One of the true disciples of late period John Coltrane, saxist/flutist David Liebman explores the posthumously released album Selflessness and other material from the master saxists end of career with a sympathetic team of Matt Vashlishan/as-fl-cl-synth, Bobby Avey/p-key-synth, Tony Marino/dr and Alex Ritz/dr. The moods are a mix of passion, intensity and musical spirituality, capturing Coltrane’s musical world vies.
The combination of two woodwinds works well, with Vahlishan’s flute creating a rubato with Liebman’s crying reed on “Peace On Earth” and dreamy over Marino’s bowed bass on “Dear Lord”. Liebman’s soprano and Vashlishan’s alto dig in hard on “One Up One Down” and create post bop dots and dashes on the wild ride of “Mr. Day”. Visions of Monument Valley are captured with Liebman’s flute and Vashlishan’s clarinet during the exotic “Ole” while spacey keyboards by Avey surround the loose “Selflessness” and Ritz’s mournful drumming on “Compassion”. New wine in still new wineskins.