Concert Review: Dave Liebman at Capilano University

Last night at Capilano University our students had the wonderful opportunity to perform with saxophone legend, Dave Liebman.  Liebman performed with Capilano's top large ensembles, the A Band jazz orchestra and the vocal jazz ensemble, Nitecap.  I had the pleasure of playing some tunes with Liebman and his band  (with Phil Markowitz and Jamey Haddad) when I was a graduate student in Oregon many years ago and his playing and personality made quite an impression on me.  Indeed many of the things I learned in that short but intense exchange have stayed with me as central aspects of my playing and approach to music.  He is one of the true masters of the music today and a living link to the great musicians he has worked with including Elvin Jones and Miles Davis.

Of peripheral interest to last night's show was the fact that Liebman had been stuck in Chicago for more than 24 hours waiting for a flight to Vancouver and was unable to make the scheduled rehearsal times with the student ensembles the day before the show.  In fact, our Capilano ensembles had only an hour or so each to rehearse a concert of very challenging music - and all of this in the middle of exam week!  I was so impressed by the level of musicianship that our students displayed in taking on this huge musical task.  Also part of the back-story to this gig is that Liebman's horn was broken when he arrived and he was rushed over to the fine fellows at Massulo Music  to have it repaired just before he concert.  I'm surprised he had the time to eat and change his clothes - there was certainly no time for sleep or rest of any kind after grueling days stuck in an airport.

None of these trials seemed to have affected Liebman's playing.  He is obviously a true road-warrior of the old school.  His complete mastery of the soprano saxophone and the power of his unique improvisational language were truly awe-inspiring. I can't remember having seen or heard anyone play any instrument like that for several years.  He certainly didn't hold back because he was playing with student ensembles and the students responded by pushing themselves to the utmost.   His compositions were equally impressive in scope and originality.  The A Band portion of the show featured excellent arrangements of his music by Jim McNeely and Vince Mendoza and the band was ably directed by my friend, Brad Turner.  I know Brad is a big fan of Liebman's music and seemed just as excited as the students to be sharing the stage with the great man.   Brad's incredible talents as a player give him a unique insight and intuition as a director that is a pleasure to see and hear.  All the students played really well and managed to navigate some very tricky charts with great energy and creativity.

For the Nitecap portion of the show, Réjean Marois, the ensemble's director, had arranged Liebman's music for SATB choir and rhythm section.  In my opinion, Réjean is the finest vocal arranger anywhere and his work for this show proved that to be true once again.   As much as I enjoyed the big band music, I must say that I thought his arrangements were a much more interesting setting for the soprano saxophone.   Liebman made special mention of the fact that he had never performed his music with a vocal ensemble before and it was a wonderful textural and timbral experience to hear his horn (and penny whistle on a couple of occasions!) blend with the high soprano voices.  Indeed, this setting seemed to emphasize the liquid, vocal quality of Liebman's playing and sound. His compositions take a comprehensive view of 20th century harmonic practices, incorporating the richness of both jazz and classical traditions. The singers did an amazing job with some of these very challenging harmonies and the rhythm section players were pushed to their limits to match the surprising twists and turns of Liebman's wild melodic inventions. I think the audiences at Cap are used to hearing Nitecap perform all this 'impossible' music so they don't really understand how unique and beautiful it is that our program supports such an amazing community of vocalists. Réjean has worked so hard to develop our Jazz Studies program over the years and has put in so much effort behind the scenes to make concerts like this happen.  It is nice to see him in situations like this, reaping the rewards of creating a tradition of hard work and high standards among the students.

I feel very lucky to be working with such dedicated and talented colleagues and students and I'm inspired by their excellence!