Pendulum - Live at the Village Vanguard 1978 (Live Deluxe Edition)

The accompanying original liner notes aptly describe the occasion of this "one-off" gig at the famed New York club, the Village Vanguard. Suffice to say, these special nights with Randy Brecker and Al Foster in particular represent a nod to the tradition as we interpreted it at the time. This is JAZZ, pure and simple with no agenda - kind of a very high level jam session! Dave Liebman: tenor and soprano saxophone Randy Brecker: trumpet Richard Beirach: piano Frank Tusa: bass Al Foster: drums Recorded February 1978 at The Village Vanguard, New York City About the recordings: For most jazz musicians there is a significant difference between live and studio recordings, hopefully not qualitatively, but in terms of energy and inspiration. This is definitely true of the music that Richie Beirach and I have played together over the decades. We began together in the late '60s jamming in my loft in Manhattan, putting together Free Life Communication (musician's cooperative), apprenticing with masters, listening, talking and exploring music towards constructing a sound that would reflect our influences, the times we lived in and whatever contribution we might ultimately make to the jazz legacy---in summary, the past, present and future. (Check out the bonus track of the 2009 discussion between Richie and myself that discusses our history.) Over the years we have played in three different configurations: the Duo and quartets Lookout Farm and Quest. Throughout you will hear certain recurring themes, albeit with a particular emphasis depending upon which setting. We have always looked back at the jazz repertoire interpreting it in our own manner. There have been traces of free jazz, fusion and world music along with an ongoing interest in the harmonic implications garnered from contemporary classical music of the 20th and 21st centuries; all integrated into an improvised jazz context. These commonalities can be observed over the four decades of our collaboration. As in any jazz, multiple takes of a tune are of interest because they can and often do differ so much from each other. It goes without saying that the sound quality on some of the tracks is less than desirable but we felt the music itself took precedence. Some of these tracks have been previously released on the Select line from Mosaic Records in the 2000s, available here for the first time as downloads. Dave Liebman, 2010