David Liebman & Richie Beirach - Mosaic Select 12 (3 CD, 2004/FLAC)

 

The 12th volume in the Mosaic Select series offers a different view of its chosen artists than on previous issues. For starters, all of the recordings on these three CDs are previously unissued live performances. They are compiled from the years between 1976 and 1991, when Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach began recording together in an electric group called Lookout Farm (with Frank Tusa, Jeff Williams, and Todd Barkan), and recorded for the ECM label. They continued as a duo for the same label, and then for the A&M Horizon label and Artists House. Finally, they collaborated again in a group called Quest, with bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart. The music ranges from fusion (Liebman had been Miles Davis' saxophonist for his On the Corner and Get Up With It albums) to modal exploration á la Coltrane and McCoy Tyner. 

David Liebman, Randy Brecker, Richie Beirach, Frank Tusa & Al Foster - Mosaic Select 32: Pendulum - Live At The Village Vanguard (3 CD, 2008/FLAC)

 David Liebman's transitional album Pendulum, his first live-performance recorded effort on the Ornette Coleman-directed, John Snyder-produced Artists House label, was logically an extension of the Open Sky trio and Lookout Farm recordings he did in the earlier part of the 1970s. This three-CD set is a departure for the Mosaic Select series, in that they include the complete 1979 issued Pendulum recording, and add two further full-length, previously unissued offerings done at the Village Vanguard. The original complement of Liebman, pianist Richie Beirach, and bassist Frank Tusa had been expanded to include trumpeter Randy Brecker, and drummer Al Foster replacing Bob Moses. While mainly a blowing session on standards and removed from the improvisationally inclined smaller combos, the recording reflects Liebman's still devout lineage derived from the tenor sax of John Coltrane, while also exploring possibilities on the soprano sax that he took up, abandoned for a time, and brought back to his heart in a more enduring manner. 

• David Liebman - saxophone
• Randy Brecker - trumpet
• Richie Beirach - piano
• Frank Tusa - bass
• Al Foster - drums

1-1 Pendulum
1-2 Picadilly Lilly
1-3 Footprints

2-1 There Is No Greater Love
2-2 Solar
2-3 Picadilly Lilly
2-4 Night And Day

3-1 Blue Bossa
3-2 Well You Needn't
3-3 Bonnie's Blue
3-4 Impressions