Jazz veteran Dave Liebman composed all of the tunes on his new album, As Always (MAMA Records), and is the featured soloist on soprano saxophone and wooden flute. Gunnar Mossblad directs the 19-piece big band and plays sax, flute and clarinet. This accomplished recording comes in a year when Liebman, who has played with Miles Davis (On the Corner) and a host of jazz luminaries, received the 2011 National Endowment of the Arts’ Jazz Masters Award. The title track evokes an Ellington-Strayhorn composition, with a variously exciting and languorous soprano sax solo. I last heard Liebman live more than 30 years ago, at the old Longhorn Bar in Minneapolis; perhaps he will tour again in support of his new CD. — Mordecai Specktor
