Saxophonist Dave Liebman left Miles Davis’ employ in mid-1974. Some possible, but by no means certain, reasons are laid out in Paul Tingen ’s Miles Davis Bio Miles Beyond. According to Tingen Liebman was an odd man out in many ways: he was the only white member in an inscreasingly militant black ensemble, his playing was lighter and less removed from its bop roots than what Davis was doing at the time, and he was a bona fide jazz-trained musician in a group made up of non-jazz musicians (with the exception of Miles himself, of course).

Liebman’s desire to leave was possibly also influenced by the fact that he didn’t really have a hand in composing the group’s music or determining its direction. He left to form his own group, Lookout Farm. That group featured keyboard player Richie Beirach, whose work combines a deep understanding of classical styles with both the lyrical impressionism of Bill Evans and the modal explorations of McCoy Tyner, though without Tyner’s muscular attack. Liebman and Bierach were to be frequent collaborators for the rest of their careers. Sadly, many of their duo albums have been long out of print and never made available digitally. The same is true of a great deal of Beirich’s catalog, particularly some excellent albums he recorded for ECM. One excellent but long unavailable album by Liebman and Bierach is Forgotten Fantasies. Recorded on November 18, 19 & 20, 1975 it was released on A&M’s Horizon imprint.

The album opens with Beirach’s lush ballad “October 10th”featuring Liebman’s soprano sax. The two musicians spin quick filigree lines over and through each other’s figures and complement each other marvelously. This music is the very antithesis of what Miles had been doing for the previous three or four years and notthe least bit in tune with the rapidly developing (and, in many cases, stagnating) fusion movement. With the rise of mobile broadband and audio streaming, getting in touch with more obscure movements in jazz and other genres has become easier, and it allows ballads like "October 10th" to reach the ears of many.

Likewise with Liebman’s own “Repeat Performance,” which opens with a lengthy and beautiful passage by Beirach before Liebman joins in, again on soprano sax. On this track Liebman utilizes echo-plex and phase shifting on his soprano playing, but these are textural effects used sparingly, and as such are barely noticeable in the overall sound of the album.

On side two Liebman opens with the title track, playing alto flute. Liebman’s flute work has largely been ignored, though it figured on the very important and influential Miles track “He Loved Him Madly,” the Davis group’s funereal tribute to the just-deceased Duke Ellington. That track has been cited by Brian Eno as being instrumental to the development of what has come to be known as ‘ambient music’, in which the overall tone and mood developed by the music is more important than its rhythmic nature or its melodic/harmonic development. Liebman’s flute work, consisting of a sparse, meditative solo that is repeated, through Teo Macero’s editing, later in the piece, is essential to establishing this overall mood and is one of the most important recordings or Liebman with the band in the studio. The other is the vibrant “Calypso Fremolo” which also features Liebman’s flute work.

Both tracks turn up on the hodge-podge two-disc recording Get Up With It, and Liebman was recruited to write the liner notes for Columbia’s remastered release of the album. Here he is unequivocal about the importance of “He Loved Him Madly,” which is different than the impression given by Tingen’s book. It’s impossible to say whether Liebman is revising his viewpoint here, but he indicates that it is one of the centerpieces of Get Up With It, which it definitely is. He also opines that “Calypso Fremolo” is closest to the live sound of the band during the period when Liebman was playing with the group.

The rest of Side two of Forgotten Fantasies finds Liebman playing robust, muscular tenor saxophone with shades of John Coltrane’s influence clearly visible. Both Liebman’s composition “Troubled Peace” and Bierach’s lengthy closer “Obsidian Mirrors” are more roiling than what has come before.
Forgotten Fantasies is a forgotten album that fans of both Liebman and Bierach should snap up if they spot it in a used vinyl bin. Those who follow the careers of both musicians will not be surprised, but certainly will be satisfied by this recording.