The NEA Jazz Master’s restlessly creative streak has resulted in him playing on more than 500 albums over the past 50 years, from solo sax outings like 1985’s The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner to various duo recordings with pianist and longtime musical partner Richie Beirach (culminating in 2021’s 4-CD set Empathy) to his 10 quintet recordings with Quest, his multiple Saxophone Summit projects with Joe Lovano and Michael Brecker or Ravi Coltrane, to purely free improv dates and encounters with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. On this intimate drumless trio recording with guitarist Ben Monder and bassist John Hébert, Liebman summons up shamanistic powers on soprano sax. He imparts a luscious vocal quality on standards like “Lover Man,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “Bye Bye Blackbird,” and “Stella by Starlight,” with Hébert’s huge, woody tones and Monder’s warm, richly atmospheric chord voicings providing the ultimate sensitive backdrop. Liebman’s lone unaccompanied piece is a haunting extrapolation on the Bill Evans’ ballad “Blue in Green,” famously recorded on Miles Davis’ 1959 landmark, Kind of Blue. Monder also turns in a dramatic solo rendition of Evans’ “Time Remembered” that highlights his unique virtuosity.