Jamaaladeen Tacuma/David Murray

Rendezvous Suite
JazzWerkstatt JW 095

Tommy Vig Orchestra 2012 featuring David Murray

Welcome to Hungary!

Klasszikus Jazz Records NO #

After nearly 40 years in the spotlight and after hundreds of recordings, tenor saxophonist David Murray has become an Archie Shepp for the 21st Century. Although he has avoided the older tenor saxophonist’s sometimes self-aggrandizing political agenda, over time the Los Angles-born Murray, like Shepp, has moved from playing overtly avant-garde music to embrace Funk, Swing and even discs touching on the legacies of the Grateful Dead and Nat King Cole. Like Shepp again he’s still a first-class saxophonist. But spreading his talents so thin begs the questions of how Murray’s music should be scrutinized, and more crucially who exactly David Murray is?

These discs won’t do much to clear up the mystery. Recorded in Budapest, with a top-flight big band playing the compositions of vibraphonist Tommy Vig, Welcome to Hungary posits what would have resulted if Murray had been a soloist with one of those well-rehearsed, West Coast Jazz-studio bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Rendezvous Suite on the other hand, co-lead by bass guitarist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, has a mid-1970s New York vibe. It answers another question: How Murray would have sounded at the beginning of his recording career, if instead of playing acoustically with his octet, he had adopted a simplified variant of the Harmolodic style pioneered by Tacuma’s erstwhile employer Ornette Coleman.

The Hungarian disc is fascinating in a time-warp-like fashion. It confirms that Vig, a Budapest-born child prodigy, who following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution made his name in Hollywood and Las Vegas as a film composer, band leader and studio percussionist with everyone from the Miles Davis-Gil Evans big band and trumpeter Don Ellis to vocalists Diana Ross and Rod Stewart, has the skills to make any large ensemble sound good. The vibraphonist, who returned permanently to Hungary in 2006, has created orchestrations – and used overdubbing so that he can be the entire rhythm section – which make his all-Magyar, 11-piece ensemble the equal of any aggregation led by the likes of Stan Kenton or Ellis 40 years earlier. The focus on the official CD is on Vig’s percussive vibes work and Murray’s reed mastication. But in some ways the disc’s five bonus tracks are even more telling. Without Murray, the arrangements are more balanced and the ensemble looser. Besides vamping cross tones from the horn sections, the tune are notable for Vig’s bopping paradiddles and other rhythm work, as well as two vocals in Hungarian by Vig’s wife, Mia Kim of the 1960s’ Korean-American lounge act, The Kim Sisters.

On the official CD, while the arrangements are overly busy and take more licks from the Swing and Bop eras than any time since then, they amply serve their purpose. Vig’s vibe work throughout is expertly balanced between unforced swing and ringing narratives. In contrast, Murray’s speech-like saxophone patterns relate more to the post-Trane configurations; a tendency which would have got him thrown out of the LA studios in the 1960s and 1970s. Building many of his solos out of slurs, spurts and split tones, his excursions into false registers and staccato bites still manage to fit the orchestral conceptions. Even his sometimes stop-time and altissimo solos lodge comfortably among vamping saxophones, riffing brass, a burbling tuba line or a walking Bebop line created by the vibist’s arranging and the Vig-alone rhythm section.

If Welcome to Hungary has a down side it’s that despite employing a tárogató and a cimbalom player, Vig doesn’t attempt to integrate these unique, home-town sounds with Murray’s distinctive extended saxophone techniques and thus create a completely original program.

Another matter entirely, Rendezvous Suite’s tracks are as overtly funky as if they slipped out from a Johnson Brothers or Crusaders session of the late 1970s. Thankfully this CD lacks the crowd of additional musicians – usually guitarists – and over-production which characterized the majority of those 1970s discs – although it’s never exactly clear what keyboardist Paul Urbanek’s “recomposing” is supposed to signify. Still, Tacuma’s thumb pops and metallic-sounding twangs are as reminiscent of that era as are drummer Ranzell Merrit’s near ubiquitous backbeat, Urbanek’s jittering keyboard shuffles and broad organ-like washes, and so are guitar licks from Mingus Murray which range from overwrought kineticism to pseudo-psychedelic. Amiri Baraka is even featured on one track intoning yet another of his so-called Jazz poems.

Among the flashy guitar key clipping and simple percussion time-sense, there are some conspicuous sequences, as on “Hotel Le Prince (Movement 1)”, when Urbanek’s piano outlays some Boppish runs plus a soupçon of near-17th Century classical licks. Besides that, the operating strategy of the band seems to be the harmonization of keyboard and rhythmic bass lines; or matching simple keyboard tremolo with guitar strums. As for Murray, he lets loose with some double-tongued snorts and mid-range slurs. But even when he breaks up the repetitive arrangements with altissimo squeals or harsh overblowing his contributions appear secondary to that of the four-piece rhythm section. Rather than the Improv-Jazz relationships he would expose elsewhere, the saxman’s ideas are evidentially limited to his conception of well-played R&B. If he was still with us, Grover Washington Jr. could have made the date as easily.

If you’re a fan of well-played Swing music or Retro Funk either of these CDs will satisfy and perhaps excite you. But like Shepp, Murray has created more profound work in the past and is plausibly capable of doing so again. So guide yourself accordingly. Plus, of course, the question of who Murray really is as a musician remains unanswered.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Welcome: 1. Sahara 2. Buddy and Solita 3. Now is the Time in Hungary! 4. Rise and Shine 5. In Memory of Dizzy 6. In Memory of Monk 7. Only You 8. Vig Corn 9. I Told You 10. Only You 11. Me Shall 12. Veled Vagyok Meg Gondolatban 13. Fustbe Ment Terv.

Personnel: Welcome: Akos Tompa, Janos Hamori (trumpet); Bela Szaloky (trombone and flugelhorn); Ference Schreck (trombone); Peter Kovács (tuba); David Murray (tenor saxophone); István Elek, Balázs Nagy and Árpád Dennert (tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet); Balázs Cserta (tárogató); Rózsa Farkas (cimbalom); Tommy Vig (vibraphone, electric piano and drums) and Mia Kim (vocals)

Track Listing: Rendezvous: 1. Rendezvous (The Opening) 2. Hotel Le Prince (Movement 1) 3. Theme on a Dream (Movement 1) 4. Bring it On 5. How Sensitive 6. Theme on a Dream - 80s Downtown (Movement 2) 7. Theme on a Dream - Who’s That Ringing? (Movement 3) 8. Hotel Le Prince (Movement 2) 9. Yes We Can* 10. Rendezvous (The Ending)

Personnel: Rendezvous: David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Paul Urbanek (keyboards and recomposing); Mingus Murray (guitar); Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass guitar); Ranzell Merrit (drums) and Amiri Baraka (recitation)

July 16, 2012

Tommy Vig Orchestra 2012 featuring David Murray

Welcome to Hungary
! Klasszikus Jazz Records NO #

Jamaaladeen Tacuma/David Murray

Rendezvous Suite

JazzWerkstatt JW 095

After nearly 40 years in the spotlight and after hundreds of recordings, tenor saxophonist David Murray has become an Archie Shepp for the 21st Century. Although he has avoided the older tenor saxophonist’s sometimes self-aggrandizing political agenda, over time the Los Angles-born Murray, like Shepp, has moved from playing overtly avant-garde music to embrace Funk, Swing and even discs touching on the legacies of the Grateful Dead and Nat King Cole. Like Shepp again he’s still a first-class saxophonist. But spreading his talents so thin begs the questions of how Murray’s music should be scrutinized, and more crucially who exactly David Murray is?

These discs won’t do much to clear up the mystery. Recorded in Budapest, with a top-flight big band playing the compositions of vibraphonist Tommy Vig, Welcome to Hungary posits what would have resulted if Murray had been a soloist with one of those well-rehearsed, West Coast Jazz-studio bands of the 1960s and 1970s. Rendezvous Suite on the other hand, co-lead by bass guitarist Jamaaladeen Tacuma, has a mid-1970s New York vibe. It answers another question: How Murray would have sounded at the beginning of his recording career, if instead of playing acoustically with his octet, he had adopted a simplified variant of the Harmolodic style pioneered by Tacuma’s erstwhile employer Ornette Coleman.

The Hungarian disc is fascinating in a time-warp-like fashion. It confirms that Vig, a Budapest-born child prodigy, who following the 1956 Hungarian Revolution made his name in Hollywood and Las Vegas as a film composer, band leader and studio percussionist with everyone from the Miles Davis-Gil Evans big band and trumpeter Don Ellis to vocalists Diana Ross and Rod Stewart, has the skills to make any large ensemble sound good. The vibraphonist, who returned permanently to Hungary in 2006, has created orchestrations – and used overdubbing so that he can be the entire rhythm section – which make his all-Magyar, 11-piece ensemble the equal of any aggregation led by the likes of Stan Kenton or Ellis 40 years earlier. The focus on the official CD is on Vig’s percussive vibes work and Murray’s reed mastication. But in some ways the disc’s five bonus tracks are even more telling. Without Murray, the arrangements are more balanced and the ensemble looser. Besides vamping cross tones from the horn sections, the tune are notable for Vig’s bopping paradiddles and other rhythm work, as well as two vocals in Hungarian by Vig’s wife, Mia Kim of the 1960s’ Korean-American lounge act, The Kim Sisters.

On the official CD, while the arrangements are overly busy and take more licks from the Swing and Bop eras than any time since then, they amply serve their purpose. Vig’s vibe work throughout is expertly balanced between unforced swing and ringing narratives. In contrast, Murray’s speech-like saxophone patterns relate more to the post-Trane configurations; a tendency which would have got him thrown out of the LA studios in the 1960s and 1970s. Building many of his solos out of slurs, spurts and split tones, his excursions into false registers and staccato bites still manage to fit the orchestral conceptions. Even his sometimes stop-time and altissimo solos lodge comfortably among vamping saxophones, riffing brass, a burbling tuba line or a walking Bebop line created by the vibist’s arranging and the Vig-alone rhythm section.

If Welcome to Hungary has a down side it’s that despite employing a tárogató and a cimbalom player, Vig doesn’t attempt to integrate these unique, home-town sounds with Murray’s distinctive extended saxophone techniques and thus create a completely original program.

Another matter entirely, Rendezvous Suite’s tracks are as overtly funky as if they slipped out from a Johnson Brothers or Crusaders session of the late 1970s. Thankfully this CD lacks the crowd of additional musicians – usually guitarists – and over-production which characterized the majority of those 1970s discs – although it’s never exactly clear what keyboardist Paul Urbanek’s “recomposing” is supposed to signify. Still, Tacuma’s thumb pops and metallic-sounding twangs are as reminiscent of that era as are drummer Ranzell Merrit’s near ubiquitous backbeat, Urbanek’s jittering keyboard shuffles and broad organ-like washes, and so are guitar licks from Mingus Murray which range from overwrought kineticism to pseudo-psychedelic. Amiri Baraka is even featured on one track intoning yet another of his so-called Jazz poems.

Among the flashy guitar key clipping and simple percussion time-sense, there are some conspicuous sequences, as on “Hotel Le Prince (Movement 1)”, when Urbanek’s piano outlays some Boppish runs plus a soupçon of near-17th Century classical licks. Besides that, the operating strategy of the band seems to be the harmonization of keyboard and rhythmic bass lines; or matching simple keyboard tremolo with guitar strums. As for Murray, he lets loose with some double-tongued snorts and mid-range slurs. But even when he breaks up the repetitive arrangements with altissimo squeals or harsh overblowing his contributions appear secondary to that of the four-piece rhythm section. Rather than the Improv-Jazz relationships he would expose elsewhere, the saxman’s ideas are evidentially limited to his conception of well-played R&B. If he was still with us, Grover Washington Jr. could have made the date as easily.

If you’re a fan of well-played Swing music or Retro Funk either of these CDs will satisfy and perhaps excite you. But like Shepp, Murray has created more profound work in the past and is plausibly capable of doing so again. So guide yourself accordingly. Plus, of course, the question of who Murray really is as a musician remains unanswered.

--Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Welcome: 1. Sahara 2. Buddy and Solita 3. Now is the Time in Hungary! 4. Rise and Shine 5. In Memory of Dizzy 6. In Memory of Monk 7. Only You 8. Vig Corn 9. I Told You 10. Only You 11. Me Shall 12. Veled Vagyok Meg Gondolatban 13. Fustbe Ment Terv.

Personnel: Welcome: Akos Tompa, Janos Hamori (trumpet); Bela Szaloky (trombone and flugelhorn); Ference Schreck (trombone); Peter Kovács (tuba); David Murray (tenor saxophone); István Elek, Balázs Nagy and Árpád Dennert (tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet); Balázs Cserta (tárogató); Rózsa Farkas (cimbalom); Tommy Vig (vibraphone, electric piano and drums) and Mia Kim (vocals)

Track Listing: Rendezvous: 1. Rendezvous (The Opening) 2. Hotel Le Prince (Movement 1) 3. Theme on a Dream (Movement 1) 4. Bring it On 5. How Sensitive 6. Theme on a Dream - 80s Downtown (Movement 2) 7. Theme on a Dream - Who’s That Ringing? (Movement 3) 8. Hotel Le Prince (Movement 2) 9. Yes We Can* 10. Rendezvous (The Ending)

Personnel: Rendezvous: David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Paul Urbanek (keyboards and recomposing); Mingus Murray (guitar); Jamaaladeen Tacuma (bass guitar); Ranzell Merrit (drums) and Amiri Baraka (recitation)*

July 16, 2012

Lest We Forget:

Julius Hemphill (1938-1995)
By Ken Waxman

Known best for the 15-odd years he spent as a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ), saxophonist and composer Julius Arthur Hemphill, influenced the shape of jazz before and after that affiliation. Live at Kassiopeia, a 1987 German concert recently released by NoBusiness, demonstrates his prowess in extending solo reed language and in powerful duets with German bassist Peter Kowald. Hemphill’s organizational and musical smarts also encouraged younger saxophonists such as Tim Berne and especially Marty Ehrlich, whose Julius Hemphill Sextet preserves the all-saxophone ensemble Hemphill created after splitting with the WSQ.

Born Jan. 24th, 1938 in Fort Worth, TX, the sounds of blues, jazz and gospel live and on jukeboxes were part of Hemphill’s life growing up. Brief R&B gigs with Ike Turner’s band following a hitch the US Army intensified these currents. Moving to St. Louis in the late ‘60s, Hemphill helped organize the multidisciplinary collective Black Artists’ Group (BAG) with future WSQ members alto saxophonist Oliver Lake and baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett. Moreover, it was compositions such as his epic “The Hard Blues”, initially recorded on the influential Dogon A.D. album for his own Mbari label, which confirmed that the textures of experimental jazz could be combined with bedrock blues rhythms.

This tendency was extended with the WSQ, initially consisting of Lake, Hemphill, Bluiett and tenor saxophonist David Murray. Hemphill was chief arranger for the cooperative until personal conflicts and health problems forced him to leave. With albums under his own name such as Roi Boyé & the Gotham Minstrels (Sackville/Delmark) and Blue Boyé (Screwgun), he started experimenting with multimedia, multi-instrumentalism and overdubbing. Hemphill collaborated with dancer Bill T. Jones on “The Last Supper at Uncle Tom’s Cabin/The Promised Land”; organized one eponymous big band disc on Elektra/Musician around a setting of K. Curtis Lyle`s poetry; composed “Long Tongues”, a 75-minute opera for six saxophones, rhythm section, strings, brass and piccolo that utilized spoken word, dance and photo montage; wrote for non-jazz ensembles such as the Arditti String Quartet and the Richmond Symphony and, in live performance, would often play alongside pre-recorded tapes.

The results of a serious car accident, plus diabetes, cancer and heart problems, adversely affected his life from the early ‘80s onward. Although his health didn’t permit him to perform after 1994 - Berne took his place in the sextet - before that Hemphill had worked steadily with associates like percussionist Warren Smith and cellist Abdul Wadud. Hemphill died in New York on Apr. 2nd, 1995.

--For New York City Jazz Record January 2012

January 5, 2012

World Saxophone Quartet

Yes We Can
Jazzwerkstatt JW 098

Who would have guessed that nearly 35 years after it was first organized the World Saxophone Quartet (WSQ) would make one of its most exciting CDs in years thanks to a 75-year-old guest star saxophonist? But it’s true. After a number of gimmicky CDs and live shows featuring shifting personnel, rhythm sections and odd song choices, the WSQ has returned to form with this superlative session thanks in no little part to the contributions of Kidd Jordan.

Playing alto saxophone instead of his usual tenor – thus filling missing WSQ founding member Oliver Lake’s chair – Jordan brings an indiscernible élan to the proceedings, evidently enlivening the group and prodding the other three players to masterful and imaginative work. The band’s other original members, baritone saxophonist and clarinetist Hamiet Bluiett and tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist David Murray are both present. Meanwhile tenor and soprano saxophonist James Carter seems to be the newest permanent WSQ member, most recent in a long line of reedists who have filled the fourth chair since Julius Hemphill departed in 1990.

It’s particularly appropriate that New Orleans-based soloist and educator Jordan gives the group new energy, since it was at his initiative that the WSQ was first organized – he invited the original players to make up an all-saxophone formation at a Crescent City festival. Here his dazzling reed command is featured most prominently on his own composition, “The River Niger”. Savoring the theme and rolling its attributes around on his tongue, alongside his reed and through his horn’s body tube, Jordan blends tone splinters, pitch vibrations and tongue slaps into a linear whole as Bluiett keeps up the lowing ostinato on baritone sax. Eventually Jordan’s narrative is joined by contrapuntal overlaps from Carter’s soprano sax and is completed in a round-robin formation as each WSQ member takes turn communicating through altissimo and staccatissimo pressurized trills variations on the theme.

Jordan’s skill and commitment is evident throughout the rest of this live Berlin concert as when he adds a horizontal set of false register asides to the baritonist’s initial elaboration of the title tune, or when he uses agitato split tone as a way to aid Murray in the latter’s deconstruction of the tenor saxophonist’s “Long March to Freedom”.

On “Yes We Can”, as Bluiett’s low-pitched snorting remains constant and the other two vamp behind him, Jordan slithers from one set of long-lined glissandi to another. His knife-sharp solo lines presages the performance’s defining climax as massed ring-shout-style contributions feature everyone tongue slapping and extending tone references from sources as different as sea shanties, work songs and “Dixie” [!] – before gritty four-part harmony signals the finale.

Murray, who may be the most (over) recorded saxophonist in Jazz history, proves that on the home territory of his own tune – with sympathetic backing – his playing can be as powerful as it was 30 years ago. Before the climax of “Long March to Freedom”, for instance, which involves another layer of miasmatic shrieks, bites, snorts, ricochets and puffs from all, sparked by continuous crescendos and diminuendos, Murray, a capella, dynamically tears apart and reconstitutes the exposition.

The other original WSQer appears rejuvenated by Jordan’s presence as well. Besides the rhythmic pedal point baritone-sax bottom he supplies to every tune, Bluiett’s “The Guessing Game” – a clarinet showpiece – is also notable. Producing extended glissandi which take in almost all the tonal extensions and partials his reed can produce, he accelerates to an airy, contralto theme as the others riff contrapuntally with key pops and mouth percussion. The solo’s high point is achieved as his exaggerated shrills and squeaks modulate into a balanced flat line, which in turn brings forth and then combines with moderato harmonies from the others.

Yes We Can is a major achievement from a foursome that is approaching or has equaled the Modern Jazz Quartet in longevity. But the key will be to maintain this lofty standard once the exceptional senior citizen featured here is no longer on board as a guest star.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Hattie Wall 2. The River Niger 3. Yes We Can 4. The God Of Pain 5. The Angel Of Pain 6. The Guessing Game 7. Long March To Freedom 8. Hattie Wall (Reprise)

Personnel: James Cater (soprano and tenor saxophone); Kidd Jordan (alto saxophone); David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet) and Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone and clarinet)

May 21, 2011

David Murray

Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club
Jazzwerkstatt JW 073

David Murray/Chico Freeman

With Özay

ITM Archives 920009

By Ken Waxman

Over the course of his career saxophonist David Murray has blown hot, cold, but mostly cool. Despite making hundreds of records, few are first class, although most reach a level of high competence. Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club – initially released in 1977 on India Navigation – is one of his best early discs, however. Meanwhile With Özay, from the 1990s, is a top-flight vocal CD, where despite the billing, Murray, Chico Freeman and other first-call jazzers provide sympathetic accompaniment to singer Özay.

A Turk living in Berlin, Özay Fecht is an accomplished actress, screenwriter and director, who also recorded jazz with heavyweights like saxophonist Steve Lacy and Jim Pepper. So with Kirk Lightsey and D.D. Jackson splitting the piano duties, bassist Calvin Jones and drummer Pheeroan AkLaff in the rhythm section and a guest shot by violinist Billy Bang, this CD is no vanity project by an actress pretending to be Lady Day.

Featuring only a couple of standards, the rest of the material includes sophisticated songs by the likes of pianist Dave Burrell and vocalist Bob Dorough plus a couple of numbers in Turkish. One features her scatting in double counterpoint with Bang’s sawing fiddle; another has lyrics by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet. Impressively though, Fecht’s English delivery is either lyric soprano bubbly or husky as if channelling Marlene Dietrich.

Murray is in particularly fine form accompanying the later, as with Ben Websterish obbligatos on “Antiquated Love”. Bringing a gritty parlando to “Without Rhyme Or Reason” Fecht’s melismatic cries are matched by Murray’s squeaks and side slipping as well as Lightsey’s metronomic comping. Outstanding throughout, Lightsey steers a middle course between both saxophonists’ bar-busting improvisations and the tonal qualities needed to keep the tracks on an even keel.

More than 17 years earlier, Murray and company weren’t particularly interested in lyricism. But listening to the CD, it’s telling that in retrospect these Young Turks, though identified as avant gardists, were as committed to extending the jazz tradition as Özay and accompanists were in 1994.

In fact, the saxophonist’s “Bechet’s Bounce” is probably the most characteristic composition. The performance could fool any Dixielander into thinking it was Classic Jazz. Here ex-Air member Fred Hopkins slaps his bass à la Pops Foster; drummer Phil Wilson’s backbeat channel’s Zutty Singleton; and Lester Bowie’s open-horned trumpet lead is as jungle-like as anything recorded by Cootie Williams. Around Bowie’s tremolo flourishes and whinnying, Murray weaves high-pitched soprano saxophone vibrations. Performed in broken octaves, the theme is recapped before the turnaround, while the coda involves an old-time rim shot.

Also notable is “For Walter Norris”, an ode to the pianist who was on Ornette Coleman’s first LP. Composed by Butch Morris and related to “Lonely Woman”, the piece evolves as the closely pitched horns modulate atop Hopkins’ bowed bass line. Bowie’s hand-muted, mid-point solo drips with tenderness until the mood is breached by Murray’s rough-hewn split tones. This jagged-smooth dichotomy is maintained throughout with even Bowie’s smears and growls staying connective. Murray’s agitato squeals may be discursive, but they’re moderated by Hopkins’ strums and Wilson’s drags.

One certified classic, and a little-known jazz vocal gem, both CDs are worth investigating.

-- Ken Waxman

Tracks: Live: Nevada’s Theme; Bechet’s Bounce; Obe; Let the Music Take You; For Walter Norris; Santa Barbara & Crenshaw Follies

Personnel: Live: Lester Bowie: trumpet; David Murray: soprano and tenor saxophones; Fred Hopkins: bass; Phillip Wilson: drums

Tracks: Özay: Antiquated Love^!; Ancient Dancer+; Intuitively^!; En Güzel Deniz; Without Rhyme Or Reason^!; I See Your Face Before Me; I Thought About You (For Tom)+; Peaceful Heart/Gentle Spirit+; Istanblue*!

Personnel: Özay: David Murray^ or Chico Freeman+: tenor saxophone; Billy Bang: violin*Kirk Lightsey! or D.D. Jackson+: piano; Calvin Jones: bass; Pheeroan AkLaff: drums; Özay: vocals

-- For All About Jazz New York January 2011

January 8, 2011

David Murray/Chico Freeman

With Özay
ITM Archives 920009

David Murray

Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club

Jazzwerkstatt JW 073

By Ken Waxman

Over the course of his career saxophonist David Murray has blown hot, cold, but mostly cool. Despite making hundreds of records, few are first class, although most reach a level of high competence. Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club – initially released in 1977 on India Navigation – is one of his best early discs, however. Meanwhile With Özay, from the 1990s, is a top-flight vocal CD, where despite the billing, Murray, Chico Freeman and other first-call jazzers provide sympathetic accompaniment to singer Özay.

A Turk living in Berlin, Özay Fecht is an accomplished actress, screenwriter and director, who also recorded jazz with heavyweights like saxophonist Steve Lacy and Jim Pepper. So with Kirk Lightsey and D.D. Jackson splitting the piano duties, bassist Calvin Jones and drummer Pheeroan AkLaff in the rhythm section and a guest shot by violinist Billy Bang, this CD is no vanity project by an actress pretending to be Lady Day.

Featuring only a couple of standards, the rest of the material includes sophisticated songs by the likes of pianist Dave Burrell and vocalist Bob Dorough plus a couple of numbers in Turkish. One features her scatting in double counterpoint with Bang’s sawing fiddle; another has lyrics by Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet. Impressively though, Fecht’s English delivery is either lyric soprano bubbly or husky as if channelling Marlene Dietrich.

Murray is in particularly fine form accompanying the later, as with Ben Websterish obbligatos on “Antiquated Love”. Bringing a gritty parlando to “Without Rhyme Or Reason” Fecht’s melismatic cries are matched by Murray’s squeaks and side slipping as well as Lightsey’s metronomic comping. Outstanding throughout, Lightsey steers a middle course between both saxophonists’ bar-busting improvisations and the tonal qualities needed to keep the tracks on an even keel.

More than 17 years earlier, Murray and company weren’t particularly interested in lyricism. But listening to the CD, it’s telling that in retrospect these Young Turks, though identified as avant gardists, were as committed to extending the jazz tradition as Özay and accompanists were in 1994.

In fact, the saxophonist’s “Bechet’s Bounce” is probably the most characteristic composition. The performance could fool any Dixielander into thinking it was Classic Jazz. Here ex-Air member Fred Hopkins slaps his bass à la Pops Foster; drummer Phil Wilson’s backbeat channel’s Zutty Singleton; and Lester Bowie’s open-horned trumpet lead is as jungle-like as anything recorded by Cootie Williams. Around Bowie’s tremolo flourishes and whinnying, Murray weaves high-pitched soprano saxophone vibrations. Performed in broken octaves, the theme is recapped before the turnaround, while the coda involves an old-time rim shot.

Also notable is “For Walter Norris”, an ode to the pianist who was on Ornette Coleman’s first LP. Composed by Butch Morris and related to “Lonely Woman”, the piece evolves as the closely pitched horns modulate atop Hopkins’ bowed bass line. Bowie’s hand-muted, mid-point solo drips with tenderness until the mood is breached by Murray’s rough-hewn split tones. This jagged-smooth dichotomy is maintained throughout with even Bowie’s smears and growls staying connective. Murray’s agitato squeals may be discursive, but they’re moderated by Hopkins’ strums and Wilson’s drags.

One certified classic, and a little-known jazz vocal gem, both CDs are worth investigating.

-- Ken Waxman

Tracks: Live: Nevada’s Theme; Bechet’s Bounce; Obe; Let the Music Take You; For Walter Norris; Santa Barbara & Crenshaw Follies

Personnel: Live: Lester Bowie: trumpet; David Murray: soprano and tenor saxophones; Fred Hopkins: bass; Phillip Wilson: drums

Tracks: Özay: Antiquated Love^!; Ancient Dancer+; Intuitively^!; En Güzel Deniz; Without Rhyme Or Reason^!; I See Your Face Before Me; I Thought About You (For Tom)+; Peaceful Heart/Gentle Spirit+; Istanblue*!

Personnel: Özay: David Murray^ or Chico Freeman+: tenor saxophone; Billy Bang: violin*Kirk Lightsey! or D.D. Jackson+: piano; Calvin Jones: bass; Pheeroan AkLaff: drums; Özay: vocals

-- For All About Jazz New York January 2011

January 8, 2011

Guelph Jazz Festival

Guelph, Ontario
September 9 - 13, 2009

Always populist, the annual Guelph Jazz Festival extended its support of outdoor improvisation plus interaction between Third and First World musicians in its 16th edition, without lessening its commitment to Free Music. Much of the outstanding music-making came from the later however, with American pianist Marilyn Crispell one standout.

Featured in American, European and Canadian group settings, Crispell’s playing was powerful and outer-directed at the River Run Centre concert hall, in a trio with two AACM stalwarts, seemingly ageless tenor saxophonist Fred Anderson and colorful percussionist Hamid Drake, whose rhythmic conception is comfortable in any context. Anderson often quivered or vibrated reflective lines that were paralleled with linear arpeggios or kinetic pedal-pushed frequencies by Crispell. Meantime Drake’s palm or stick movement conveyed all the rhythm. Climax was a version of Muñoz’s “Fatherhood”, built on ecclesiastical chording from the pianist, ruffs and rebounds from Drake and gospel-like preaching from Anderson.

Only one member of the Stone Quartet is European – French bassist Joëlle Léandre. Yet when she and the Yanks – trumpeter Roy Campbell, violist Mat Maneri and Crispell – intersected with limpid, sophisticated and intuitive improvising in the sanctuary of St. George’s church, the outcome related more to Continental sounds than American Free Jazz. Subtly phrasing, Campbell at points appeared to be breathing in notes rather than expelling them. Hand-muting asides were another favorite strategy, clutching a tone until it dissolved. Crispell rumbled or spun out connective chords, decorating the improvisations. Maneri shredded fiddle notes in a deadpan fashion, equally honoring Paganini and Stuff Smith. Léandre sometime bowed with excruciatingly heavy motions as if physically pulling the notes from the bass, and other times sliced, diced and rubbed timbres from the instrument while yodeling in a pseudo-operatic soprano. Adapting to the moment she emphasized her resounding pizzicato pulse.

At the River Run the next night, Crispell was featured in Ottawa bassist John Geggie’s trio with Toronto drummer Nick Fraser. Without perpetuating Canadian stereotypes, Geggie’s compositions – and the affiliated improvisations – were more cerebral and studied than those from American bands. Yet there was enough sense of space and structure to separate them from European conceptions. The bassist confined himself to thumping tone-bonding or resonating picking, leaving theme statements to the pianist’s key patterning and downshifting runs. Fraser’s inventions included irregular clip-clopping and the suggestion of bell-pealing on the Gregorian chant-based “Credo”.

Canada’s other solitude was represented by a rip-snorting performance at St. George’s church hall by Jean Derome et les Dangereux Zhoms + 7. With both extended performances post-modern pastiches, individual talents of the 12 musicians gave the Montreal-based reedist/composer scope to express his heraldic, heroic ideas. As Martin Tétreault’s pressurized turntable drone created a crackling ostinato and Joane Hétu’s moist murmurs, hiccups and yodels verbal commentary, the pieces mixed rock beats from the electrified rhythm section; legato pacing from the violinist and violist; and jazz-inflected jabs from pianist Guillaume Dostaler, gutbucket blows from trombonist Tom Walsh and expressive triplets from trumpeter Gordon Allen.

Equally flamboyant days later at the River Run Centre, was World Saxophone Quartet plays Hendrix Experience. Resplendent in sharp suits, the four reedists – David Murray, Tony Kofi., James Carter and Hamiet Bluiett – were backed by Lee Pearson’s showy drumming and the electric bass of Jamaaladeen Tacuma. Crowd-pleasing when Person played with his sticks behind his back, while balancing another stick on his head, and when Murray or Carter ripped off a series of screaming vamps while body-swaying across the stage, Southern Soul riffs mixed with Free Jazz-extended techniques were more obvious than any direct link to Jimi Hendrix. “Hey Joe” was announced and a snatch of “Fire” heard, but the pumped drum backbeat and finger-popping bass work alluded to Funk not Fusion. Off to one side, Bluiett was most notable when he eschewed baritone sax snorts for a spidery, tremolo clarinet solo.

As self-effacing as others were flamboyant, Léandre’s solo performance Saturday afternoon at the Guelph Youth Music ignored the bass’s percussiveness to concentrate on the instrument’s other qualities. Performing on a bare stage, at one point Léandre drew an imaginary line on the floor with her bow, then proceeded to rub arco timbres from different parts of the bass: its back, belly and bridge, as well as the strings. Clipping and clapping the strings as well as spanking the wood and whisking the bow through the air, she encouraged sounds with body English. Creating distinctive multiphonics, she spiced her improvisations with bel-canto shrieks and onomatopoeia that sibilantly deconstructed the textures of certain phrases.

Solo expression was also the leitmotif later that same afternoon for Acoustic Orienteering, the most grandiose of the festival’s outdoor installations. A “cartographic composition” by Scott Thomson for 15 freely improvising musicians, the 45-minute piece featured performers circumnavigating downtown Guelph as they played. Audience members were given maps so they could follow particular musicians or choose a place to stay and let the players pass them. While acoustics in certain areas aided the expression of Paul Dutton’s sound-singing or the fluttering ripples from Jean Martin’s trumophone, the only provision made for musical interaction seemed to be serendipity. If a listener stayed in one place, it meant that a musician hovered into view, played a coupe of notes then moved on.

Interactivity was on display in profusion at Mitchell Hall later that night, when veteran Ethiopian tenor saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria and dancer Melaku Belay performed with Dutch Punk-Jazz outfit The Ex . Perform is the operative word, since in short pants and Doc Martens, Ex guitarists Andy Moor and Terrie Hessels skittered and slid over the stage as they unleashed feedback torrents and frenzied riffs; trumpeter Arnold De Boer emphasized with spastic movements the lyrics he shouted; while Belay wiggled and shifted with Jell-O-like undulations, sometimes on his feet, yet parallel to the floor, and other times upright, performing choreography half-way between the Moon Walk and the Saint Vitus’ Dance. Drummer Kat Bornefeld pounded away as well as contributing one echoing vocal in Amharic

As for Mekuria, who at one point topped his flowing white robes and Ethiopian flag color sash with an embroidered hat and cape, he moved regally across the stage playing with wide vibrato a decidedly pre-modern style that recalled Swing saxophonists like Ben Webster. Yet his solos fit in with the cacophonous electronic pulse that shuddered almost visually, as well as reed counterpoint that encompassed alto saxophonist Brodie West’s split tones plus clarinetist Xavier Charles’ squeaks and squiggles.

A similar cultural blending had been attempted earlier that night at the River Run Centre never achieved the same reckless exuberance. Toronto’s Woodchoppers Association and two Malian musicians created an interaction whose sum was less than its parts. Seemingly most comfortable singing gentle folk songs, the Malians adopted a simplified World Music style with the Choppers. Wearing matching white outfits the vamping Choppers aimed for the greasy Funk the WSQ would play in lieu of Fusion, but came across as tentative improvisers.

Now a robust teenager, the Guelph Jazz Festival appears intent on exploring new sounds and fusions. With its Free Music orientation solidified, experimenting this way should be a productive path to follow.

-- Ken Waxman

-- For MusicWorks Issue #106

March 8, 2010

David Murray

Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club
Jazzwerkstatt JW 073

Peitzer Grand

Mit Vieren

Jazzwerkstatt JW 077

Thirty-odd years make a big difference in the improvised music scene, both in Europe and North America. In fact, one wonders if any of the participants on these two fine live CDs – not to mention the associated audience members – could have imagined the altered musical and political landscape of the future.

In that timeframe, as is proven by many of the tracks on Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, it was the so-called avant-gardists in New York who were celebrating jazz’s past while contemporary players stuck to Bop and Fusion sounds. Meanwhile, as Mit Vieren demonstrates, the gap between East and West Germany was still a formidable chasm. That era’s version of political correctness made it necessary for even advanced German jazz combos to include foreign musicians among the players to ensure no band consisted of only participants from both sides of the Wall.

Luckily the two foreigners participating in this session that took place in the small East German town of Peitz were anything but tokens. Italian multi-reedist Gianluigi Trovesi, future stalwart of the Italian Instabile Orchestra, had already immersed himself in many forms of music from Folkloric to Swing. American bassist Barre Phillips, beginning his long residence in Europe, had already played with Jimmy Giuffre and George Russell. As for the locals, trumpeter Manfred Schoof had been the leader on European Echoes, the first trans-Continental improv disc, more than a decade previously and would continue experimenting as part of the Globe Unity Orchestra. Also, despite his Dresden-base, drummer Günter “Baby” Sommer had already been associated with American trumpeter Leo Smith and Wuppertal bassist Peter Kowald.

This mixed Italian-American-East and West German quartet has been extant for two years at this point and its members comfort with one another is obvious during this 39-minute set. No matter how staccato or multiphonic the exposition gets, there is enough connectivity among the four to keep the narrative chugging along. As each man solos and then steps back into the ensemble it’s obvious that jazz’s traditional strictures are still being adhered to 1981.

Schoof, the most mainstream member of the combo, for example, more-often-than-not carries the melody. Throughout, however, he also introduces interludes of discursive flutter tonguing and spidery brass blats beside his open-horn lyricism. Frequently in contrapuntal sympathy with the trumpeter, usually played forte and presto, Trovesi uses each one of his horn s for different theme variation. On alto his slurps, bites and shrilling meet clattering rim shots and rolls from Sommer. With his bass clarinet, snorting chalumeau riffs, it contrasts with Schoof’s straight-ahead harmonies. Additionally, as his clarinet’s silvery trills alternate between quietude and screams, these sliding glissandi regularly meet Phillips’ scrubbing and stops.

Swaying and stroking his strings with sul ponticello friction, the bassist harmonizes his quivers to processional stretches in order to harmonize with the others. Although Sommer uses un-lathed cymbal rebounds as quirky interruption to the theme, he too honors the track’s creative shape and in the final stretch breaks the time down into smaller units as Trovesi – back on alto – stridently prods Schoof into double counterpoint from the highest reaches of both horns. Backed by timed plucks and thumps from Phillips and flams, drags and pops from Sommer, the conclusion involves swift vibrations from the saxophonist and super fast tremolos from Schoof.

Fewer extended techniques were in use at the 1977’s loft session in Manhattan. Recorded four years earlier than Mit Vieren, Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club also features new compositions, four of which were written by Murray; the other two by his California cohort Butch Morris. Although Murray was also the most recent New Yorker at the time, none of the band members were locals. A once and future member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago, trumpeter Lester Bowie had previously lived in St. Louis and Chicago. Chicagoans, bassist Fred Hopkins had been part of the co-operative band Air, and drummer Phillip Wilson had played with everyone from Anthony Braxton to the Butterfield Blues Band.

Probably the most characteristic track is the saxophonist’s composition “Bechet’s Bounce”. The performance could fool any Dixielander into thinking it was the product of Classic Jazz. It also confirms that long before the Marsalis’ neo-cons appropriated Jazz history for themselves, so-called avant-garde players were preserving the tradition. Here Hopkins slaps his bass à la Pops Foster, Wilson’s snapping backbeat channel’s Zutty Singleton and Bowie’s open-horned lead is as rough and jungle-like as anything recorded by Rex Stewart or Cootie Williams. All around Bowie’s exciting double-and-triple tonguing, tremolo flourishes and whinnying, Murray weaves high-pitched soprano saxophone vibrations. Performed in broken octaves, the theme is recapped before the turnaround, while the finale involves an old-time rim shot from the drummer.

Also notable is the Morris-composed ode to Walter Norris, the pianist who first recorded with Ornette Coleman, and another musician missing from the official jazz canon. Related to “Lonely Woman”, “For Walter Norris” evolves in double counterpoint as the closely pitched horns modulate atop Hopkins’ adagio bowed bass line. Bowie’s hand-muted solo at mid-point drips with tenderness, until the mood is breached by Murray’s rough-hewn split tones. This jagged-smooth dichotomy is maintained throughout with even Bowie’s smears and growls staying moderato and connective without too much effort. Murray’s agitato and altissimo squeals may be discursive, but they’re usually seconded by Hopkins’ strums and Wilson’s drags and ruffs.

Throughout the CD – initially released as an LP on the India Navigation label – each player bends, extends and distends notes, note clusters and measures. The end result is simultaneously modern and traditional; hard-core jazz and first-class improvised music. Benefiting from more distance and an additional four years of experimentation, the European quartet does the same on its CD.

Both are worth investigating.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: Live: 1. Nevada’s Theme 2. Bechet’s Bounce 3. Obe 4. Let The Music Take You 5. For Walter Norris 6. Santa Barbara & Crenshaw Follies

Personnel: Live: Lester Bowie (trumpet); David Murray (soprano and tenor saxophones); Fred Hopkins (bass) and Phillip Wilson (drums)

Track Listing: Mit: 1. Ein Set

Personnel: Mit: Manfred Schoof (trumpet); Gianluigi Trovesi (alto saxophone, clarinet and bass clarinet); Barre Phillips (bass) and Günter “Baby” Sommer (drums)

February 11, 2010

COOPER-MOORE & ASSIF TSAHAR

Tells Untold
Hopscotch Records HOP30

KAHIL EL’ZABAR & DAVID MURRAY
We Is
Delmark DE-557

Reeds and miscellaneous instruments, especially percussion, figure in these improv/roots duo sessions. Multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar from Chicago is as expert in relating African rhythmic variations to jazz as New York multi-instrumentalist Cooper-Moore is in adapting temporal Black timbres to improvisations.

Complementing each man’s beat sophistication is, in El’Zabar’s case the tenor saxophone and bass clarinet of Paris resident David Murray, while Cooper-Moore’s partner is Israeli-born Assif Tsahar, whose proficiency on Murray’s chosen instruments extends to additional skills playing muzmar or Arabic oboe, acoustic guitar and thumb piano. Here El’Zabar also offers variations on the batà and thumb piano as well as the regular traps set, while on TELLS UNTOLD, Moore mixes virtuosity on ethnic instruments like the harp, shofar, deedly-bo and mouth-bow with outings on flute, synthesizer and others.

A live session, the five tracks on WE IS take elements from both the jazz and ethnic parts of the two world travelers’ identities. Overall the mood is groove-based and bluesy. No less rhythmically formidable, the other CD is preeminently a studio session, with audio mixing overdubbing and sampling utilized to allow each of the players to perform on more than one of his instruments if he feels the track calls for it. In the end this gives TELLS UNTOLD a wider range of moods than WE IS.

Not that anything could have matched the unbridled enthusiasm with which El’Zabar and Murray’s live performance was greeted. Over the course of five extended compositions, they start in the pocket and don’t quit until they play an encore. Along the way Murray varies his output from reed-shredding altissimo squeals to pulsating honks and smears. Considering he has recorded in every context, from near-R&B to arranged balladic excursions to experimental blowouts to collaborations with African griots, the transitions are seamless and his confidence is unshakable.

As much a showman as a shaman – Cooper-Moore shares this trait – El’Zabar, who studied drumming in Africa and is a longtime Association for the Advancement of Creative Music member, revels in versatility. While pounding what sound like batà and djembe drums, creating single strokes and double pulses, he vocalizes. Muttered and bellowed, the result takes in aspects of tribal chants, work songs, Calypso word play, R&B and, on “One World Family” folksy affirmation.

Singing in a pleasant tenor voice, his bell shaking and tambourine rattling add a populist tinge to Murray’s bass clarinet playing, which exploits all the instrument’s registers to comment on the tune and dialogue with the singer. Building his solos out of tongue slaps, tongue stops and key percussion, the reedist squeals, squeaks, sweeps and trills on one hand and lets loose with bottom-pressured arpeggios at another time.

Out-and-out experimentation appears on the title tune with El’Zabar on the traps set feeding ruffs, flams and bounces to the saxman. Proving he can still get worked up to a near ecstatic state in the right circumstances, Murray spins harsh cadences and swooping arpeggios, and sails into false registers. Much of the time he spins out irregular variations that sound both the notes and their vibrated nodes as he plays.

The musicians’ many identities are on show on “Blues Affirmation”, a more than 18-minute Africanized blues. Following a thumb piano intro and the percussionist scat singing, Murray enters as a breathy Ben Webster clone but soon snorts out harsh, guttural snarls and treetop squeals. Vocalizing as if John Lee Hooker had grown up in rural Mali, El’Zabar and the saxophonist begin trading vocal-and-instrument riffs with marimba-like resonation on naturally amplified wooden keys the only backing. Climax is the vocalist growling and squeezing half-expressed accents from his throat as the underlay of thinning tenor sax obbligatos smooth out to reference the Swing era reed playing first introduced at the top.

No slouch when it comes to playing his tenor saxophone and bass clarinet, Tsahar also takes on many persona on TELLS UNTOLD’s nine tracks. Studio technology allows him to play two or more of his instruments at the same time. Adding to all this, and often double tracked as well, is Cooper-Moore whose collection of ethnic, vernacular, legit and hand-made instruments provides all the extra textures you could want.

Pastoral, finger picking acoustic guitar lines played by Tsahar, matched with recital-quality flute from Cooper-Moore begin the CD’s almost 13½-minute title track. Soon enough though, the sounds of a breathy bass clarinet (Tsahar) and drums (Cooper-Moore) are also heard, succeeded by wiggling trills from the tenor, this time matched with rattles (Cooper-Moore) and thumb piano (Tsahar). Midway through, the reedist starts testifying on the muzmar or Arabic oboe until bop drumming and snorting saxophone tones reappear to face off, match up, fade and rise. Is this a comment on the connection between Equatorial Africa, the Maghreb and American improv? Finally, the concentrated twanging of the single string deedly-bo is superseded by a reprise of the initial saxophone line.

This sort of multi-instrumentation, enhanced by audio technology, is featured on most other tracks. Although an outing like “The Hunt’”, except for a bit of thumb piano at the beginning and bell ringing at the end, is mostly a tenor-drums duo. It proves that these players can be as passionate and New-Thingy as Murray and El’Zabar if they wish.

More characteristic are pieces like “Oracles” and “The Procession”, which display Cooper-Moore’s carpenter’s shed full of obscure and original instruments to best advantage.

“Oracles” features either the deedly-bo or the mouth-bow being stretched like a gigantic elastic band, produces a scouring tone that’s both elastic and abrasive. On top of this Tsahar, on tenor, expels distinctive multiphonics, breaking them apart and combing them with the latex lacerations for a perfect union of experimental and primitive tones.

In contrast, “The Procession” features a bouncy march-like tempo that suggests market day in an African village. Yet here the rhythmic component doesn’t just arise from Cooper-Moore’s drums, harp and deedly-bo. Pushing aside a flute-thumb piano counter melody, the reedist’s concentrated squeaks and squeals show that this sort of extended technique can have a rhythmic as well an abrasive function.

Whether your interest is in traditional groove-oriented modernism or multi-faceted primitivism extended with technology, you’ll find much to like in both of these discs.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: We: 1. Groove Allure 2. We Is 3. Blues Affirmation 4. One World Family 5. Sweet Meat

Personnel: We: David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Kahil El’Zabar (drums, bells, batà, djembe, thumb piano and other percussion plus vocals)

Track Listing: Tells: 1. The Eight 2. Tribes Gathering 3. Oracles 4. The Hunt 5.Tells Untold 6. Deviations 7. Forlorn 8. Another World Another Time 9. The Procession

Personnel: Tells: Assif Tsahar (tenor saxophone, bass clarinet, acoustic guitar, muzmar and thumb piano); Cooper-Moore (harp, ashimba xylophone, drums, flute, deedly-bo, mouth-bow, twiner, shofar, synthesizer and the bell)

June 20, 2005

HENRY GRIMES TRIO

Live at the Kerava Jazz Festival
Ayler ayl CD-028

Henry Grimes’ rediscovery and return to performing has been one of the pleasant surprises of the 21st Century improv scene. Formerly a shadowy, but respected figure whose sophisticated bass playing made him one of the pioneers of the New Thing, his employers included Cecil Taylor, Sonny Rollins and Albert Ayler.

Returned to active playing action after a 30-year absence – and without literally touching a bass for most of those years – initially his output was diffident and hesitant. However, as the cliché says, practice makes perfect. Honing his chops after a year of steady gigging, this CD proves that Grimes is back in the groove. If nothing else, holding his own for over an hour in concert with two of jazz’s most accomplished and busiest performers – reedist David Murray and percussionist Hamid Drake – parades his undiminished prowess.

Further proof of this can be heard here in his extended strumming and swaying solo that bridges the nearly 26-minute “Eighty Degrees” and Murray’s best-known composition “Flowers for Albert”, honoring Grimes’ old employer Ayler. Stentorian in power, without ever losing the beat, Grimes plucks and double plucks different patterns, variations and chord substitutions. Here his polyrhythms bring forth snorts and swells from Murray and a timekeeping mixture from Drake.

Earlier, Grimes makes his own low-pitched statement of booming counter tones, while Murray, on bass clarinet, meshes his tongue slaps with the bassist’s lowest possible tones. When the tempo doubles one-third of the way through, Murray adds ethereal floating pitches to his honking. Accelerating once again, Drake puts aside the unobtrusive tambourine-on-hi-hat beat for a solo of flams, paradidles, quick rushes and drags on the snares, ride cymbals and hi-hat – plus some bass drum propulsion. Switching to tenor sax, Murray leads Grimes’ thundering strings on a chase that features sluicing irregular vibrations, quick, throaty note scoops and altissimo dog-whistle-like action. At points his dual output is so diametrical that he could be duetting polyphonically with himself.

Interrupted by Grimes’ strumming, these frenzied variations then give way to Murray’s instantly recognizable head, conveyed at a tougher pace by Drake’s cross-sticking rim shots. The composer’s almost impermeable texture of node variation eventually turns to a passage of extended overblowing and then a recapitulation of the theme. Climaxing by decelerating to a leisurely Aylerian march, the performance excites the audience. This building excitement is such, that after two full minutes of applause, the three are forced by the audience to encore with a hand-clapping boppish blues with a faint Monkish cast.

All and all, it’s safe to say Grimes is back at the height of his powers, while Murray and Drake aren’t missing any talent themselves.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: 1. Spin 2. Eighty Degrees 3. Flowers for Albert 4. Blues for Savannah

Personnel: David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Henry Grimes (bass); Hamid Drake (drums)

May 2, 2005

TRI-FACTOR

If You Believe…
8th Harmonic Breakdown 8THHB 80004

KAHIL EL’ZABAR
Love Outside of Dreams
Delmark DG-541

Leading two regular bands obviously isn’t enough for Chicago-based multi-percussionist Kahil El’Zabar. Not only has he written poetry and film scores, taught at nearby universities and initiated arts presentations, but he’s also put together a series of ad-hoc musical groups.

Besides his regularly constituted Ethnic Heritage Ensemble (EHE) and Ritual Trio, he also organized the Bright Moments combo filled with Association for Advancement of Creative Musicians veterans and recorded exciting projects with 1960s tenor masters like Pharoah Sanders and Archie Shepp. Now these CDs showcase him in two more bands. Tri-Factor is a regularly constituted co-op trio, filled out by baritone saxophonist Hamiet Bluiett and violinist Billy Bang. The other combo disc is more of bittersweet affair. A reunion between El’Zabar and a former duo partner, extensively recorded tenor saxophonist David Murray, it’s also the final recording session for bassist Fred Hopkins, who died at 51 of heart and liver disease a few months after the session.

Along with Hamid Drake, El’Zabar is part of the Chicago percussion tradition that encompasses mastery of many more drums than the standard trap kit. As a matter of fact, his most impressive rhythmic thrust comes on African hand drum or kalimba. Connect the Africanisms suggested by those instruments and his vocals to a stringed instrument and a horn and you get the basic thrust of both these discs.

Best-known for his tenure in the Wold Saxophone Quartet, which also includes Murray, Bluiett’s experience encompasses St. Louis’ Black Artists Group (BAG), R&B gigs and three years with bassist Charles Mingus. Most distinctive of modern violinists Harlem-raised Bang was a founding member of another collective, The String Trio Of New York. Since the 1980s he has played in variety of contexts from modern classical, to straightahead, to outside Energy music with the likes of tenor man Frank Lowe and bassist William Parker.

IF YOU BELIVE… gets it strength from the tension that must be resolved among Bang’s off-centre formalism, Bluiett’s blues roots and El’Zabar, whose rhythms may suggest African rain forests, but whose singing and lyrics reference sanctified gospel. This push-and-pull can most easily be heard on the first and final tracks. A churchy, hand clapper, the title track works up from an echoing vocal refrain courtesy of the percussionist and roadhouse honks from Bluiett’s axe. Bang is smack dab in the middle, ornamenting sax lines with string sweeps or scratching out an approximation of one-string African fiddles Elsewhere, “Urban Bush People”, offers an El’Zabar vocalized chant that is half work song and half-enraged Gil Scott-Heron. Driven by the a repetitive sax riff and hand percussion, with everyone humming the soulful melody, the percussionist sings about “living in the streets of concrete” where “if we don’t start screaming all of our children will be gone”.

Cast in the form of moderato lullabies, numbers, such as “Baby K For Kasan” and “San San For Kasan” spread a warm blanket of kalimba notes over the melodies, with digit power giving the thumb piano the sound and texture of a marimba. Here the overlay of baritone lines and fiddle ornamentation helps to add warm and fuzzies to the tune.

Not that the three have lost their edge however. Bluiett’s “Wide Open Country Style” owes a lot more to Art Blakey than bluesman Blind Blake and is merely one step removed from hard bop. Additionally, the saxman’s ability to create freakish high notes in altissimo range followed by mining shaft deep swoops call to mind early R&B honkers who elaborated on “The Hucklebuck”.

Finally there’s “It Went Somewhere Else”, a free jazz blow out, reminiscent of 1960s Energy Music, with El’Zabar feeding press rolls and bass accents to the others from his kit; Bang snaking up and down the strings; and Bluiett, reverting to his BAG days, speedily screeching in both registers.

Partnering with men whose experience ranged from the formal -- Hopkins’ membership in Air, Murray’s Octets and big bands -- to the free -- the bassist’s duo with drummer Steve McCall, Murray’s duos with El’Zabar or pianist Dave Burrell -- the percussionist on LOVE .. appeared to be ready for anything. Armed with a set of his original tunes, some of which had been recorded in duo with Murray or by the EHE, the idea seems to be to throw everything up in the air and see what developed.

For a start, though, listeners shouldn’t hear this session as some sort of Hopkins memorial disc. Busy as only a prodigal (musical) son can be in his hometown, the bassist certainly didn’t figure this would be his final session. His solid bass line can be heard throughout, but he’s not really featured. In fact, there are times he lays out completely or can’t be heard over the clamor of the more powerful axes.

With the percussionist more often behind the kit than not, El’Zabar plays a series of shuffles, flams and paradiddles to back up Murray’s swaggering tenor saxophone forays and mournful bass clarinet. Although only one number definitely references Duke Ellington, with “Take The A Train” quotes, the saxist appears to be in a ducal mode. On that tune he spears enough high notes to have made Ellington’s coloratura trumpet specialist Cat Anderson jealous and elsewhere his throbbing inflections recall Paul Gonsalves, whose tenor tonalities with the Duke were as likely to suggest R&B and jump bands as Coleman Hawkins or Chu Berry. On “Nia”, an EHE favorite, he comes up with enough overblown screeches, trills and honks show how much New Thing tenorists took from Gonsalves’ sound as well as from the more expected Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane influences. On other tunes, Murray’s reed-biting saxophone forays and El’Zabar’s thumb piano lines produce enough reverberations from two acoustic instruments to make proponents of electronica seem foolish in their reliance on wires and dials.

When he’s not biting off arpeggios on his horn(s), Murray also vocalizes along with El’Zabar, most notably on his own “Song For The New South Africa”. The two do well as rhythm singers, but neither Luther Vandross nor Usher should lose any sleep over their crooning. Lyrics awash with the sentiments of peace and love figure strongly in the final tune, which is also the title of Murray-El’Zabar duo disc. Although he uses a lot of slap tonguing and key pops, Murray’s bass clarinet solos also have a spiritual quality here, amplified by the percussionists unbroken hand drumming and call-and-response vocals.

With a Pentecostal preacher’s vocal delivery and the large licorice stick providing the chorus, the power of the piece really revolves around Hopkins’ wide-sweeping bass work. Probably his most assured playing on the CD, it’s good to know that the bassman went out on a strong note the last time he entered the recording studio.

-- Ken Waxman

Track Listing: If: 1. If You Believe 2. The Sequence of our Hearts 3. Dark Silhouette 4. Without Blame 5. Baby K For Kasan 6. Wide Open Country Style 7. San San For Kasan 8. It Went Somewhere Else Now 9. Internal Offerings 10. Urban Bush People

Personnel: If: Hamiet Bluiett (baritone saxophone, bamboo flute); Billy Bang (violin); Kahil El’Zabar (drums, hand drums, kalimba, bellaphon, vocals)

Track Listing: Love: 1. Love Outside of Dreams 2. Song for a New South Africa 3. Song of Myself 4. Nia 5. Meditation for the Celestial Warriors 6. The Ebulllient Duke 7. Fred 8. One Wold Family

Personnel: Love: David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); Fred Hopkins (bass); Kahil El’Zabar (drums, African drums, thumb piano)

October 28, 2002

DAVID MURRAY

Octet Plays Trane
Justin Time JUST 131-2

It's taken nearly 25 years, but reedist David Murray has finally got around to saluting John Coltrane. Times have also become more conservative during that same quarter century, so that this strong CD-while exciting enough-is actually a lot more mainstream than the precedent shattering work Murray did with his original octet, recorded at Sweet Basil's in the early 1980s.

You can't fault the musicianship here since everyone plays on a consistently high level. But it's disconcerting that someone who had worked out a polyphonic group music years ago in contrast to outright blowing sessions, and who expressed his alliance to the tradition by celebrating outcats instead of the usual suspects, should create something that can be slotted in with neo-con excursions. What finally saves it from this young fogey hell, though, is the originality of the arrangements. Still, it would have been nicer to have a less standard set list.

Whether consciously or not Murray-once known for his grasp of the breath of saxophone literature that encompassed Albert Ayler and Paul Gonsalves as well as Coleman Hawkins and Sidney Bechet-honors Coltrane with music that with one exception was written before 1962. That tune, the "Acknowledgment" section of A LOVE SUPREME only advanced the Coltrane canon another couple of years and is a far cry from the stratosphere-exploring explosions of Trane's later years. Those free-blowing experiments gave birth of whole generation of younger saxists, though, including Murray.

One person still taking chances on this disc is trombonist Harris, the only holdover from Murray's Sweet Basil octet. On "Giant Steps", for instance-orchestrated for five horns-Harris stands out because he's playing gutbucket and modern at the same time, sometimes in the same solo. Later on "India", arranged for bass flute, bass clarinet and tabla drums, there's a fine solo from Spaulding-at 63, the only member of the band old enough to have played with Trane's mentors and contemporaries such as Pharoah Sanders, Sun Ra and Max Roach. Spaulding also shows off his quicksilver hardbop chops on "Lazy Bird".

Meanwhile the rest of the band seems content to play generic 1961-sounding music that could as easily honor Lee Morgan as Coltrane.

As for Murray, his most impressive playing comes on self-composed Trane tribute, "The Crossing", but its also there that he sounds the least Trane-like. Using a bass clarinet, he constructs an episodic solo that relies on the sort of altissimo flights he exhibits on tenor on tunes like "Lazy Bird". Trouble is the funky riffs and unison riffing behind it sounds more like a celebration of JB (James Brown) than JC.

It's good to see Murray commit himself to a full-fledged jazz session after his less than stellar run-throughs of gospel, R&B pop-jazz, world music and even the sounds of the Grateful Dead. But while this session is inoffensive enough-and more powerful than some-there's really nothing on it that defines David Murray.

Maybe next time out the saxophonist should come up with the sort of material that would show off the talents of a living saxophonist-himself-instead of settling for the less absorbing commemoration of a giant who has passed. After his hundreds of recorded sessions Murray should be better equipped to showcase himself than settle for being a second rank idolater.

--Ken Waxman

Track listing: 1. Giant Steps 2. Naima 3. The Crossing 4. India 5. Lazy Bird 6. A Love Supreme Part 1 -Acknowledgement

Personnel: Ravi Best, Rasul Siddik (trumpets); Craig Harris (trombone); James Spaulding (alto saxophone and flute); David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet); D. D. Jackson (piano); Jaribu Shahid (bass); Mark Johnson (drums)

June 2, 2000