"The reflection of the world
is like blues....
Everybody has some kind of blues to offer." —Jimi
Hendrix
David Liebman, through his highly personal and probing saxophony, has
been known for much of his 40+ year career as an innovator. The
press has described him as "explor[ing] textures and
tonalities where most are afraid to tread," as "a
leader and artist of integrity and independent direction," and
as having "a forceful complexity that no one, with the
possible exception of John Coltrane, has been able to match."
Even so, after making nearly 100 recordings as leader and
being featured player on nearly 200 recordings, ranging from "straight-ahead" jazz
to fusion to avant garde (and even classical music),
the imminent release of this recording Blues All Ways,
his second for OmniTone, prompted Lieb to muse out loud.
"I think listeners who know me are really going to
say, 'I never heard Lieb play like that," remarks
Lieb about his playing on "Compared to Who," adding, "unless
they were somehow able to go back and hear me when I was
twelve years old playing that blues scale."
The "blues scale" Dave refers to is the first musical
vehicle on which he recalls improvising while growing up in Brooklyn. "The
first real music that I got into was '50s rock and roll," recalls
Lieb, listing "Hound Dog" and "Rock around the Clock" as
memorable examples of the era's R&B- based pop music culture
and owing his first feeling for the tenor sax to tunes like Duane
Eddy's "Rebel Rouser" and the Champs' "Tequila."
"I used to listen to Martin Block's 'Make-Believe Ballroom,' listing
my own 'top 25 of the week' while collecting 45 singles," Lieb
continues. "That was really where I first heard
music, so in some ways making this blues record is full circle
for me."
Dave's direct inspiration for the Blues All Ways project
goes back to listening to Coltrane Plays the Blues,
a record that, according to Lieb, "should be 'required
listening' for everybody."
"I've always had the idea that I would like to do something
along those lines — in the modern context, obviously," explains
Dave. "And, much like Coltrane did, is to get the feeling, whether
you're playing a traditional twelve-bar blues or not. That's
why Blues All Ways has the double meaning of 'in all ways'
and that the blues form is always there for us to refer
to."
Each of the resulting diverse and eminently listenable tunes
on Blues All Ways is infused with a blues feeling,
regardless of the specific format. And, because blues
has pervaded almost all forms of popular music for the last
60 years, even when the music gets particularly adventurous,
a listener's acquired affinity for the blues keeps the music
accessible.
So, what better way to start a record that celebrates the
scope and reach of the blues but to pay homage to The King
on "Elvis the Pelvis"? "He
was my first musical hero, so I wanted to celebrate his place
in my background," reminisces Lieb. "I was
ten years old in1956, and those tunes like 'Don't Be Cruel'
and 'Jailhouse Rock' were what I loved." The track
drips with blues groove, courtesy of Vic Juris, Lieb's collaborator
of fifteen years, and his guitar, "the prime blues
instrument of all time," emphasizes Dave.
The jazzy "Down Time" is a "ten-bar" blues,
a variation on the traditional twelve-bar blues form that
omits the two-bar "turnaround," giving a feeling
of propelling one chorus immediately into the next. (There's
also a little "Giant Steps" mixed in as a musical
nod to Trane.)
"Riz's Blues," written for Frank
Rizzo, a late friend of Lieb's, is in three parts. The
first part, which suggests Coltrane's "Equinox," depicts "the
sadness of [Riz's] life." The more upbeat jazz
blues of the middle section represents "the way he lived." And
the last part features an optimistic-sounding — and
harmonically uncharacteristic — blues in a major key
that projects Lieb's hope for better things for Riz in the
after-life.
Jimi Hendrix, Bitches' Brew, the Jarrett/Redman/Haden/Motion
quartet of Byablue, some Allman Brothers,
and others get rolled into "Blues Mirage," a
series of bluesy melodies in different musical keys and styles
that use the blues scale. "The idea was to drift
along with that feeling of the blues form without
the blues per se," explains Dave. "It's
kind of a mirage in that we're giving the blues flavor without
purposely playing the blues format."
The soulful and funky blues of Eddie Harris and Les McCann's Swiss
Movement pervade Vic Juris' "Compared
to Who," replete with its play-on-words title. Contrast
that to the slightly dark and mysterious "64
Strings and a Reed," inspired by an off-kilter
jam session in New Orleans when Lieb invited to play his
soprano with a pack of folk music fiddlers. Vic re-creates
what Lieb describes as "an old-time shuffle
that's 'stringy'," resulting in "a kind of 'down-home,'
earthy feel, but abstracted harmonically."
"Blues Tripper," another tune
by Vic Juris, who comes out of genre-defining New Jersey
rock 'n' roll and organ trio traditions, reminds Dave of "The
Ventures and Duane Eddy and all that stuff in the '50s with
the guitar doubling the bass line."
And, considering the record that inspired this project,
closing with Coltrane's "Bessie's Blues" (which
Trane wrote in honor of seminal blues singer Bessie Smith)
was obvious. "Including it takes the recording
full-circle from Elvis to Coltrane to a 'country blues,'" notes
Dave. "That's what I really tried to do: cover
the blues in a contemporary way, but go backward and forward
at the same time."
"It's universal," concludes Lieb. "That's
the thing about the blues. It's not just 'American'
anymore. It may have been incubated here, but the feeling
is everywhere. I mean, Indian music, Swedish music, it's
everywhere. And it's not just the blues scale
or the blues chords; it's the blues vibe."
Amen, brother.