Understanding the concept of The Puzzle, Lieb’s second “new" group recording is simple: As he states: “Improvising is a matter of solving a puzzle.” Yes, of course it is. The difficulty lies in the execution and that’s when the fun begins.

The Puzzle, EXPANSION'S new recording on the Whaling City Sound label centers on the construction skills of the group featuring five extraordinary musicians—Lieb on soprano sax and wooden flute; Matt Vashlishan (reeds); Bobby Avey (keys); Tony Marino (bass) andAlex Ritz (drums). Each one is a heavy lifter…… each one a puzzle solver. As the eleven tracks unfold, it’s interesting and revealing to see how the puzzle analogy works. The musical elements get scattered about at the onset. Next, the improvisation and extrapolation are addressed as these pieces begin finding their place in the whole scheme. Eventually, it all comes together and the assembled puzzle gets an opportunity to shine.

With Liebman, a master improviser, showing the way, EXPANSIONS directs its energy towards dissembling and reassembling the vernacular of jazz. At the core, this group is an adventurous ensemble, eager to invent and constantly in search of new terrain to explore. Its debut album skirted the outer edges of new jazz interpolation and concepts with a profoundly intellectual approach to composition and improvisation. The Puzzle finds the band getting even deeper into the headier aspects of the process, daring each other to find fresh ways of considering the music at hand.

Songs like “The Thing That Wouldn’t Leave” embrace that challenge. “The Thing” according to composer/bassist and long time Liebman associate Tony Marino, addresses the whole ever present matter of dissonance versus consonance. The opening track, “Hat Trick,” penned by reed man Matt Vashlishan, is at first a playful romp with a handful of highly rhythmic and intervallic based motifs all coming from seemingly various directions, with the bass, piano, and sax all finally meeting up in the end. Album closer “Danse De La Fureur” is a Liebman-adapted track excerpted from an Olivier Messiaen composition written while this 20th century master master was a prisoner in a World War II prison camp. It is bruising and maniacal, dark and disturbing, uniquely Expansions-esque.

And so goes the entire recording. For those listeners who like jazz to tickle their cerebral cortex, that like a good challenge when they choose what music to listen to, Liebman has always been an excellent choice. Match Lieb’s vast skills and energetic spirit with the accompaniment and contributions of the group members and you get The Puzzle, an intensely satisfying recording with all the right pieces coming together……a completed puzzle if you like…..sure to please fans of contemporary and serious jazz.

Dave Liebman bio excerpts:

Dave presently serves as the Artistic Director of the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz-a network of jazz schools worldwide founded by Liebman in 1989). At present as an educator he serves as Artist in Residence at the Manhattan School of Music, NYC as well as guest lecturer at Berklee College of Music’s Global Jazz Initiative. He has consistently placed among the top three finalists of the Downbeat Critics Poll since 1973 in the Soprano Saxophone category, gaining the top place in 2011 as well as placing 1st in the Jazz Times Critic’s Poll the same year, taking the top position in the JazzEd poll (2015). In 2011 he was chosen as an NEA Jazz Master, the highest honor in the field granted by the U.S. Government. Other similar accolades include an Honorary Doctorate from the prestigious Sibelieus Academy (Helsinki, Finland) and the Order of Arts and Letters granted by the French government. Liebman has been featured on over five hundred recordings of which he has been the leader or co-leader on nearly two hundred. His artistic output has ranged from straight ahead classic jazz to chamber music; from fusion to avant garde and world music. Lieb’s published materials include a wide variety of books considered classics in the field as well as instructional DVDs and chamber composition: Self Portrait of A Jazz Artist, A Chromatic Approach to Jazz Harmony And Melody,Developing A Personal Saxophone Sound, several of which have been translated into multiple languages. Liebman’s biography is entitled, What It Is: The Life Of A Jazz Artist (Scarecrow Press). It’s not without good reason that Dave Liebman is considered a renaissance figure in the history of jazz over the past several decades. (complete bio available at www.davidliebman.com)