in 2000, he recorded a sextet session of earl zindars' music, and in 2001 cunliffe documented his working trio of ten years with "live at bernies", which was released on both cd and vinyl, highlighting his work with bassist darek oleszkiewicz and former bill evans drummer joe labarbera. cunliffe has been a member of labarbera's quintet featuring saxophonist bob sheppard and trumpeter clay jenkins virtually since its formation in the early 1990s, with a number of well received albums on the jazz compass label.