Dave Liebman was a founding member of New York City's "loft" jazz scene before securing a coveted role playing saxophone with John Coltrane's ex-drummer, Elvin Jones, and subsequently with legendary trumpeter Miles Davis and jazz pianist Chick Corea. Liebman was a founding member of the David Liebman Quintet, Quest, and other jazz groups. He is a recipient of the NEA Masters of Jazz in 2011, the Order of Arts and Letters - Officer grade - France in 2009, and an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland in 1997.Lewis Porter is a jazz pianist, composer, and author. He has served as professor of music at Rutgers University in Newark since 1986, and he is the university's founder and director of the Master's Program in Jazz History and Research.

I came to admire the book as I read, and I am paying it the best tribute I can by giving it away -- to a new young friend, a saxophonist from Santa Cruz, who will also -- as I did -- learn from Liebman. I applaud Scarecrow for publishing such an in-depth portrait, and only wish (wistfully) that someone had been able to sit down with, say, Brew Moore or Benny Morton or a hundred others. But this book is a model of what can be done to illuminate jazz from the inside as well as chronicling one artist's passage through it.

Dave Liebman was a founding member of New York City's "loft" jazz scene before securing a coveted role playing saxophone with John Coltrane's ex-drummer, Elvin Jones, and subsequently with legendary trumpeter Miles Davis and jazz pianist Chick Corea. Liebman was a founding member of the David Liebman Quintet, Quest, and other jazz groups. He is a recipient of the NEA Masters of Jazz in 2011, the Order of Arts and Letters - Officer grade - France in 2009, and an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland in 1997.Lewis Porter is a jazz pianist, composer, and author. He has served as professor of music at Rutgers University in Newark since 1986, and he is the university's founder and director of the Master's Program in Jazz History and Research.

I came to admire the book as I read, and I am paying it the best tribute I can by giving it away -- to a new young friend, a saxophonist from Santa Cruz, who will also -- as I did -- learn from Liebman. I applaud Scarecrow for publishing such an in-depth portrait, and only wish (wistfully) that someone had been able to sit down with, say, Brew Moore or Benny Morton or a hundred others. But this book is a model of what can be done to illuminate jazz from the inside as well as chronicling one artist's passage through it.

Dave Liebman was a founding member of New York City's "loft" jazz scene before securing a coveted role playing saxophone with John Coltrane's ex-drummer, Elvin Jones, and subsequently with legendary trumpeter Miles Davis and jazz pianist Chick Corea. Liebman was a founding member of the David Liebman Quintet, Quest, and other jazz groups. He is a recipient of the NEA Masters of Jazz in 2011, the Order of Arts and Letters - Officer grade - France in 2009, and an honorary doctorate of music from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland in 1997.Lewis Porter is a jazz pianist, composer, and author. He has served as professor of music at Rutgers University in Newark since 1986, and he is the university's founder and director of the Master's Program in Jazz History and Research.

I came to admire the book as I read, and I am paying it the best tribute I can by giving it away -- to a new young friend, a saxophonist from Santa Cruz, who will also -- as I did -- learn from Liebman. I applaud Scarecrow for publishing such an in-depth portrait, and only wish (wistfully) that someone had been able to sit down with, say, Brew Moore or Benny Morton or a hundred others. But this book is a model of what can be done to illuminate jazz from the inside as well as chronicling one artist's passage through it.