HI TO EVERYONE

Just to mention that if you don't wish to receive this newsletter you can unsubscribe through the web site (if that is how you subscribed in the first place) or directly to me if this came as an e-mail. Some people may be on both lists, so if you receive two copies PLEASE go to my web site and unsubscribe since that will be the easiest way. I am always adding people whom I think would be interested but that assumption may be erroneous and I apologize if this is the case. To all new readers, I welcome you to the newsletter which I have been writing by mail since 1993 and electronically as of 1999. I encourage first time visitors to go to my web site which is revised several times a year. It offers in-depth articles, a list of available publications and CDs with sound clips, private photos and recordings of historic interest, information about my annual Saxophone Master Class, the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ) and more. The address is www.davidliebman.com/lieb

FEATURE ARTICLE:THE AUDIENCE 
I am often asked by students and interested people about my views on the audience-how does the public affect me and in what way. With the airing of Ken Burn's series on jazz on PBS in America, (assuming it will be viewed elsewhere soon), the subject of how the public views jazz is front and center. I hope my opinions don't appear to be condescend- ing or unsympathetic, but they are for me the best way to think about the subject. After all if it weren't for the audience I wouldn't be playing, let alone making a living, so it is with the greatest respect for the listener that I explain these views. By attending a performance the audience is being allowed to observe how musicians deal with the process of improvisation and interaction. In a certain sense, they are voyeurs watching experts do their job, which is to come together, agree on a starting place and carry on a high level conversation in their unique language. An audience is "getting its money's worth" when the conversation is interesting, possibly inspired and transparent enough to be observed. If they are there to be "entertained" in the standard sense of the word, then I am afraid they are in the wrong place. There is plenty of good and bad music available for entertainment purposes. But for serious jazz, meaning that the musicians are there to play at the top of their form without holding back due to anything but musical constraints, the audience becomes part of the process. In that way they are a force to be reckoned with and of course I am aware of their intensity of listening or lack of as well as their response to certain musical gestures, etc. But at the end of the day, they are in my mind fortunate to be witnessing our attempts at creation and with that, their satisfaction should be guaranteed. Therefore, there is no such thing as a good or bad performance in the usual sense of what those words mean-only a higher or lower level of communication has been heard and witnessed. The ideal jazz audience comes to watch, enjoy and be part of a musical voyage. A quote from Schoenberg sums up my attitude towards the audience: "If it is for everybody, it is not art. If it is art, it is not for everybody." Pianist Brad Meldhau has something to say along these lines in a recent Jazz Times article: "The motive of improvisation is not to gain a consensus. It's wonderfully free of any notion of utility at all; that Western hang-up on means-ends relationships gets checked at the door. There is no advance notice for the audience, and ideally very little cognitive preparation for the player himself."

With this in mind, I must say that in the past few months I have been struck by the wonderful audiences I have had, in Norway with the Petter Wettre Trio, in Japan with my own group, in Dublin with the Ronan Guilfoyle Trio and in Germany with Far North (Stenson, Christensen and Danielson). In Norway particularly, every audience was predominantly young people intensely involved, while in Japan I am always struck by observing most of the audience with their eyes closed and minimum response until after the final tune. With Far North, it was in Prague where I could really feel the audience tuned in and appreciating with cheering; needless to say, Dublin is a lively town and the Irish are always quite enthusiastic!! Not to say I have never felt such good audiences, but for me the high level of the listener's commitment to staying on track with us and enjoying the process even more than the result is gratifying.

THIRTY YEARS AND COUNTING
Depending upon how I calculate, either 2000 or 2001 marks thirty years as a professional in the music business beginning with being hired by one of the early fusion bands, Ten Wheel Drive in 1970. With a lot of luck and hard work I have continued to make a living for these past decades and am proud of it. I am also grateful to be fortunate enough to do what I love, get paid for it and able to bring music all over the world, hopefully affecting people's lives positively. Meeting talented and artistic people and communing with them on the bandstand is a priviledge beyond belief and I am thankful for that. There have been some people who have stayed with me for a good part of these years and I would like to acknowledge them here. Some of them are friends while others are through business but they have demonstrated loyalty to me in either case. I think that of all the character traits which human beings have the potential for in relation to others, among the most important to me is loyalty. Having a person stick by you through the good and the bad, offering help whenever needed and being sincerely interested enough to do this is of high value to me. The expression "one hand washes the other" is something I believe in. If someone helps you or gives you opportunities, I feel that it should be repaid. Often in the music business this is forgotten about as soon as your value to another is finished. For those who have been true to me beyond the call of duty, particularly over the past twenty years, I want to publicly express my thanks, eternal gratitude, appreciation and love, hoping that they have received at least something in return-my immediate family including my wife Caris and her parents, Natalie and Harold Visentin, along with my mother Frances, the Luchows, the Lipmans, Mike Cherigo, Jean Jacques Quesada, Ernst and Trudie Bucher, Walter Turkenburg, Kurt Renker, Gunnar Mossblad, Leon Segal, Arthur Barron, the Grubers, Jamey Aebersold, the Dorians, the Heckmans and all the musicians worldwide who have played in my bands and helped me refine my vision, especially Tony Marino, Vic Juris and Jamey Haddad. To all of you, my work is the result of your positive vibrations and loyalty.

RECENT ACTIVITIES-ECHOES OF THE PAST 

I have had a few experiences in the past few months which harken back to my legacy and earlier musical years.

 RASHIED ALI
Over the years I have recorded several times with guitarist Tisiji Munoz, a very special musician and human being who definitely subscribes to the essence of improvisation which is being in present time when one plays-often waiting in the studio till something comes to him and then allowing the music to flow. The music is mostly very free and intense, similar to the late Coltrane period. Recently, drummer Rashied Ali who of course played with Trane in the last years, was on a Munoz recording date. It was very exciting to play with him. His touch and flow are unique and executed with utter intensity and conviction. Of course standing in Trane's shoes playing that style is daunting, but as that stage of Coltrane has always inspired me, it felt very natural. The obvious spiritual nature of this music flows right out of all the musicians who take part in these recordings with Munoz.

ELECTRIC MILES 
In a way similar to the experience with Rashied were the two concerts I played with a group of Dutch musicians led by drummer Ruben Van Roon. I met Ruben about ten years ago when he was a student at the Royal Conservatory in the Hague. He expressed a great interest in the early 70s style of Mile Davis when I was a member of the band. So he put together a similar instrumentation where I would play the lead part of Miles performing tunes from that repertoire. It was fascinating as I haven't played a whole set of this music in 26 years nor thought about it much at all. I could see more clearly what Miles was after during that period. Melody and harmony were sublimated so that the emphasis could be on rhythm and color. These guys even used the original effect pedals that were on the bandstand back then. It was living history.

FREE LIFE COMMUNICATION 
My friend and the Chairman of the the IASJ (check my web site), Walter Turkenburg, conducts a musicology class in Holland that over the past years has become interested in the loft scene which took place in New York during the late 1960s. Walter has borrowed some of my tape recordings of these sessions from my loft on West 19th Street and improved the sound from the original reel to reels recorded at 3 3/4 speed. He was also interested in the development of Free Life Communication which was an association I was president of that put on hundreds of concerts featuring mostly free jazz. On my Dutch visit, I spoke with the students and their questions were great-about the music and the social milieu that was happening at the time. A student even prepared a tape with excerpts from the loft tapes along with some pieces by contemporary composers Penderecki, Lutowslovski and Boulez which had some similarities-the question being whether we were aware of European contemporary classical music at the time. I enjoyed looking back to those naïve and innocent days when sessions including the likes of Mike and Randy Brecker, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Bob Moses and others would go on for hours at a time-with no discussion about what we played-just doing it off the top of our head. I must have more than 100 hours of tapes from this time. As it is said, everything eventually comes around. 

NEW RECORDING-HUNTERS AND GATHERERS 
A few years ago I recorded in Helsinki with a wonderful group of musicians, Jukkis Votilla on drums, Anders Jormin on bass and Jarmo Savolinen on piano. The record contains great compositions and some beautiful music combining the Nordic sensibility with some burning and loose jazz. It is called Hunters and Gatherers and is under the name of Jukkis Votilla available on the Double Time label.

FUTURE ACTIVITIES:MANHATTAN SCHOOL OF MUSIC 
Over the years I have resisted taking a steady teaching position for a variety of reasons, but the new head of the jazz program at Manhattan, Justin Dicioccio, made me an offer I couldn't refuse. Over the years since my book, A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Melody and Harmony has been published I have had many interested students and done some classes on a one shot basis on the subject. But I have never had the opportunity to teach it in a systematic and organized manner from beginning to end. So I will be teaching chromaticism on the graduate level for the coming semester which of course will curtail some of my travel for the time being. Practically speaking, the only way for a concept to take hold and have an effect is to teach it to others who can spread the word. With that in mind I am looking forward to systematically organizing the material in a clear and concise manner. I will also be teaching a course in transcription which is very dear to me for learning jazz-the exact imitation and study of a recorded solo in order to absorb the unwritten aural aspects of phrasing (dynamics, articulation, nuance, etc) as well as the thinking that went into the notes played. This has been my main presentation to many students as a way to get inside the music using the imitation process as a path towards self-expression

OTHER ACTIVITIES 
January:Appearing at the IAJE Convention with the Dave Liebman Big Band;appearing at the Cutting Room, New York with the Pete McGuiness Big Band;Sweet Basil with vocalist Ric Dellaratta Trio featuring Lenny White and Eddie Gomez;concerts and teaching at the Rimon School in Tel Aviv, Israel February:Recording with Dan Moretti and Brazilia the music from Elvin Jones' recording Genesis; with pianist Skip Wilkins and flautist Jill Allen at the Deer Head Inn, Deleware Water Gap, PA March: French tour and recording with the World View Trio-Wolfgang Resinger on drums and Jean Paul Celea on bass

SAXOPHONE MASTER CLASS NOTICE:INTERESTED PARTICIPANTS FOR AUGUST 2001 SHOULD CONTACT ME FOR EXACT DATES AND COST. A TAPE MUST BE SUBMIITED FOR ACCEPTANCE.

GNM.COM 
This web site of which I am a featured artist has finally posted a separate jazz section under the direction of Bret Primack who also runs the great birdlives.com site. Check it out for a lot of content, listening clips, controversial discussions and news. The address is: jazzplus.com

FINAL THOUGHTS: FAR OUT PLAYING CREDIT: 
On a program for a concert I did in Corpus Christi with pianist Paul English, the list of who I played with in the past read Miles Davis, Chick Correa(spelled that way) and Ricky Martin. Yes-Ricky Martin!!

IN CZECH: 
In Prague a saxophonist handed me a copy of my book, Developing a Personal Saxophone Sound translated to Czech. The power of the pen is mightier than the sword-something I have always believed in. Imagine what the word embouchure looks like in Czech!!

MEDIA WATCH JAZZ TIMES:
A recent issue of Jazz Times had an article about European jazz being more adventurous than what is happening in the States. I was prominently featured with comments to that effect, along with other notables. Obviously, generalizations are difficult to make since if you go to the Knitting Factory in New York on a given night, you will hear some interesting things going on but that is an exception I think. This is bound to be controversial, but I feel it is a valid commentary. A more complete statement can be found under the Feature Articles section of my web page.

ATLANTIC MONTHLY-THE KEN BURNS SAGA 
My favorite periodical is the Atlantic Monthly which has in-depth articles on all sorts of things from politics to travel to food and more. Francis Davis recently wrote two articles that are worth checking out. I think it is in the November issue where he wrote about Billy Holiday which was very enlightening, but even more so is the January issue on the Ken Burns Jazz documentary showing throughout January on PBS. Of course, as of this writing most of us haven't seen it, but we have heard a lot and my wife gave me the big $60 book that goes with the show which is an impressive collection photographically at the least. Needless to say, there will be a lot of controversy from the jazz community for obvious reasons which Davis covers very well in the article. In the end as he and most of us would probably agree on, some PR is better than none and the public will get a view of jazz they never would have. Just remember the Bird movie and other disaster jazz flicks- things will always get distorted- it is a by-product of any distillation process. Jazz, at its most sophisticated and deepest is not for everyone and when it is presented in that manner, it is diluted in spirit if not content. You can get the article online at www.theatlantic.com/burnsjazz..

THE JAZZLETTER 
I don't know if I ever recommended Gene Lees' Jazzletter but it includes some of the most insightful thoughts on jazz and other things you will ever see. He is known for putting lyrics to many Jobim and Bill Evans songs as well as authoring several books. He is very astute, opinionated, but accurate. His site if you are interested is: jazzlet@ix.netcom.com

We lost the great Stanley Turrentine recently-what a force! Caris, Lydia and myself wish you all the best for 2001

 PEACE