It is a rare sighting these days to come across an album with pianist Bobby Avey on it. So one big reason to get this.
There's more. But first regarding Avey cast your minds back to 2014 and a classic from that year Authority Melts From Me, a suite written for quintet.
Dave Liebman and Bobby were close before that and the master appeared on Bobby's A New Face that had appeared four years earlier.
Drawn from the Lieb Expansions band's Selflessness new on Dot Time Records on Friday the album is themed around the music of John Coltrane.
On Blue Train piece 'Lazy Bird,' a beloved classic released on the Blue Note album in 1958, a difference in the arrangement is that there is no trumpet or trombone written for and the piece does not open in a scamper with full pelt piano-on-drums presence.
So for this it has a certain individual distinctiveness in the treatment that certainly conjures surprise.
Lieb, who turns 75 on Saturday, on soprano and Matt Vashlishan wielding alto are lead voices and they blend.
There is a strong contrapuntal sense to the early scene-setting and Avey's touch as part of the sound has a sweep to it that is very appealing, involving, and draws you in.
The piece comes across as a little poignant in the characterisation of the main melody line and given the twists and turns as a listener you can ride on – it's all about the journey and not the all-too-often experienced bathos of destination.
Lieb's soloing on the straight horn after Avey when it blossoms (around 02:39) is exquisite and in such timbral and interpretative detail leaves a mark on the imagination.
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