Review
JAZZQUAD
By Leonid Auskern
(original Russian)
Translation:
If you like music that puts the new jazz avant-garde into forms close to academic music, don’t be afraid to spend an hour of your time listening to the new album by the New York duo Carol Liebowitz (piano) / Nick Lyons (alto saxophone) The Inner Senses. Both of these names are well known to fans of free improvisational music, and our regular readers are familiar with them from various projects, including the joint album The First Set (2016). In principle, Carol and Nick have been collaborating since 2007, and judging by how long this duo has existed, one can judge the excellent mutual understanding of the two partners.
They wrote ten tracks for the new album together, and only the track Ontology was written by Connie Cruthers, a renowned pianist and teacher who mentored Carol Liebowitz early in her career. It’s hard for me to single out just one or two tracks in this sixty-minute block. The musical stream of consciousness with perfect mutual understanding, the creative dialogue of piano and alto saxophone is captivating from the first to the last track of the album. At the same time, the duo maintains a tangible connection with the jazz tradition, although this side of their music sometimes remains in the shadows. As jazz drummer Vinnie Sperazza figuratively wrote in the liner notes to the album, “In the 21st century, we are still discovering original ways to find the truth of the moment in sound. With their self-expression, presented on the album, Carol Liebowitz and Nick Lyons help open our ears to the past, present and future of jazz.”
And I would like to finish this text with one more quote, this time from Roger Fairby from All About Jazz: “This improvisational duet is reminiscent of the duet performances of Steve Lacy and Mel Waldrun in style and intensity… almost telepathic… hypnotically attractive.” In my opinion, very accurately said!