Dave Liebman has never stopped growing as an artist, harshly self-critical, he is a player constantly seeking to improve, an ethos he constantly encourages others to follow as one of the leading jazz educators of our time. He has recorded as a leader in contexts as varied as classical, straightahead, post bop, jazz-rock and free jazz, but the world music influences to be found in several projects under his own name are perhaps less commented on, but have never been far from the surface since the 1970s and his post-Miles band, Lookout Farm. To say his music has gone full circle since then with The Unknowable is a bit of a reach, since it’s also coloured by a myriad of influences he has absorbed during his 50-year-plus career. But this new configuration with Nakatani and Rudolph does represent a fresh perspective from which to challenge his creativity. The use of electronic processing lends a 21st century ambience to his music, within which the shifting tonalities and textures of tenor sax, flutes, recorder and soprano sax avoid a monochrome ensemble sound that’s buoyed by the imaginative and supportive use of a variety of percussive devices. It’s a refreshing approach that shows how, by embracing change, unexpected sparks can begin to fly.