What It Is: The Life of a Jazz Artist

by Dave Liebman, Lewis Porter (With)

Overview

Dave Liebman is one of the leading forces in contemporary jazz. Prominently known for performing with Miles Davis and Elvin Jones, he has exerted considerable influence as a saxophonist, bandleader, composer, author, and educator. In addition to his recent recognition as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master, he has received the Order of Arts and Letters from France and holds an honorary doctorate from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. He has mentored many of today's most notable young jazz musicians worldwide and is a prolific writer on jazz.

In What It Is: The Life of a Jazz Artist, friend, pianist, and noted jazz scholar Lewis Porter conducts a series of in-depth interviews with Liebman, who discusses his professional, personal, and musical relationships with Davis and Jones, as well as such notable musicians as Chick Corea, Richie Beirach, Michael and Randy Brecker, and many others. Through the interviews, Liebman discusses such personal matters as contracting polio as a child and the difficulties it caused as an adult during his rise as a jazz musician. He offers insights into the life of jazz performers of his generation, particularly the tumultuous period of the 1960s and 1970s. The book also features rare photos from Liebman's personal collection. A fascinating and witty storyteller, Liebman's stories in What It Is will appeal to jazz fans and scholars by providing a firsthand look into the creative life of one of America's leading jazz musicians.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780810882546
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/15/2012
Series:	Studies in Jazz
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	402
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Dave Liebman was a founding member of New York City's "loft" jazz scene before securing a coveted role playing saxophone with John Coltrane's ex-drummer, Elvin Jones, and subsequently with legendary trumpeter Miles Davis and jazz pianist Chick Corea. Liebman was a founding member of the David Liebman Quintet, Quest, and other jazz groups. He is a recipient of the NEA Masters of Jazz in 2011, the Order of Arts and Letters - Officer grade - France in 2009, and an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland in 1997.

Lewis Porter is a jazz pianist, composer, and author. He has served as professor of music at Rutgers University in Newark since 1986, and he is the university's founder and director of the Master's Program in Jazz History and Research.

Table of Contents

Foreword Richie Beirach xi

Preface Lewis Porter xv

Acknowledgments xix

Timeline xxi

Chapter 1 The Delicacy of Youth: Beginnings 1

Chapter 2 The Call: I Find Music, It Finds Me 37

Chapter 3 Breakaway: Finding Myself 63

Chapter 4 Arrival: Becoming an Artist 83

Chapter 5 The Energy of the Chance: Going for It 105

Chapter 6 Guided Dream: Playing with the Masters 125

Chapter 7 It's Different Out There: On the Job with the Prince of Darkness 159

Chapter 8 Beyond the Line: My Own World 191

Chapter 9 Passages: The Ups and Downs 213

Chapter 10 Turn It Around: Solidifying Art and Life 249

Chapter 11 While We're on the Subject: On Others 293

Chapter 12 Tomorrow's Expectations: The Legacy 309

Appendix I Selected Discography 339

Appendix II Selected Educational Materials 347

Appendix III Two Compositions Dave Liebman 349

Index 353

About the Authors 363

Editorial Reviews

Liebman holds nothing back. He speaks frankly of having had polio, of John Coltrane’s influence on him, of his lessons with Lennie Tristano, his time in Charles Lloyd’s band, his work with Chick Corea and Elvin Jones, concerts and recordings with Miles Davis, his collaboration with Richie Beirach and John Scofield, of Lookout Farm and Quest, of his idea of teaching jazz and the state of jazz, of his activities at the International Association of Schools of Jazz, and much more. All of it oscillates between anecdotes and profound thought. Porter not only keeps topics going, most importantly, he knows what Liebman is talking about and follows up with the right questions, enabling readers unfamiliar with Liebman’s career to follow the story, as well as asking the kinds of things an expert would like to know.

Jazzinstitut Darmstadt

I came to admire the book as I read, and I am paying it the best tribute I can by giving it away — to a new young friend, a saxophonist from Santa Cruz, who will also — as I did — learn from Liebman. I applaud Scarecrow for publishing such an in-depth portrait, and only wish (wistfully) that someone had been able to sit down with, say, Brew Moore or Benny Morton or a hundred others. But this book is a model of what can be done to illuminate jazz from the inside as well as chronicling one artist's passage through it.

Jazz Lives

On the final page of this never flagging and informative conversation the saxophonist tells his interlocutor about Miles Davis showing him a picture of Louis Armstrong and him (Miles) together and telling him (Liebman), “From him to me to you.” That Liebman respects that same sense of obligation to his musical forebears is made abundantly clear throughout the volume as he relates his own history, which included associations with Miles, Elvin Jones, Ravi Coltrane, Joe Lovano, Michael and Randy Brecker, and many others, the New York loft jazz scene, and a day job as a New York substitute teacher.

W. Royal Stokes

Dave Liebman has always been one of the smartest and most forthcoming musicians of his generation, and in his new book, What It Is: The Life of a Jazz Artist, the saxophonist and educator holds forth on his art, life and restless creative spirit with effortless candor and lyricism…. Liebman has a refreshingly down-to-earth view of his own legacy as a musician, but he recognizes the importance of his responsibility to properly instruct and influence the next generation of jazz talent…. Porter proves a skilled interviewer, gracefully guiding Liebman from topic to topic while occasionally contributing his own thoughts on the subjects at hand. The obvious conviviality of the interview sessions carries over to the reading experience itself, making What It Is a brisk, intelligent, always entertaining journey through the life of one of contemporary jazz’s most inexhaustibly engaging artists.

JazzTimes Magazine

The span of the book gives the impression of a man and artist who knows himself to the utmost, who has examined his efforts both artistic and personal to grow into the inspiring figure he has become, from player to educator to family man to globetrotting jazz lynchpin.

Ottawa Citizen

Creating a full picture of who Liebman is and what he's accomplished is an ongoing and incremental process, where a great many pieces must be put together like a complex jigsaw puzzle, including keeping abreast of a travel schedule for recording, performing and education that would wither most musicians half the near-66 year-old saxophonist's age. Thankfully, What It Is: The Life of a Jazz Artist is a long-overdue career retrospective—albeit one of an artist who is still very much a work in progress—that helps bring all these pieces, if not exactly together, then at least on the same board where it's possible to draw a number of important conclusions.

All About Jazz

It is compelling reading for educators, musicians, and fans.

The New York City Jazz Record

Dave Liebman has always been one of the smartest and most forthcoming musicians of his generation, and in his new book, What It Is: The Life of a Jazz Artist, the saxophonist and educator holds forth on his art, life and restless creative spirit with effortless candor and lyricism…. Liebman has a refreshingly down-to-earth view of his own legacy as a musician, but he recognizes the importance of his responsibility to properly instruct and influence the next generation of jazz talent…. Porter proves a skilled interviewer, gracefully guiding Liebman from topic to topic while occasionally contributing his own thoughts on the subjects at hand. The obvious conviviality of the interview sessions carries over to the reading experience itself, making What It Is a brisk, intelligent, always entertaining journey through the life of one of contemporary jazz’s most inexhaustibly engaging artists.

JazzTimes