New Release from
Carol Liebowitz & Nick Lyons
“First Set”
Carol Liebowitz and Nick Lyons’s duo is an embodiment of go-anywhere in-the-moment improvisation. Their spontaneous lyricism, adventurous harmonic and textural palettes, and the natural ease with which their sounds merge results in a musical beauty and complexity that “expands and fills up corridors after each opened door” (Mark Weber).
The free improvisations retain something of the swinging momentum of the tunes, and the tunes have an ever-unfolding and intrinsic form that is more commonly found in free-form playing. Tracks 1–7 are from a live concert, one of an informal series on Sundays that took place at Connie Crothers’s loft beginning January 2011, continuing into 2012.
Pianist Carol Liebowitz brings a uniquely expressive and personal sound to the jazz and free improvisation scene.
Her recent CD, “Payne Lindal Liebowitz.” a trio with clarinetist Bill Payne and violinist Eva Lindal on Line Art Records, was chosen by Art Lange as one of the Top Ten Jazz CDs in the NPR 2015 Jazz Critics Poll. Defined by “high caliber musicianship and intelligent, electrifying artistry” (Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz), Marc Medwin in Cadence Magazine writes “Simply put, they sound like no one else. . . . The recording is superb.” After focusing on classical repertoire at the High School of Performing Arts and NYU, her musical direction turned to improvisation and she began studying with Connie Crothers.
Other influential teachers have included Sal Mosca, Jay Clayton and Sheila Jordan. She has performed in Europe and throughout the New York City metropolitan area in venues such as Roulette, The Stone, Cornelia Street Cafe, ibeam, The Firehouse Space, Arts for Art, Spectrum, Galapagos and Birdland. In addition to frequent solo concert appearances, Carol has worked in various groups—from duos to sextet—with musicians including Daro Behroozi, Adam Caine, Daniel Carter, Bill Chattin, Claire de Brunner, Maryanne de Prophetis, Andrew Drury, Ken Filiano, Birgitta Flick, Guillermo Gregorio, Ratzo Harris, Ron Horton, Will Jhun, KenYa Kawaguchi, Adam Lane, Eva Lindal, Nick Lyons, Adam Melville, Don Messina, Ryan Messina, Kevin Norton, Bill Payne, John Pietaro, Lorenzo Sanguedolce, John Wagner, Michael Wimberly, Andrea Wolper, and dancer Michiru Inoue. Carol also has two releases on the New Artists label: “Waves of Blue Intensities,” a duo with tenor saxophonist Bob Field, and “Time on My Hands,” a duo with Andy Fite.
Alto Saxophonist Nick Lyons has been called “one of the most important and original alto saxophonists on the improvisation scene” (Manhattan Users Guide, 2015) and “definitely a young jazzer to watch” (Time Out–NY).
His collaborations, based around spontaneously improvised music, have included performing with guitarist Adam Caine, pianists Carol Liebowitz and Connie Crothers. Lyons leads various trios which have included drummers Roger Mancuso and John Wagner and bassists Adam Lane, Hilliard Greene, and Ratzo Harris. Of his 2009 solo performance at The Stone (a pick in Time Out–NY), Mark Weber commented on “his ability to go inside himself and find meaningful lyric inventions, curling out line upon line,” adding that the concert was “magnificent.”
In 2015 Nick was a featured guest on WKCR’s “Out to Lunch,” performed in Berlin at clubs A-Trane and B-Flat and appeared on Cheryl Richards’s CD “If Not For You” on New Artists Records. He has been a regular performer in concert series presented by Arts for Art, the NYC fixture which produces the annual Vision Festival, most recently in Spring 2016 in a quartet with Carol Liebowitz, percussionist Andrew Drury and multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter. He has recently performed in groups led by tenor saxophonist Jimmy Halperin (who cited Lyons as one of his favorite young musicians in New York City, JazzTokyo.org), Connie Crothers (The Stone), pianist Harvey Diamond (Boston area), and Aaron Johnson (Dizzy’s Club); and he has led groups with pianist Kazzrie Jaxen and bassist Ken Filiano, and pianist Virg Dzurinko, trumpeter Ryan Messina, and drummer Federico Ughi.
Artists: Carol Liebowitz, Nick Lyons
Label: Line Art Records (LA1002)
Artist Websites: CarolLiebowitz.com
Release Date: January 6, 2017
UPC: 888295505161
All selections by Carol Liebowitz and Nick Lyons except Carol’s Dream and Roy’s Joy (Connie Crothers, C&C Jazz, ASCAP).
Tracks 1–7: live concert, Brooklyn, NY, May 20, 2012 (Connie Crothers, engineer);
Track 8: recorded August 10, 2007, Systems Two, Brooklyn, NY (Max Ross, engineer).
CD Mastering: Jim Clouse, Park West Studios, Brooklyn, NY.
Carol Liebowitz, piano
Nick Lyons, alto saxophone
1. Carol’s Dream
2. Turquoise Echo
3. Twain Shall Meet
4. The Very Thing
5. Ephemera
6. Reverie on a Sunday Afternoon
7. Roy’s Joy
8. Another Time
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