Saxophonist and composer
David Liebman has assembled one of his finest bands for
Conversation. In guitarist
Vic Juris he has found a fellow melodist for whom modalism is the means to musical discovery and whose love of warm textures is equal to his own. In the rhythm section of drummer
Marko Marcinko and bassist
Tony Marino,
Liebman has found a combo that pushes at the edges of rhythmic interplay, engaging the front line with vigor and imagination. The ten tunes here run the gamut. There's the
Juris-composed "Short George," a melodic modal workout reminiscent of
Liebman's years with ECM or the group
Oregon at their best. "Snow Day" is a gorgeous ballad based on a small harmonic scale that features
Liebman playing his soprano with restrained but evident passion and nuance while
Juris underlines his phrases with subtle chord washes and
Marino punctuates the lines softly. But it is on "Anubis" that listeners hear this band at its most fully engaged, as Eastern and Western thematic and harmonic motifs entwine between the interval and melody and the soloists stretch the tune's framework to the breaking point without losing reverence for its deeply atmospheric framework. In all, this is strong work by
Liebman, and this is a band to watch. ~ Thom Jurek