David Murray may be the most recorded jazz musician in modern music history. If it's true that Duke Ellington recorded almost everything he ever did, Murray must come close to doing the same thing. His output has included solo dates and sessions with quartets, quintets, octets, big bands, and duos. Murray's recorded for numerous foreign labels, plus various Columbia/Sony custom and subsidiary companies. He's now one of the artists featured on the Sony/DIW joint venture. That's not counting the session Murray's done with the World Saxophone Quartet, Clarinet Summit, Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition, and other dates that may not have even been publicized in America. Murray has achieved a distinctive synthesis of classic and contemporary influences. His tenor sax blends the sanctified gospel/voice-like effects of free era players like Albert Ayler with the soulful, huge-toned, swinging approach of Coleman Hawkins and the bebop/hard bop mode of Sonny Rollins. Murray's octave
leaps, upper-register squeals and screams, and shuddering and explosive phrases are always employed intelligently, even though his solos sometimes seem to burst with tension and energy. He's overcome a tendency, in his early years, to substitute volume and effect for ideas, and his ballads are played as impressively as his originals and uptempo tunes. Murray's bass clarinet has the rumbling, boisterous elements of Eric Dolphy, plus Harry Carney's lyrical, reflective qualities and Murray's stately touches.
He grew up on the West Coast and began taking piano lessons as a child, playing stride and ragtime, before beginning on alto sax at age nine. He played with his mother, a famous gospel singer, in their Berkeley church. Murray played in a soul group as a teen, and also played in bebop and swing bands. He studied and played at Pomona College with Stanley Crouch, Bobby Bradford, and Arthur Blythe, who helped introduce him to free jazz in the mid-70s. Murray, along with Crouch, Blythe and James Newton, moved to New York in the '70s. In 1976, Murray was a cofounder of the World Saxophone Quartet with Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill and Hamiet Bluiett. He's since led other bands, working with Olu Dara, Lawrence "Butch" Morris, Art Davis, Anthony Braxton, Don cherry, Edward Blackwell, Air and Henry Threadgill, Sunny Murray, James "Blood" Ulmer, and many others. Murray was part of the "loft jazz" movement in the mid-'70s, played in the Wildflowers concert, and was featured on the
album series. He was once touted by Village Voice critic Gary Giddins as one of the few players in the loft jazz movement worthy of unqualified praise. Murray began recording in the mid-'70s on Adelphi, and has since cranked out many sessions for India Navigation, Circle, Red, Marge, Black Saint, DIW, Palm, Horo, Cecma, Hat Hut, Hat Art, Columbia/Portrait, Red Baron, and Sony/DIW. There are numerous Murray sessions available on CD, but he's done many more. -- Ron Wynn and Stephen Aldrich
