INTERVALS –THE NEWSLETTER OF DAVID LIEBMAN

APRIL/MAY 1999

HI EVERYONE:
Just a word to mention that if you don’t want to receive this newsletter let
me know through the web site and I will remove your name. In general I take
the liberty to add  names of people who get in touch with me through my site
as well as those who directly subscribe. I am trying not to clutter your
e-mail so feel free to “unsubscribe” if you would like by contacting me as
mentioned above. I encourage you to go to my web site and visit every so
often as articles and sound clips are added on occasion.
(www.davidliebman.com/lieb)

THE VENERABLE MASTERS
March was punctuated by two events that worked out like bookends because of
their similarities and how they inspired me. At the beginning of the month,
trumpeter Clark Terry appeared at East Stroudsburg University near my home
in Pennsylvania(whose facilities I use each summer for my Saxophone Master
Class). He performed with a big band comprised of non-music major students
and conducted by the great Pat Dorian, (whom I will speak about in a future
newsletter). At the end of March, I performed in Nimes, France in the trio
with Jean Paul Celea and Wolfgang Reisinger at a festival, opening for Roy
Haynes’ group.

If  I am correct, Clark is approaching 80 and Roy nearly 75 years of age,
with drummer Elvin Jones set to appear the next night in Nimes whois around
73.It is incredibly inspiring to see these gentlemen play with such fire,
intensity and dedication as well as the way they communicate so gracefully
to the audience. It’s not only that these musicians have links to the
beginnings of jazz, but when one imagines the conditions under which they
lived and worked, the respect quotient grows even more dramatically. Besides
the obvious component of racism which existed (and still does at times when
for example going through certain borders), just try to envision the
traveling and living conditions in the 1940s through 60s. The distances,
modes of travel, hotels, food and so on were for the most part not the
best-nor was the monetary compensation. The fact that these artists and
others like them persisted and are still blowing their butts off gives me
hope and courage for the future of jazz as well as personally.

Not to mention that Roy and Clark look “marvelous”-sharp, natty and much
younger than their years,which is a testament to how doing what you like is
so rejuvenating. Anyone who plays music for a living should be thankful
everyday of their lives, especially in comparison to the pressures of
earning a living in other ways. A few years ago I shared a bus ride with
Clark Terry from the airport in Amsterdam to the North Sea Festival in the
Hague, Netherlands. Originally from St.Louis (a trumpet town says Clark), he
was a mentor of sorts for Miles who was ten years younger. Besides trumpet
talk, he interested Miles in boxing which I know from my period with Davis
was personally very important  to him and had an effect upon his musical
perceptions in terms of timing and speed of response, etc. So Clark and me
had a nice time reminiscing about the Prince of Darkness. In Clark’s case
there is something else I really admire which is how he speaks to the
audience. He does it in a manner that is hip without being corny;informative
without being condescending;casual, yet heavy. And he touches
everyone-especially in light of what was basically a non-jazz audience
present at East Stroudsburg University that night. He told Duke Ellington
stories and had everyone eating out of the palm of his hand. That is not my
way with an audience and not something that too many guys from my era do
often, but I respect it when it is handled so well. In Clark’s case, he
played with both the Count and the Duke, so there are stories galore as well
as the “mumbles” routine which he does fantastically. Mr. Terry walked
slowly but played perfectly and he had the most beautiful blue colored suits
I have ever seen!

Upon meeting Roy Haynes at the sound check in France, we immediately engaged
in a discussion about New York and how it has changed since he first came
there in1948 as well as in my youth in Brooklyn during the same period. He
noted that when he drives home late at night to Long Island, he is
apprehensive because as a black man driving a white Mercedes he becomes a
target for the “Guliani” police force ruling the city these years. So there
we were, a long time New York resident with a born New Yorker sitting in the
south of France talking about the loss of the good old days .I told him that
when I was 15, I took the subway with my friend Steve Lipman many times to
see Coltrane play at Birdland and the Half Note and vividly recalling the
period that Roy played with Trane during 1963. Roy’s  group in Nimes that
night included saxophonist Ron Blake(who attended one of my first saxophone
master classes), long time pianist Dave Kikoski and bassist Duane Burrnos.
They played very well and swung hard.

I have played with Roy in the past and would say that one of the main
elements of his style is the interaction between the left hand snare
drum(his nickname is snap, crackle and pop) with the bass drum, while the
cymbal beat “dances” around rarely stating the normal ride pattern. You can
dig that fellow Bostonian Tony Williams was affected by Haynes and also my
first mentor, Pete LaRoca has some aspects in common with Roy. (I will be
discussing Pete in the June newsletter as we will be playing for a few
nights in New York at the Jazz Standard.) Also, the band’s repertoire
includes a few Pat Metheny tunes which are very open and not be-boppish at
all. I should note that Roy was considered avant-garde when he first came on
the scene in the late 40s and truly represents the history of jazz having
played with Lester Young through Trane and Rollins,  Metheny and Corea. He
was one of the first of any generation to include rock and sixteenth note
ideas in his playing with Gary Burton during the late 60s. He has always
been a forward thinker and player who knows no age at all!!

March was a heavy month for me. Thanks to two of the Venerable Masters.

OTHER RECENT EVENTS
I received a nice e-mail from Pat Metheny after he listened for the first
time in awhile to the Water recording(Arkadia Jazz). He wrote that”there is
some stuff on there that I have no idea how I actually played it which is to
me is always a good sign”. And one review on Jazz Times pointed out that the
bottom of my tenor sound “deserves special attention”. Nice to know some
guys are listening that deeply.

Label Bleu based in France just released the second CD of the trio I have
with drummer Wolfgang Reisinger and bassist Jean Paul Celea. The title is
“Missing A Page” and it is dedicated to JF Jenny -Clarke. The recording was
done in the studio at the Maison de la Culture in Amiens, France and has one
of the best sounds(especially the bass-recorded completely acoustically)
that I have ever had on one of my recordings.

I have a nice West Coast tour with the Dave LiebmanGroup (Jamey Haddad,Vic
Juris,Tony Marino)which I am looking forward to a lot since I haven’t been
out there in quite a long time and actually lived in the San Francisco area
for nearly two years in the mid 1970s when I had the Ellis-Liebman Band (Pee
Wee Ellis). I hope to see some old friends there and proud to be taking this
great group to show off. In fact I played the Kumbwa Center and Half Moon
Bay with the same guys running those places(Tim Jackson and Pete Douglas)
several decades ago. It is incredible that they are still doing it. In fact,
Tim runs the Monterrey Jazz Festival now.

APRIL ITINERARY
April 1-Skidmore College-Saratoga Springs, New York with Kenny
Werner-clinic/concert
April 2-Dave Liebman Group(Haddad, Juris, Marino)workshop/concert at Orange
Country Community College, New York
April 3-DL Group at the Deerhead Inn-Deleware Water Gap, PA
April 5-Lecture in Hubbard Hall at the Manhattan School of Music, New York
West Coast Tour with DL Group:
April 9-Workshop/performance at California Institute for the
Arts-Valencia-evening club performance at Steamers in Fullerton (LA area)
April 10-Monterrey Jazz Festival-Monterrey
April 11-Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society-Half Moon Bay
April 12-Kuumbwa Jazz Center-Santa Cruz
April 13-Workshop at Cal State,Hayward-evening performance at
Yoshis(club)-Oakland
April 14-Workshop/performance at San Jose State College-evening performance
at the Jazz School in Berkeley
April 15-workshop/performance at South Eugene High School-evening
performance at the University of Oregon(Eugene)
April 16-workshop/performance at Portland State College-evening performance
at club Jimmy Maks-Portland,Oregon
April 17-David Liebman with University of Kansas Band-Lawrence,Kansas
April 18-DL Group at the Knitting Factory, New York-main stage-(8PM)
April 26-27-Duc du Lombard-Paris, France with Reisinger and Celea
April 28-Le Mans Festival with Reisinger and Celea-France
May 2-DL Group at Central PA Friends of Jazz-Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
(Hilton Hotel)
May 6-9-Austria with Reisinger and Celea (Graz, Vienna, Linz and Klagenfurt)

SAXOPHONISTS COMING TO MASTER CLASS REUNION-PLEASE GET YOUR DEPOSIT IN
ASAP!!!
Have a good beginning of spring everyone.
Peace from Dave Liebman