Lieb Plays the Blues á La Trane, Challenge ****

Even the astonishingly consistent Liebman must have been surprised at how this blowing session, made on tour with bassist Marius Beets and drummer Eric Ineke in 2008, took off. It’s full of the passion, invention and sheer joy in playing that the great saxophonist can summon in the right company. The common thread of this live date is blues written by or associated with Coltrane, an acknowledged seminal influence on Liebman.

But this is no "tribute" album – and in any case there is more to Liebman (and Coltrane) than the blues. What distinguishes the best performances here ( All Blues, Mr PC, Take the Coltraneand, especially, Village Blues) is Liebman's instinctively creative response to the tug of the underlying, age-old blues structures, and the tension between them and the free-ranging, highly original soprano and tenor improvisations they nourish.

See challengerecords.com