Quest

Nominally operating as a cooperative unit, Quest brings together saxophonist Dave Liebman, pianist Richie Beirach, and drummer Billy Hart, with George Mraz and Ron McClure alternating on bass across different periods. Liebman’s wide-ranging expertise as the group’s guiding force allows the ensemble to explore an unusually expansive array of styles. Although the musicians move fluidly through every facet of contemporary jazz, their combined power emerges most clearly inside the modal territory that grew out of John Coltrane’s work. The self-titled debut appeared on Palo Alto in 1981 with Mraz handling bass; the later recordings Quest II (1986) and Natural Selection (1988) both feature McClure. The 1990 CMP album Of One Mind highlights the band’s commitment to spontaneous, open-ended improvisation. Across its output, Quest conveys a shared inventive rapport among its members, a rapport most evident in the longstanding musical alliance between Liebman and Beirach that stretches back more than twenty years. That collective assurance produces music of striking depth and concentrated force.