Phil Robson Trio with Dave Liebman – review

English guitarist Phil Robson

Since winning awards in the late 90s, English guitarist Phil Robson has been much in demand. He co-leads the jazz-rock outfit The Partisans with Julian Siegel, has played with the likes of Christine Tobin, Alec Dankworth, Liam Noble, and more recently has created Six Strings and the Beat, a jazz trio/string quartet cross-over project. He has also made a name for himself with top-drawer US musicians (Wayne Krantz and Billy Hart amongst others), and for this gig was joined for the third time by Grammy-nominated saxophonist Dave Liebman.

Liebman came to prominence in New York in the early 70s, on the back of a jazz scene that was just beginning to realise its appropriation of rock music’s amplified pageantry. He played with various nascent fusion bands, guested on Elvin Jones and John McLaughlin albums, before joining Miles Davis for the culmination of his pre-hiatus electric period. For this gig, joining the lead pair were Dave Whitford on bass and Jeff Williams on drums. With a packed house and warm applause before he’d even made it to the stage, it was obvious Liebman’s reputation preceded him. Such deference was echoed by Robson who commented: “All my tunes become Dave’s tunes”, the minute they had finished the first piece. It also manifested itself more obliquely with Robson taking a while to play himself in, stuttering slightly in negotiating the off-kilter melody and complex chord sequence of the first tune, and falling back on a few stock phrases in his first solos.

This aside, he enthralled. He never fell into the banal mechanical attack that sometimes characterises other fusion-leaning guitarists, and his more aggressive runs were always tempered with control. He was also keen to emphasise the underlying chords throughout his solos, always with creative substitutions and inversions. His tone was also neatly placed in the surroundings. With a modicum of overdrive and sparing delay, he added a counterpoint to his acoustic band mates without ever leaning on the spongy chorus-laden generic fusion sound employed by many.

In contrast to Robson’s restrained fluidity was Liebman’s acerbic soprano. From the outset he released flurries of notes, forcing the rhythm section to keep apace. This they did, with Whitford’s warm tone proving surprisingly nimble, and Williams’ supremely light touch yielding compelling cymbal work. Liebman’s shrieks were so redolent of 1973 Miles that it’s easy to imagine him being exhorted by the whispering Dark Magus himself. I don’t think this is what Robson meant with his aforementioned comment, but it’s tempting to interpret it as evidence of Liebman’s forceful self-imposition rather than an uncanny ability to morph a tune slowly. Instead of entering Robson’s compositions and playing with the form from within, he seemed to be running about on top.

A few tunes in though he swapped to a tenor and seemed more grounded. Compressed phrases were aligned next to space, and cleanly articulated runs were paired with guttural squeals, all with the dynamics being modulated in synchrony with the pliable rhythm section. They ended with a more explicit nod to Miles, playing Blue In Green, with Liebman reinterpreting the back catalogue, once again opting for a soprano where Coltrane’s tenor once trod.

Finally, the supporting Golden Age of Steam gets a mention. Reedsman/leader James Allsopp had written pieces about throwing fruit at people, being stuck in a goldfish bowl, and an imaginary handbag. The music was the sonic equivalent of such off-the-wall ideation: a uniting of different timbres delivered with the defiance of a group who know they’re doing something a bit weird very well. Tim Giles, Allsopp’s foil in Fraud, also drums for this outfit. His Jack DeJohnette bass drum work anchored the groove, but with Kit Downes’ swaying Hammond they weren’t afraid to play free as well. Overall a very interesting balance between abstraction and beats. An album is in the offing soon.

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