Saxophone Summit

They’re giants independently, but place saxophonists Michael Brecker, Dave Liebman, and Joe Lovano collectively in an organization and you’re talking monolithic. Saxophone Summit is usually that group, one which brings back remembrances of hard bop “blowing classes” and “fights” which were well-known decades before. Barely some contrived, record-company idea, the Saxophone Summit 1st — unofficially — arrived collectively in Japan in 1997. Japan was commemorating the tenth wedding anniversary from the Coltrane tribute concert/event Live Beneath the Sky with a fresh concert/event known as Live by the ocean. Joshua Redman, Mike Brecker, Dave Liebman, and George Garzone (substituting for Joe Lovano, who needed to cancel last second) came collectively for the 1997 Coltrane tribute, and their arranged was a smash strike. A year later on Brecker, Liebman, and today Lovano repeated the arranged at the Crimson Sea Event in Eilat, Israel. A few months from then on there is a weeklong engagement at Birdland in NEW YORK and demands for event appearances originated from all around the globe. With each member occupied with a variety of high-profile gigs, Saxophone Summit was even more off-again than on-gain until 2003 when the three blowers fulfilled once again and toured European countries. The group performed 13 concerts more than a two-week period covering nine countries with Phil Markowitz (piano), Cecil McBee (bass), and Billy Hart (drums) in tow. It had been that edition from the music group that followers finally surely got to listen to in their personal living space when Telarc released Gathering of Spirits in August of 2004.