National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Master saxophonist whose career has spanned nearly five decades (including stints with Elvin Jones & Miles Davis groups) brings his exciting new band, “Expansions,” to BLU! Featuring Bobby Avey, Matt Vashlishan, Alex Ritz, Tony Marino.
After over two decades with the Dave Liebman Group performing worldwide, conducting workshops and recording nearly twenty CDs, Lieb has put together a new band. Bringing in younger musicians, Dave is following in the footsteps of Miles Davis and Elvin Jones who mentored him in the early 1970s providing the kind of experience that can only happen on the bandstand, especially in this period when the “academy” is part of every young jazz musician’s biography. Reaching across generations to both teach and learn is a time worn process in the jazz legacy. In the case of two of the members, their relationship with Lieb is already a decade old as they have been students, accompanists and bandstand mates working together in the Northeastern section of Pennsylvania, USA where a flourishing jazz community has existed for years. Conceptually, the repertoire delves into the free music realm as well as the complex time signatures and harmonies being explored by the young artists of our time.
Join us for an evening of exceptional live music performed at a very high level as Dave Liebman and his all-star band take the stage at Northeast Ohio’s premier destination for live jazz – one night only, get your tickets today!
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 interest in jazz was sparked by seeing John Coltrane perform live in New York City clubs such as Birdland, Village Vanguard and Half Note. 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 musical. 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 with a residence in the Space for Innovative Development with several other famous performing groups (the Alwin Nicolais Ballet Company).
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 band stand 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 in the duo format and formed the group 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 special 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 n 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 Joachim Kuhn, Daniel Humair, Paolo Fresu, Jon Christensen, Bobo Stenson, Michel Portal, Wolfgang Reisinger and Jean-Paul Celea among others. His reputation in Europe has led to big band and radio orchestra performances with the WDR in Koln, Germany; Metropole Orchestra, Netherlands; “new music” groups Klangforum, Vienna, and 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 three hundred recordings, of which he has been the leader or co-leader on nearly two hundred with several hundred original compositions written and recorded. His artistic output has ranged from straight ahead classic jazz to chamber music; from fusion to avant garde and world music. Other ongoing performing/recording combinations include 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; duo work with both pianists Phil Markowitz and Marc Copland.
His newest group 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.
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 (U.S.), 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 through periodic meetings, exchange programs and newsletters. Liebman presently serves as the Artistic Director of the IASJ and is Artist in Residence at the Manhattan School of Music, NYC. He has consistently placed among the top three finalists of the Downbeat Critics Poll since 1973 in the Soprano Saxophone category, gaining the top place in 2011 as well as placing first in the Jazz Times Critic’s Poll in the same year.
Praised by the New Yorker magazine as a “ young pianist of invention and refinement,” Bobby Avey has established himself as an emerging star in the jazz community. In 2011, he won the esteemed Thelonious Monk Competition for composition. This award followed his 2010 debut record as a leader, A New Face, lauded by the NY Times as a “promising debut.” In 2005, while a student at the Purchase Conservatory of Music, he was invited by Dave Liebman to adapt and arrange art songs from the Classical and Romantic eras for reinterpretation, creating a vehicle for improvisation. The project culminated with the album “Vienna Dialogues” released in 2006 on ZOHO Records to rave reviews.
In 2011 Avey received the New Jazz Works: Commissioning and Ensemble Development Grant from Chamber Music America. The grant enabled Avey to travel to Haiti to record a Vodou Ceremony in the small village of Soukri and then create an hour-long suite grounded in rhythms found in Haitian drumming. The suite entitled “Authority Melts From Me” pays homage to the Haitian Revolution and was premiered and recorded in 2012 featuring another rising voice on saxophone, Miguel Zenon along with guitarist Ben Monder. The New York Times wrote about Avey’s Symphony Space concert: “Avey isn’t laying claim to an ancestral heritage, but rather digging into a tradition outside his experience, with scholarly enthusiasm.” Bobby graduated from the Purchase Conservatory of Music Summa Cum Laude in 2007.
Matt Vashlishan is currently located in the New York area where he is actively developing his reputation as a freelance musician and educator. He holds a DMA in Saxophone Performance from the University of Miami, a Masters degree in Performance from William Paterson University, and a Bachelor’s of Jazz Performance from the Eastman School of Music.
Matt has performed with numerous artists such as Phil Woods, Bruce Hornsby, Patty Austin, Nester Torres, and many others. His large ensemble credentials include the Phil Woods Big Band, Michael Feinstein Orchestra, the Charles Tolliver Big Band and Larry Rosen’s “Jazz Roots” including solo and ensemble work on “An Evening with Dave Grusin.”
In addition to saxophones (alto, soprano, C-Melody,tenor), Matt also plays flute, piccolo, clarinet, and the Akai Electric Wind Instrument (EWI). multi-woodwind instrumentalist. Matt’s discography includes two CD’s released under his own leadership as well as sideman work in a variety of styles. He has co-authored and collaborated with David Liebman on several publications available through Jamey Aebersold Jazz.
Alex started young, already sitting in and performing in the Hudson Valley area where he lived not far from New York City in the Hudson Valley already at age twelve. He went on to attend both the Oberlin Conservatory and College graduating with degrees in Music and Mathematics. While there he studied with jazz drum legend Billy Hart (the present drummer in Liebman’s “Sax Summit” and “Quest” groups) along with the renowned percussionist Jamey Haddad (also a member of the former Dave Liebman Group). After graduating Ritz spent two years living in Shanghai, China, performing in styles ranging from jazz to Afrobeat including collaborations with players of traditional Chinese instruments. During this time, he appeared at festivals and venues in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Switzerland.
Now based in Brooklyn, New York, Ritz has been playing with a wide array of artists and ensembles. He has been featured on several recordings, including Rafiq Bhatia’s Yes It Will, which was listed among the Best Jazz Albums of 2012 by critics from The New York Times, Village Voice and Jazz Times. Modern Drummer magazine observes that Ritz’s “pleasantly disorienting” playing “keeps the music aloft,” and the New York Times speaks of his “drum rhythms in broken-field runs with stuttering delays before downstrokes.”
Tony is the rock of the new group with decades of experience in music ranging from folk, rock, country, bebop to free jazz. His playing credits range from Mose Allison to Phil Woods while his association with Dave Liebman extends well over twenty years and dozens of recordings and tours worldwide. As Lieb describes Tony: “I may have said three words to Tony about how or what to play in these years. He is the most instinctive musician I have known…something realized by all who hear him.”
$20.00
2015/10/23 - 2015/10/23
BLU Jazz+
47 E. Market Street, Akron, OH 44308