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Review

by Ian Mann

March 21, 2011

/ ALBUM

The empathy between the two musicians is immediately apparent and the playing is natural and unhurried.

Jean-Marie Machado & Dave Liebman

“Eternal Moments”

(Bee Jazz BEE 044)

This delightful duo album features one musician who represents a new (and very welcome ) name to me and another whose music I’ve been listening to for over thirty years.

The new discovery is pianist Jean- Marie Machado, born in Tangiers and now resident in Paris where he has become a major presence on the French music scene.
Machado’s exotic Portugese/Spanish/Italian ancestry is reflected in his music. He is a prolific composer and has made eighteen recordings as a leader over the course of the last twenty years. His groups include Trio Time, the nonet Danzas and Sextet Andaloucia featuring British saxophonist Andy Sheppard. Other notable jazz figures with whom Machado has collaborated include Italian trumpeter Paolo Fresu, French pianist Martial Solal and American drummer Paul Motian. A genre straddling artist Machado has also written music for contemporary classical ensembles and for poetry and theatre.

I first discovered saxophonist Dave Liebman back in the late 70’s when I heard his “Lookout Farm” and “Drum Ode” albums for ECM. The former Miles Davis sideman later formed the band “Quest” with pianist Richie Beirach, bassist Ron McClure and drummer Billy Hart. I remember witnessing a blistering performance by this quartet at Brecon Jazz Festival back in the 80’s. A master of many jazz styles Liebman has recorded prolifically and is today considered to be one of the world’s greatest saxophonists. He is also justly famous for his work as an educator. Many of the UK’s finest contemporary saxophonists have studied with Liebman. In recent years he has collaborated with British guitarist Phil Robson, resulting in a couple of very welcome live appearances in nearby Cheltenham.

“Eternal Moments” represents the second album from the pairing of Machado and Liebman. The first, “Caminando” (2008) drew its inspiration from the Portugese fado tradition. “Eternal Moments” is more firmly rooted in jazz with the programme consisting of a mixture of originals by the two protagonists alongside outside material from such diverse sources as Thelonious Monk and Maurice Ravel. Liebman is credited rather baldly with “saxophones”. He features mainly on soprano saxophone but also appears on flute.

The album commences with Machado’s attractively melodic “Little Dog Waltz” with Liebman on soprano. The empathy between the two musicians is immediately apparent and the playing is natural and unhurried with Liebman allowing his partner plenty of room for some beautiful passages of solo piano. There’s a controlled beauty about this performance that gets the album off to an excellent start.

Liebman switches to wood flute for the opening of Machado’s “Les Yeux De Tangati”. It’s an instrument which he utilised to good effect on those live appearances with Robson. Later he moves back to soprano and the dialogue with Machado is again both instinctive and immaculate on this excellent episodic composition. At times he sounds almost bird like, that’s the feathered variety, not the great Mr. Parker.

Liebman’s own “The Gravel And The Bird” again features him on soprano, sinuously curling around the measured pianistics of Machado. The younger man strikes a good balance between his jazz and classical leanings as the spirits of Monk and Tyner rub shoulders with the influence of Debussy and Ravel.
It all comes together on “Le Reveil De La Mariee” in which the duo turn Ravel’s tune into an extended modal piece featuring Liebman’s most unfettered soprano blowing thus far, piercing the darkness created by Machado’s Tyner-esque block chords.

“So A Notinha (Saudades De Ti” by Amadeu do vale and Raul Ferrao-Frederico Valerio renews the duo’s fascination with fado, developing out of an almost abstract introduction featuring the overtly ethnic qualities of Liebman’s wood flute. The attractive central theme is explored leisurely by Liebman on soprano, underpinned by the distinctive shifting fado rhythms of Machado at the piano.

Thelonious Monk’s “Ugly Beauty” is the final item in a sequence of investigations of outside material. The duo imbue the tune with the same kind of mournful lyricism that they brought to the preceding fado piece.

Liebman’s “Fuschia” features a prolonged solo piano introduction from Machado during which he serenely explores his various classical influences. Liebman’s eventual appearance on soprano relocates the music to modal jazz territory.

Machado’s playful “Blue Spice” matches Thelonious Monk for quirkiness and is full of cheerfully garrulous interplay between saxophone and piano. 

“Moment Calme”, also by Machado then ends the album on a suitably elegiac note with Liebman sounding positively joyous on soprano.

“Eternal Moments” is one of the best duet recordings I’ve heard. The exposed nature of the format can sometimes lead to the music becoming becalmed, and a lack of variation in terms of tone and dynamics ensures that some “two handers” are frankly pretty dull. It’s not the kind of trap that experienced campaigners such as Machado and Liebman are likely to fall into. The pair explore a wide variety of jazz styles and beyond, always keeping things on the move. There’s always something happening melodically, rhythmically or harmonically to engage the listener’s attention. This music may be largely laid back, pretty even, but it’s certainly not bland or inconsequential. Liebman’s soprano always possesses a certain bite, even in the quietest moments, and his playing is incisive and intelligent throughout. Machado’s comprehensive knowledge of various piano styles makes him the perfect partner and this is very much a meeting of equals with the pianist also displaying considerable skills as a composer. He’s a very welcome new discovery and I’m now inclined to investigate his impressively varied back catalogue.

The Machado/Liebman duo are currently on tour in Europe, most of the dates being in France. Their sole UK appearance will be at the Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean Street, London on the evening of 28th March 2011. The instinctive rapport displayed by the duo on this frequently beautiful album suggests that they’ll be well worth checking out.

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