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First Dance
First Dance
Fronted by founding members; Percussionist/Composer Lloyd Haber and Multi Wind Player Omar Kabir who founded the group in 1991. The Groups diverse ethnic and compositional structure is a breath of fresh air needed to represent today’s music scene. “Our purpose is to explore and create in depth, the limitless dimensions of the art form.”
The release of the Freedom Art Quartet’s “Spirits Awake” brought the group critical acclaim; Jeff Stockton of All About Jazz said, “Spirits Awake captures the listener’s interest, holds that interest with creativity and intensity, then rewards it with excitement generated by musical variety and masterly expressiveness.”
Greg Buium from down beat pronounced; “This debut disc from New York’s Freedom Art Quartet swings from Monkish games to Ornette Coleman and Horace Silver with admirable proficiency.” John simmons from the New York times wrote; “If I didn’t know better, I’d think that this was some long lost session from the great Blue Note catalogue of the sixties. A solid jazz date from another of NY’s best kept secrets.”
The F.A.Q. have performed in various clubs, art galleries, and colleges at home and abroad. Festivals include: The Heineken Jazz Festival, The Fire Wall festival, the UVA Jazz Festival & most recently the 2022 Hamptons Jazz Festival. Clubs include; Smalls, Knitting Factory, Jazz Standard among others. Throughout the years, many innovative artists have played within the core group; Ornette Coleman, Fred Hopkins, Ravi Coltrane, J.D. Parren, Abraham Burton, Jaribu Shahid, Brad Jones, Andy McCloud, Roy Campbell, Alex Harding, Jay Collins, and Patience Higgins, among others.
When Freedom Speaks in Notes: The Freedom Art Quartet Redefines the Edges of Jazz
There are albums that impress, albums that challenge, and albums that defy classification altogether. First Dance, the latest release by the Freedom Art Quartet, falls into the rare third category, a project so daring in conception, so wildly inventive in execution, that it feels less like a jazz album and more like a journey through the untamed frontiers of musical thought.
From the opening bars, the ensemble lives up to its name with unapologetic flair. Rooted in a post-Miles Davis bebop sensibility, the quartet immediately pulls the listener into a sonic landscape that feels simultaneously familiar and foreign. What begins as an elegant dance with acoustic jazz soon gives way to something more volatile, more exploratory, music that tiptoes on the edge of free jazz, refusing allegiance to any one genre, except perhaps that of pure creativity.
Formed in 1991 and co-led by founding members Lloyd Haber and Omar Kabir, the Freedom Art Quartet stands as a testament to artistic conviction. Haber, a percussionist and composer, and Kabir, a multi-instrumentalist who moves effortlessly between trumpet, conch shell, and didgeridoo, have built a group that operates as a think tank for improvisation. “Our goal is to explore and create in depth, within the infinite dimensions of this art form,” they say, and this record is perhaps the most compelling proof yet.
First Dance doesn’t seek to please jazz traditionalists. Instead, it invites listeners to surrender themselves to a kind of organized chaos, where rhythmic foundations may appear deceptively simple, but the real architecture lies in the tension between layered motifs and overlapping solos. The effect is hypnotic. Even the most attentive listener may find themselves lost—pleasantly so, amid themes that rise, clash, dissolve, and return with renewed intensity. It is music that demands presence, rewards attention, and lingers in the mind long after the final note fades.
For those lucky enough to witness the group live, whether at a club, a gallery, or a university stage, the experience is even more immersive. The quartet has performed extensively across the United States and abroad, with appearances at major festivals such as the Heineken Jazz Festival, Fire Wall Festival, UVA Jazz Festival, and, more recently, the Hamptons Jazz Festival in 2022. They’ve left their mark on legendary stages: Smalls, the Knitting Factory, Jazz Standard. Over the years, the group has collaborated with luminaries like Ornette Coleman, Fred Hopkins, Ravi Coltrane, Roy Campbell, and Patience Higgins, further solidifying their place in the vanguard of modern jazz.
What makes First Dance so striking is not just its execution, but its philosophy. This is music made not to decorate a moment, but to interrogate it—to stretch time, expand emotion, and pose questions that cannot be answered in words.
When an album concludes and your mind continues to drift, still hearing echoes and fragments long after the final track, you know you’ve encountered something rare. That’s what First Dance delivers: a flood of extravagant propositions and improvisational adventures that challenge, thrill, and ultimately move the listener.
If beauty in art needs a name, then strangely, perhaps appropriately, that name might just be Freedom Art Quartet.
Thierry De Clemensat
Member at Jazz Journalists Association
USA correspondent for Paris-Move and ABS magazine
Editor in chief – Bayou Blue Radio, Bayou Blue News
PARIS-MOVE, May 16th 2025
Read Our
by Mwanji Ezana16 August 2004 Given the names of the quartet and the album and the album&#.
(Down Beat 01/04) This debut disc from New York’s Freedom Art Quartet swings from Monkis.
Led by the out-front tenor of Abraham Burton, The Freedom Art Quartet is a throwback to th.
On Spirits Awake, the Freedom Art Quartet immediately announces its overall dedication to .
