Dave Liebman
American jazz composer, saxophonist and flautist
David Liebman (born September 4, 1946) is an American saxophonist, flautist, bandleader, composer, and jazz educator. Best known for his work on soprano saxophone, he toured and recorded with Miles Davis during the trumpeter's electric period, appearing on On The Corner. He has appeared on more than 500 recordings, including about 200 as a leader or co-leader, and was named a NEA Jazz Master in 2011. He founded and serves as artistic director of the International Association of Schools of Jazz (IASJ).
Biography
Early life and career
Liebman was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1946 to a Jewish family. He contracted polio in 1949. He studied classical piano from age nine and saxophone from twelve. Hearing John Coltrane at New York clubs including Birdland, the Village Vanguard, and the Half Note was formative. He studied with Joe Allard, Lennie Tristano, and Charles Lloyd, and earned a degree in American history from New York University.
In the early 1970s, after recording with Genya Ravan and Ten Wheel Drive, Liebman helped organize the musician-run collective Free Life Communication — a hub of New York's loft-jazz scene — with support from the New York State Council on the Arts.
The public source identifies “Dave Liebman” as american jazz composer, saxophonist and flautist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Dave, Liebman and American.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1175237. VIAF identifies the subject as 120079184. The Library of Congress control number is n81080899. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1946, 2011 and 1949.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dave Liebman” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.