| Jazz |
Dave Liebman, Billy Hart, and Adam Rudolph’s Beingness Is a Monumental Jazz Statement Rooted in Lifelong Mastery and Uncompromising Vision
Since the 1970s, saxophonist Dave Liebman has contributed to more than 500 recordings, some 200 of them under his own name, and in doing so, he has helped shape the trajectory of modern jazz. Whether as a sideman or as a bandleader, his oeuvre stands among the most profound of the 20th and 21st centuries: ambitious, rigorously constructed, and frequently astonishing. With Beingness, Liebman returns not simply with a new album, but with a declaration of artistic clarity and depth, forged in collaboration with two other titans of the form, percussionist Adam Rudolph and drummer Billy Hart.
The trio did not come together by design but through a process that felt, by all accounts, organic. The roots of their musical alliance run deep. Hart and Liebman first crossed paths over five decades ago, in 1972, during the sessions for Miles Davis’s landmark On the Corner. The two have remained close collaborators ever since, notably as core members of the groundbreaking quartet Quest. Liebman and Rudolph, meanwhile, have been performing as a duo since 2016, branching into trio formats on occasion as they explored new frontiers in improvisation.
The birth of this particular trio was serendipitous. “When we learned that Tyshawn Sorey wouldn’t be able to join us for a performance at The Stone,” recalls Rudolph, “Dave suggested inviting Billy. I immediately said yes. I’ve admired Billy’s playing since I heard him with Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi Sextet at the Smiling Dog in Cleveland. I loved his playing then, and I still do.”
The result of their union is Beingness, an album that demands, and rewards, attention. It begins not with a bang, but with a patient unfolding: the first track, aptly titled “Unfolding,” opens with the nuanced percussive language of Rudolph, making space for Hart’s subtle, commanding presence behind the kit. When Liebman finally enters, his soprano saxophone doesn’t pierce the air so much as shape it, carving pathways through a musical terrain that feels simultaneously ancient and futuristic.
To listen to this album is to be enveloped in sound that resists categorization. These are not simply compositions, they are experiences. Each piece is a journey, sculpted in real time by three musicians whose shared language has been refined over decades of deep listening and mutual respect. Their playing is not only virtuosic; it is generous, conversational, alive. Beingness exists within a rarefied tradition of jazz albums, Weather Report’s Mysterious Traveller, Joe Zawinul’s solo works, Bitches Brew, where creative freedom, intellectual rigor, and emotional intensity collide in the service of something greater than the sum of its parts.
“There was a collective commitment,” says Liebman, “to listen with our ears and our hearts wide open. The result was magic.”
That magic animates every moment of the record. It is not only in the dazzling interplay or the layered sonic textures but in the sense of purpose behind each gesture. Hart’s reflections on the process speak to a philosophy of creation that transcends genre: “When you’re in a situation like this,” he says, “you have to come with a free mind, open ears, a receptive heart, and an awakened imagination. The preparation is all the years of practice, of composing, of performing, everything that allows you to be free to play what you imagine.”
That freedom, however, is not unmoored from structure or tradition. On the contrary, Beingness draws power from its deep roots, particularly in African rhythmic and spiritual traditions. “My primary inspiration for these electronic orchestrations,” explains Liebman, “comes from ancient African practices that aimed to enrich the sonic signature of an instrument—by tying rattles or gut strings to the drum skins, for instance, so that, when played, a parallel ‘shadow line’ becomes audible. These rhythmic harmonics, sometimes referred to as ‘the voice of the ancestors,’ give the music a transcendent dimension.”
That dimension is unmistakable throughout the album. In the liner notes, Rudolph captures the ethos of the project with poetic precision:
“Beingness is the source of inspiration that transforms silence into sonic manifestation. Each gesture comes alive in the infinite space between thought and awareness beyond thought. The fluidity of spontaneous sonic projection reflects the very essence of nature: change.”
In an era when jazz recordings often prioritize polish over risk, Beingness feels monumental. It is raw and refined, cerebral and soulful, ancient and new. With the passing of Wayne Shorter, the jazz world has lost one of its great seers, but this album makes one thing clear: those who hold the keys to this lineage of deep musical knowledge are still with us, still creating, still evolving. And on Beingness, they have given us a masterwork that doesn’t just belong to 2025, it stands outside of time.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, May 31st 2025
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Musicians:
Dave Liebman – saxophone soprano, flûtes en bois
Billy Hart – batterie
Adam Rudolph – batterie (kongos, djembé, tarija), piano, pianos à pouces, claviers, gongs, dakha de bello, traitement électronique en direct, percussions
Tracklist :
1) Déploiement 7:27
2) Transmutation 7:08
3) Intent 5:50
4) Chemins 9:05
5) Être 2:50
6) Réfractions 7:52
7) De la transparence à la transcendance 6:48
8) Se souvenir du futur 9:25
9) Mystique 5:21