Machine Mass feat. Dave Liebman: Inti

Renowned saxophonist Dave Liebman's legacy as a musician who radiates illimitable vigor and a broad artistic expanse, hearkens back to his stint with Miles Davis and seemingly countless collaborations with a who's who in jazz amid an extensive resume as a leader. On this supercharged jazz-fusion gala he is the featured artist with spiraling young star, Belgium guitarist Michel Delville (The Wrong Object), ace drummer Tony Bianco (Elton Dean, and Alexander von Schlippenbach).

Delville's stinging phraseology, angular wah-wah licks, foreboding crunch chords, and Bianco's springy beats generate a simmering, multi-tempo gala as Liebman often sprays bullets across the studio when he's not scaling elevated peaks. Several passages boast a rough and tumble hardcore gait, and during "Centipede," the trio gels to a red hot bop express, complemented with some free-form jazz rock movements. However, Joe Zawinul's classic "In A Silent Way," is given a worldly makeover, partly due to Liebman's ethereal wooden flute lines atop the drummer's sweeping polyrhythms. Here, the musicians execute a flourishing modality, but shift the tide when Liebman switches to soprano sax and guides his cohorts into a more literal reading of the primary theme.

Vocalist Saba Twelde injects an intermission of sorts into the mix on the ambient electronic ballad "The Secret Place," which may have been intended to serve as a change of pace. Nonetheless, the trio preserves the steamy milieu on the 12-minute piece "Elisabeth," heightened by Delville's doomsday riffs, asymmetrical pulse, and a portentously designed climactic buildup, boosted by the saxophonist's capricious soprano sax escapades. Nonetheless, Machine Mass goes for the knockout blow via this feisty and rebel rousing exhibition that contains a surfeit of diametric contrasts and smoldering exchanges.

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