Live as Always: The DVD

To a jazz aficionado it would take only a glance at the personnel list of this big band to realize it is made up of the brightest and most creative New York jazz musicians. Everyone is not only well-versed and experienced in the traditional big band performance practices, but each and every one of them are gifted soloists and renowned jazz musicians in their own right. What is not obvious until you hear the band is that collectively, the level of musicianship is so high that the band easily breaks the boundaries of the traditional big band. In addition to Liebman's compositions and the writer's creative arrangements, the unique sound of the DLBB is also due to how easily the group traverses the line between tonality and atonality; executes dramatic stylistic changes in the moment; and most importantly, can create collaborations of improvised music that are so well-aligned with the compositions that it is hard to tell what is or is not improvised. This, coupled with Liebman's never ending pursuit of all possible avenues of expression in his soprano sax playing, offers the listener a new approach to the big band tradition.