I took these photos of Mr. Liebman's soprano in August 2018; he was playing at the Deer Head Inn in Pennsylvania. I was interested in how he configured his ligature. I'm not sure if it is possible to identify the MPC.

 

You're right: it's really hard to tell what that is. It could be a Soprano Planet, but other than that (and that is a sketchy guess on my part) I have no idea.

 

He'd probably tell you if you asked. Years ago he played Sugal I think. I have no idea what's in those pics, but he also played Drake at one point. I'd look at whoever he's endorsing at the moment. While I have huge respect for him as an artist and educator, I'm not a fan of his sound or his playing. I saw Branford the other day, and he's still my favorite soprano player.

 

I know he played a Guardala at one point (after Lieb and Guardala had a falling out, the name of the mouthpiece was changed to the "Postbop." I think the Postbop was also offered in silver, and the Liebman model was only offered in gold), but the Sugal, I'm not sure. I'd heard that Sugal has issues using players' names without their permission and I'd also heard that he had problems with Dave in this capacity. This is somewhat apocryphal, so take it as it is; I recount it here only to bring it to bear on the original comment and make no claims as to its validity one way or the other. As far as I can tell, Dave isn't endorsing anyone's mouthpiece at the moment. Back around 2012, he used a Drake and seemed to feel comfortable on it. The Drake, however, has a copper ring at the bottom (at least in pictures) and I don't see that on Liebman's current mouthpiece.

I love both Liebman's sound and playing, but the sound is unmistakenly his alone. I'm not sure that too many others could pull it off the same way. (Interestingly, Jan Garbarek's tone strikes me very much the same way though it's about 180 degrees out of kilter to Dave's.) For myself, I wouldn't want his tone and I don't think I could do the mental contortions necessary to get it, even as much as I enjoy it on him. His playing, however, absolutely kills me (in a good way.) There is no one I enjoy more on soprano and I love the way he pushes the envelope on almost everything.

As you can probably guess from my comments about Liebman, Branford's playing is, for me, a bit of a non-starter, but to be fair, I haven't had the urge based on what I have heard to really check him out deeply, so I'll leave it at that. I think what's missing for me in Branford's playing is intensity. I just never hear him get "angry" and I know that's a huge thing for me.

 

Before endorsing Drake mouthpieces (which Liebman no longer endorsers), Dave use to play on Lebayle soprano mouthpieces (and Lebayle tenor mouthpieces as well).

As far as I can remember, even when he plays a Lebayle Jazz soprano mouthpiece, the tip opening was around 0,100", pretty big tip on soprano.

The Drake "Liebman" was basically a Drake "Jazz" offered in 0,075" and 0,100" tip opening.

 

I do wonder (to a point) even though he is not endorsing Drake mouthpieces (and Aaron is not making the Liebman model anymore) if he is still using the Drake. The only reason I say that is because in the photos that Platner posted above, it does sort of look like something is broken off the shank of the mouthpiece and I wonder if that is the case, if it's that brass sleeve that Drake has on his mouthpieces that's missing. It's just a thought, probably I'm dead wrong on this and I know that I'm grasping at straws.

As for me, I just curious. I've got two Guardalas, one I just picked up that seems to be either a Postbop or Traditional in silver (Dave seems to have played around with the names a bunch on the soprano mouthpieces) and the other is a messed-up looking one-off in silver that Dave made for me. It literally looks like a mistake (and probably is) but the thing plays as well or better than anything I've played on soprano. It really should not play as it does as it is a total mess.

 

I sat in the front row for a workshop with Dave in 2023 at the California Jazz Conservatory and even held his soprano for him while he stood up to demonstrate something at the piano. I can't say for sure what mouthpiece he was using, but it was hard rubber and looked exactly like the one in this video from 2023, including the Silverstein-style ligature; maybe someone with sharper eyes than I can definitively identify it:

 

Thanks so much for this video; I hadn't seen it before. I'll see what I can tell from this.

 

At one time 4-5 years ago he was playing and endorsing Drake but I went to Drake's website and he no longer appears so I guess that r4elationship has ended.

 

He had a falling out with Drake. Last mouthpiece I knew of that he played was a heavily modified Selmer mouthpiece of some sort with at least a .90 or even bigger tip.

 

Dave once told me he doesn't change reeds he changes mouthpieces - he was being sarcastic and serious

 

You know, I gathered that. It seemed like every time I saw him, he had something different. So, in summing up everyone's comments we've got Guardala, Lebayle, Drake, Selmer (modified by who?), and Sugal. I don't think he's gotten to Soprano Planet (yet), Otto Link, Berg Larsen, Dukoff, and Meyer.

But, though it seems like he's changed mouthpieces many times over a fifty-year career, really, he's used at most five different mouthpieces. That's an average of ten years per mouthpiece and he certainly did not use each one for ten years and change it like clockwork; he was assuredly on some of these mouthpieces longer than others. The reasons for the changes seem interesting as well: at least apocryphally there were fallouts with Guardala, Sugal, and Drake. Who knows what these disagreements were about. It's probable that not all of the arguments were about structural considerations for the mouthpiece. But each resulted in a change of equipment.

So, I don't know, but being on a mouthpiece for ten years at a clip seems pretty normal, while perhaps a bit more than many experience in terms of change frequency, still not into the of the realm Kafkaesque.

 

I have a curved soprano and when I got it I tried several mouthpieces I had. I used several strengths of reeds and was not happy. I called my friend Bill Bower, who lives in Port Charlotte, and told him I needed a good playing soprano mouthpiece. Bill is the best club saxman I ever heard. He told me he called his friend, Craig Christman, of Naples, FL. And Craig told him to get a Link 6*. Well, Bill sounds great on his soprano. I ordered a Link 6* and they sent me a 5*. I called them and they sent me a 6*. There was all the difference in the world between the 5 and the 6! So I ended up playing a Rico Royal (been playing them for 50 years). Strength that worked for me was 1 1/2. I think Craig has them in stock, as he owns a music store in Naples. Home. Here he is playing a SBA on youtube Mr. Magic and Body and Soul.

. Craig also leads a successful Big Band in Naples and plays most of the big gigs and shows in Miami.

 

I have a curved soprano and when I got it I tried several mouthpieces I had. I used several strengths of reeds and was not happy. I called my friend Bill Bower, who lives in Port Charlotte, and told him I needed a good playing soprano mouthpiece. Bill is the best club saxman I ever heard. He told me he called his friend, Craig Christman, of Naples, FL. And Craig told him to get a Link 6*. Well, Bill sounds great on his soprano. I ordered a Link 6* and they sent me a 5*. I called them and they sent me a 6*. There was all the difference in the world between the 5 and the 6! So I ended up playing a Rico Royal (been playing them for 50 years). Strength that worked for me was 1 1/2. I think Craig has them in stock, as he owns a music store in Naples. Home. Here he is playing a SBA on youtube Mr. Magic and Body and Soul.

. Craig also leads a successful Big Band in Naples and plays most of the big gigs and shows in Miami.

Please help me understand how to connect the dots between this story and Dave Liebman's mouthpiece. I'm not getting it.