Paul Lieberman
Wakefield, Massachusetts, United States | SELF
Music
Press
"Good god, this song is beautiful. It sent chills up my spine... When the year ends, this album will undoubtedly receive some Top Ten recognition.” - All About Jazz
I download and listen to "Composers Datebook" every day. The 2- minute program, a production of American Public Media and the American Composers Forum, usually deals with a particular composer, either celebrating his or her birthday or the day they passed or the premiere of an important work.
On this date in 1824, an audience in Vienna, Austria, heard the premiere of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Ninth Symphony", the composer's final major work, the one that features the "Song of Joy" as its final section. That stunning piece of music came to mind today as I played the new CD by multi-reed player and composer Paul Lieberman. No, he doesn’t rework the Beethoven masterpiece and his music is not really classical. It is, however, filled from beginning to end with joy.
After graduating from Yale in 1978, Lieberman moved to New York City where he continued his studies and played for dance companies. Working with Airto and Flora Purim solidified his love for Brazilian music and Lieberman moved to Rio De Janiero in the mid-1980s where he met and married his wife as well as becoming a popular studio musician. After returning to the US, he played with a slew of musicians from the jazz, soul and rock worlds and continued to work with many Brazilians. In 2006, he began to teach and study at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst, earning his Master's Degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging. Currently, he tours with Jaimoe's Jass Band, has been working with the Arturo O'Farrill Big Band, and has started a new Saxophone Quartet with Marty Ehrlich, Jason Robinson and Gary Smulyan.
"Ibeji" (self-released) is the long-awaited debut recording from the Boston, Massachusetts-area resident. Blessed with 2 cracker-jack rhythm sections (either bassist Rufus Reid and drummer Tim Horner or bassist Nilson Matta and drummer Duduka da Fonseca) and a program that ranges from sparkling originals to classic tunes from Brazil to jazz standards to one of the best covers of a Beatles tune by a jazz player, the recording shines. The secret weapon is the brilliant work of co-producer and pianist Joel A. Martin, whose playing has is so effervescent that it jumps out of the speakers as if to hug the listener. Even his work on the slow tunes sparkles. Lieberman plays tenor, alto and soprano saxophones plus flute, alto flute, piccolo, percussion and adds several vocal flourishes.
One of the more fascinating aspects of the program is how Lieberman uses his American rhythm section to re-imagine the Brazilian tunes (Jobim's "Inutil Paisagem" as a shuffle! and Ivan Lins' ballad "Doce Presenca" with a strong blues feel and opening phrase hearkens back to "April in Paris") and the Brazilian rhythm section to give new life to classic pieces such as Al Dubin & Harry Warren's "Lulu's Back in Town" (bossa nova) and "I'll Remember April" as a sprightly samba. I have always loved Lennon & McCartney's "In My Life", a somewhat melancholy love song that looks back on "people and things that went before." Lieberman takes the tune up several notches, overdubs several flutes then rises atop Matta's melodic bass lines, da Fonseca's sprightly rhythms, and Martin's intelligent piano fills to create a piece that celebrates life to its fullest. On the leader's "Voa Livre" ("fly free"), cellist Eugene Friesen and drummer Jaimoe (he, an original and current member of the Allman Brothers Band) make guest appearances, filling out the sound. Lieberman plays the enchanting melody on several flutes while Friesen moves gracefully behind him. The leader makes a sudden and subtle shift to saxophone while his wife adds a wordless vocal, harmonizing with the cello. The effect is pleasing and oh-so-sweet, even as the saxophone and drums build the intensity. The program closes with "Beatriz", a lovely ballad from the pens of Edu Lobo and Chico Buarque, played only by Martin and Lieberman (alto flute). "Lovely" is a weak word for this stunning, heartfelt, and emotional work.
In truth, "Ibeji" is "soul" music through and through, in the way that John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", JS Bach's "6 Suites for Cello", and, yes, "Song of Joy" is "soul" music to my ears. The music comes a place that combines technique, intelligence, experience, emotions and risk-taking that pushes the musician beyond the ordinary or the commonplace. How one reacts to this joyful creation is a matter of personal taste but, for this listener, I am going to return to this recording over and over because I like just how fine this music makes me feel. - Richard Kamins, Step Tempest
Discography
CD "Ibeji" 2011
Reviewers say:
The “sparkling originals” and “fascinating” arrangements “enchant” and “celebrate life to its fullest” in Paul Lieberman’s “stunning, heartfelt, and emotional” debut recording. “Blessed with 2 cracker-jack rhythm sections” the “oh-so-sweet” CD “shines” with “‘soul’ music through and through” that “combines technique, intelligence, experience, emotions, and risk-taking that pushes the musician beyond the ordinary or the commonplace.” With “one of the best covers of a Beatles tune by a jazz player” and an original that “sent chills up my spine” it “will undoubtedly receive some Top Ten recognition” this year.
Photos
Bio
Saxophone and flute player Paul Lieberman has been crossing boundaries with his music for a long time and celebrates that in his 2011 CD “ibeji” which features a number of legendary musicians: Rufus Reid & Nilson Matta on bass, Duduka da Fonseca, Tim Horner, and Allman Brothers co-founder Jaimoe on drums, Joel A. Martin on piano, and Eugene Friesen on cello. The CD looks at Brazilian music and American jazz as twin children of Mother Africa separated at birth, raised in distant parts of the world, and now reunited, and showcases Paul’s multi-instrumentalism, composition and arranging.
All About Jazz said this of the opening track: ""Good god, this song is beautiful. It sent chills up my spine... When the year ends, this album will undoubtedly receive some Top Ten recognition.”
And regarding the CD as a whole reviewer Richard Kamins wrote: "...filled from beginning to end with joy... Blessed with...a program that ranges from sparkling originals to classic tunes from Brazil to jazz standards to one of the best covers of a Beatles tune by a jazz player, the recording shines... ‘Lovely’ is a weak word for this stunning, heartfelt, and emotional work... In truth, "Ibeji" is "soul" music through and through, in the way that John Coltrane's "A Love Supreme", JS Bach's "6 Suites for Cello", and, yes, [Beethoven’s] "Song of Joy" is "soul" music to my ears. The music comes from a place that combines technique, intelligence, experience, emotions and risk-taking that pushes the musician beyond the ordinary or the commonplace. How one reacts to this joyful creation is a matter of personal taste but, for this listener, I am going to return to this recording over and over because I like just how fine this music makes me feel."
Other recent activities include a new saxophone quartet co-founded with Gary Smulyan, Marty Ehrlich, and Jason Robinson, repeat appearances as featured guest soloist with Grammy Award winner Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, regular appearances with the groups of numerous other Grammy winners, including Jaimoe, Brazilian composer/multi-instrumentalist Thiago de Mello, hornist/composer John Clark, and pianist/composers Paul Sullivan and Jeffrey Wayne Holmes, and creation of the wind/percussion music for three different productions by the world renowned Young@Heart Chorus, subject of an award winning Fox Searchlight documentary. Paul was named to the editorial board of the journal “Analytical Approaches to World Music” in 2010.
Reviewers, listeners, and fellow performers call Paul “inspired” and “inspiring,” citing the “joy,” “understanding,” “commitment,” and “heart” in his music, and the “great lyricism,” “supreme facility,” and “impeccable time” with which he plays. After a session at Mickey Hart’s, Gil Evans noted to Airto: “everything he plays sounds right,” and David Sanborn responded to a show at New York’s Village Gate with a surprise kiss!
Paul earned his BA in Music at Yale University in 1978, and began freelancing in New York, where he studied privately with Kenny Werner, Dave Liebman, and Lee Konitz, and supplemented his income accompanying dance classes for Merce Cunningham Studio, Dan Wagoner, NYU and Princeton University. It was during this period, while working with Grammy nominee Thiago de Mello’s Brazilian big band “Amazon,” that Paul began developing the unique approach to the piccolo with which he consistently ignites audiences.
Paul responded to simultaneous tour invitations in 1982 from Buddy Rich and Brazilian Jazz legends Airto and Flora Purim by becoming the only “gringo” in the all-Brazilian group, and toured the US for the next two years, where he appeared at major clubs, theaters, and festivals, performed for audiences of up to 30,000, and made his Lincoln Center debut.
An invitation to move to Brazil led Paul to Rio de Janeiro from 1985 to 1989, where he found the love of his life, assimilated so completely he was regularly presumed a native, and became Brazil’s first call studio sax and flute player, recording on over 50 albums and many jingles and TV soundtracks, which in turn led to arranging and producing work for CBS, Warner, and other labels. During this period he acquired an extraordinary knowledge of Brazilian music and musicians.
Paul has performed and/or recorded with Pat Metheny, David Sanborn, Don Grusin, Jaco Pastorius, Mickey Hart, Taj Mahal, Rufus Reid, Jaki Byard, David “Fathead” Newman, Bernard Purdy, Lew Soloff, Paquito D’Rivera, Ronnie Foster, Claudio Roditi, Dick Oatts, Conrad Herwig, Brian Lynch, Wayne Bergeron, Arturo O’Farrill, Dave Samuels, Bobby Sanabria, The Temptations, David Byrne, Oscar Stagnaro, Mark Walker, the Springfield Symphony, and even Zippy the Chimp, as well as Brazilian stars such as Simone, Chico Buarque, Djavan, Milton Nascimento, Toninho Horta, Alcione, Joao Bosco, Leny Andrade, Miucha, and Roberto Carlos, along with a veritable Who’s Who of Brazil’s top instrumental artists, includ
Links
