusalem..." reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 27, 2024

The four-movement suite If a White Horse from Jerusalem..., performed on this splendid album by soprano saxophonist David Liebman and the CNY (Central New York) Jazz Orchestra, was inspired by the works of Israeli writer, poet and playwright Ada Aharoni, commissioned by Syracuse University, orchestrated by Bret Zvacek and had its world premiere in 2011, after which Liebman suggested that it be recorded. Now, thirteen years after that event, the CNY has made it happen, with Liebman again serving as ...

Album Review

Nancy Reed & Spencer Reed: Happying

Read "Happying" reviewed by Katchie Cartwright

by Katchie Cartwright
August 19, 2024

The jazz world encompasses a multitude of local communities, each bringing its particular proclivities to bear on the music. Jazz came to jny: Delaware Water Gap and the jny: Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania via the inns and summer resorts for which the region has been known since the second decade of the 19th century, attracting New Yorkers and Philadelphians seeking summer refuge and fresh woodland air. By the time singer-bassist Nancy Reed and singer-guitarist Spencer Reed arrived there from ...

Album Review

David Liebman, Jeff Williams: In Duo

by Neil Duggan
March 1, 2024

There is a wonderful hidden treasure trove of jazz recordings which keep being unearthed from old radio broadcasts, forgotten corners of attics or, in this case, boxes of old cassette tapes. Drummer Jeff Williams was delving through some old cassettes made during his extensive career. He found a recording from an improvisational session he made in 1991 with saxophonist Dave Liebman. The recording was made at a session at Bar Room 432, on the West Side of 14th Street in ...

Album Review

Dave Liebman: Live at Smalls

Read "Live at Smalls" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro

by Alberto Bazzurro
January 2, 2024

Tre ampi brani per un totale che supera di un po' i settanta minuti di musica tirata e vibrante, colta dal vivo nel gennaio 2022 al celebre jazz club newyorchese, compongono questo notevole nuovo lavoro di Dave Liebman, una delle presenze più significative (e incidenti) della scena jazzistica ormai da oltre quarant'anni. Il gruppo protagonista dell'incisione, del resto, è di prima grandezza, a partire dal pirotecnico (ma mai per miracol mostrare, come si suol dire) trombettista Peter Evans, che si ...

Album Review

JD Walter: What the World Needs Now

Read "What the World Needs Now" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
August 15, 2023

JD Walter beckons listeners into a soulful and captivating journey through modern jazz interpretations of non-jazz material. With his unique vocal stylings and innovative arrangements, he brings a fresh perspective to familiar popular tunes, and several jazz standards, while delivering thought-provoking original compositions. From the very first track--Stevie Wonder's “Golden Lady"--it is evident that Walter's vocal prowess is a force to be reckoned with. He dashes along in full flight and then effortlessly shifts into intricate ...

Album Review

Funkwrench Blues: Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures

Read "Soundtrack For A Film Without Pictures" reviewed by Chris May

by Chris May
August 3, 2023

Once upon a time it was hard to walk into an arthouse cinema without bumping into a jazz soundtrack. Miles Davis' for Louis Malle's Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud (1958), Charles Mingus' for John Cassavetes' Shadows (1959), Krzysztof Komeda's for Roman Polanski's Knife In The Water (1962) were among a legion of similarly inclined endeavours. But all that was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. In the 2020s, if you want to hear a freshly ...

Liner Notes

Marc Copland: Impressions

by John Kelman
May 25, 2023

Solo performances may approach presenting an artist at his or her most vulnerable, but it's in the context of the duo that they're the most exposed. Not only are their abilities, instincts and improvisational élan laid bare, but their communication skills, at the deepest level, are impossible to disguise. The good news is that, were pianist Marc Copland and saxophonist Dave Liebman in Hans Christian Andersen's famous children's story, “The Emperor's New Clothes," there'd be no child crying out, “But ...

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Dave Liebman

Source: Michael Ricci
September 4, 2022

All About Jazz is celebrating Dave Liebman's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Dave Liebman

Source: Michael Ricci
September 4, 2021

All About Jazz is celebrating Dave Liebman's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Dave Liebman

Source: Michael Ricci
September 4, 2020

All About Jazz is celebrating Dave Liebman's birthday today!

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Dave Liebman

Source: Michael Ricci
September 4, 2019

Recording

Stephans, Liebman, Copland, Gress's Quartette Oblique on Sunnyside

Source: Rifftides by Doug Ramsey
May 5, 2019

Stephans, Liebman, Copland, Gress: Quartette Oblique (Sunnyside) Attempting the impossible, Rifftides once again tries to catch up. We all know that is impossible because record companies refuse to accept that jazz is dead; they keep releasing new music. It took too long for me to mention this superb quartet album, which has been out for a year or so. From Dave Liebman’s falling-away tenor saxophone insinuations that introduce Wayne Shorter’s “Nardis” through the concluding exploration of Miles Davis’s “So What” ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Dave Liebman

Source: Michael Ricci
September 4, 2018

Event

In Touch Entertainment Announced Today Its Summer Jazz Series Lineup

Source: Decibel
June 1, 2018

In Touch Entertainment is announcing the summer lineup of its highly successful jazz series held in a legendary New York music venue, Zinc. The programs consist of Piano Jazz, Trumpet Masters, Boss Tenors, Percussion Masters, Dangerous Rhythms (curated by bestselling author and Latin jazz enthusiast T.J. English), and Vocal Mania. The latter is also debuting this month on the West Coast, with performances held at Vitello’s Jazz and Supper Club in Studio City, CA starting on June 29. In addition ...
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Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Dave Liebman

Source: Michael Ricci
September 4, 2017

Birthday

Jazz Musician of the Day: Dave Liebman

Source: Michael Ricci
September 4, 2016

Education

Music Education Monday: A master class with David Liebman's Expansions

Source: St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
April 18, 2016

This week for Music Education Monday, it's a video master class with saxophonist David Liebman and his band Expansions, who will be in St. Louis to perform for one night only this Saturday, April 23 at Jazz at the Bistro. Liebman, who's now 69 years old, has played thousands of live dates and made hundreds of recordings over the last 45+ years, leading his own groups and working with notable musicians including Miles Davis, Elvin Jones, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, ...
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"Liebman is one of the most important saxophonists in contemporary music... a leader and artist of integrity and independent direction." —Downbeat Magazine