Sax assault: four top jazz saxophonists play Hong Kong in a week
Dave Liebman, Li Gaoyang, Andy Scott and Bob Mintzer set to serve up a feast of horn playing, with the latter pair leading workshops and masterclasses too
Fans of great jazz saxophone playing are in for a treat. Three major international players - plus a prodigy on the instrument from China - are all in town, and several gigs have been organised.
On Saturday night at 7.30pm, the Dave Liebman Quintet will appear at Kitec in Kowloon Bay, featuring on saxophones both Liebman and Li Gaoyang. The latter, still only 21, is regarded almost as a veteran of the Chinese jazz scene, having first made his mark when he joined the Yinjiao Big Band as a tenor saxophonist in 2009.
Li has since delivered well-received performances in concert halls, and at jazz clubs and festivals, on the mainland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and Denmark. He is an assured and interesting young player, but Liebman, at 68, really is a veteran and has been an acclaimed soloist since taking on high-profile gigs with Elvin Jones and Miles Davis in the early 1970s.
Musicians he has collaborated with since, either as a sideman or a bandleader, include drummers Bob Moses and Jack DeJohnette, guitarists John McLaughlin, John Scofield and Pat Metheny, pianist Kenny Kirkland, saxophonists Pee Wee Ellis and Michael Brecker, and many more.
The Nordic rhythm section, with which he and Li will appear on Saturday, comprises drummer Anders Mogensen and keyboard player Carl Winther, both from Denmark, and bassist Johnny Aman from Finland.
Some of the crowd for that show may be coming over from Andy Scott's Sax Day, at Megabox, also in Kowloon Bay, a one-day seminar for saxophonists organised by the Hong Kong Big Band Jazz Federation and presented by Scott, with Bob Mintzer as a special guest.