Midpoint - Quest | Jazzbo Notes

Dec

8

Midpoint - Quest

≡ Category: 1980s, Don't Bother, Post Bop, Reviews |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

DON’T BOTHER

Rating:

I feel like I have a responsibility to review all of saxophonist Dave Liebman’s recordings. The reason why is that Liebman, at least in the 70s, was so often good, that a record buyer would have every reason to believe that any record released under his name would be worth listening to.

Of course nobody hits it out of the park every time, and that’s become increasingly true for Liebman over the years.

Quest, which is really the Dave Liebman Quartet, is a special case. The inspiration for the formation of Quest was Pendulum, a live date Dave Liebman did with Richie Beirach, Frank Tusa, Randy Brecker, and Al Foster. On that release, Richie Beirach brought all of his training in 20th Century classical music to bear in driving the quintet in ways that were utterly innovative in the realm of post bop music, while still retaining an overwhelmingly strong sense of swing.

So you would expect that Quest would be more of the same, except even more advanced. And in a way, that’s true.

With Quest, the connection to 20th Century classical music is even stronger, to the extent that the sense of swing is sacrificed. What replaces it seems willfully obscure and discordant. It’s almost like Quest is trying to see how ugly they can make the music without driving away the audience. This is highly intellectualized music, without a whole lot of warmth.

Another problem is that the musicianship in Quest is not as strong as on the Pendulum date. Ron McClure doesn’t have the melodic sense of bassist Frank Tusa or his sense of swing. Billy Hart bashes away on the drums with none of the subtlety of Al Foster. And the voice of Randy Brecker on trumpet is sorely missed.

Of course Dave Liebman and pianist Richie Beirach remain masterful musicians, but they are delving into increasingly esoteric areas, which while they sound like they were probably a lot of fun for the musicians to explore, aren’t nearly as much fun for the typical listener.

On Midpoint, Quest is playing for an audience in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is about the most forgiving audience imaginable for the kind of highly advanced post bop Quest is pushing, and even so, the applause is suspiciously sparse and respectful, rather than spontaneous and joyful.

I’m not saying that the Midpoint is worthless, far from it. It’s just that it’s a lot of work to listen to, and the rewards don’t justify the effort, at least to me.