Cryptogramophone
2001
Pomegranate
About This Album
This is what you get when you pair one fine composer-bandleader-bassist with a rag-tag group of improvisational malcontents who know how to stir up a set of arrangements into a noxious brew of little big-band aesthetics and creative anarchy. Add to this mixture to four soloists from outside the ensemble -- for whom particular pieces of music is written -- fold in, stir radically, and allow the air of freedom to penetrate thoroughly. The end result is Pomegranate. Steuart Liebig's all-star band of improvisers -- that includes the composer on bass, drummer Alex Cline, violinist Jeff Gauthier, trombonist Scott Ray, John Fumo on trumpet, and Ellen Burr on flute -- back four soloists in as many compositions designed to create spectral and textural possibilities along a chosen field of harmonic convergences and free-form intervallic encounters, offering a wider than intended color palette for both soloist and ensemble, thereby stretching composition and players to their respective limits. The soloists -- saxophonist Vinny Golia, French horn player Tom Varner, bassist Mark Dresser, and guitar god Nels Cline -- all respond with aplomb, taste, and the fiery awareness of this unique opportunity.
Track List (try tracks 2 and 4)

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