Dave Liebman’s Latest Coltrane Tribute Album

courtesy of Lydia Liebman Promotions

Yesterday Dot Time Records released Selflessness: The Music of John Coltrane, the latest Coltrane tribute album to be recorded by saxophonist Dave Liebman (who was born 75 years ago today). Liebman leads his Expansions combo, created deliberately for reaching out to the younger generation. The group is a quintet, whose other four members are Matt Vashlishan on a diversity of winds, Bobby Avey on keyboards, Tony Marino on acoustic bass, and Alex Ritz on percussion. By way of “full disclosure,” I should note that I encountered this new album through Lydia Liebman Promotions, which is run by Dave’s daughter.

Given the broad account of his career that I found on his Wikipedia page, I feel somewhat embarrassed to have known so little about Liebman. What is important is that he was drawn to jazz as a result of going to Coltrane performances at New York City clubs such as Birdland, the Village Vanguard, and the Half Note Club. Given that he is less than two months younger than I am, my guess is that he was learning about Coltrane through the immediacy of performance at a time when I was just beginning to discover Coltrane albums.

The liner notes for this new album were written by Lewis Porter, whose book John Coltrane: His Life and Music has been a primary reference source for me ever since I devoured it cover-to-cover about four years ago. Porter graciously enumerates Liebman’s past Coltrane albums: Homage To John Coltrane, Joy, John Coltrane’s Meditations, and Lieb Plays the Blues á la Trane. By all rights, I should have been aware of Liebman and his attention to Coltrane long before I encountered Selflessness; but at my age little it to be gained from dwelling on things I might have done.

What matters more to me is Liebman’s current commitment to pass to the current generation the fruits of his extensive Coltrane experiences, first as a listener and then as a performer taking on the “Coltrane book.” I am particularly sensitive to the passing of this particular torch, because, back before I took up my current writing gig, I had to suffer through a painfully inept attempt at such a passing. The 2005 San Francisco Jazz Festival (organized by SFJAZZ) included a fortieth-anniversary performance of “Ascension,” which may have planted the first seed of my discontent with SFJAZZ. I cannot remember who the performers were; but it was clear to me at the time that none of them really understood what made “Ascension” tick, let alone what  made its recording such a monumental event in jazz history.

The good news about Selflessness is that Liebman clearly has a far more substantive sense of what makes the nine selections on this album tick. Sadly, this is my latest encounter with an Amazon.com Web page that does not provide a track listing. So I am obliged to let readers know specifically what those nine selections are:

1. Mr. Day
2. Compassion
3. My Favorite Things
4. Ole
5. Lazy Bird
6. Peace on Earth
7. One Up One Down
8. Selflessness
9. Dear Lord

Through these nine compositions, Liebman has cultivated his Expansions band with more knowledge of how to perform Coltrane than I have ever encountered at an SFJAZZ event. From a more personal point of view, however, I found it very difficult to hold off a strong wave of nostalgia for “the real thing.” As a result, listening to this new album sent me back to my rather extensive collection of Coltrane recordings, simply because the new performances left me hungrier for the “source content” than I could have anticipated.

Now I find myself wondering whether or not Liebman provided listening sessions for the nine pieces he had selected, simply to introduce his fellow performers to some sense of what had drawn him to play jazz in the first place.