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David Murray: Sacred Ground
by AAJ Italy Staff
Album programmatico, Sacred Ground trae origine dalle musiche che David Murray ha scritto per il documentario ”Banished”, film di Marco Williams che racconta alcuni episodi oscuri della storia americana, legati all'espulsione (da cui il titolo del film) di migliaia di persone di colore in alcuni stati del Sud e del Midwest. Queste musiche sono state poi ulteriormente sviluppate da Murray, che ha incaricato il poeta Ishmael Reed di scrivere i testi per due tracce ("Sacred Ground" e “Prophet of Doom"), ...
Continue ReadingDavid Murray Black Saint Quartet: Sacred Ground
by Troy Collins
With three decades of recording to his credit, multi-reedist and composer David Murray's oeuvre is a varied one; his dabbling in pan-global multi-ethnic fusions and ensembles has ranged from solo recitals to big bands.
Murray's tenth album for Justin Time Records, Sacred Ground is inspired by his recent film soundtrack for Marco Williams' Banished, which documents the rarely discussed expulsion of thousands of African-American families from their homes at the close of the Civil War through to The ...
Continue ReadingDavid Murray 4tet & Strings: Waltz Again
by AAJ Italy Staff
Anche David Murray cede alla tentazione di comporre musica per quartetto jazz ed archi, un modello che negli ultimi anni sembra godere di rinnovato interesse. Lo fa con un lavoro dedicato al padre Walter, scomparso poco prima della registrazione e chitarrista amante dei walzer, da cui il titolo del lavoro. Accompagnato in quartetto da musicisti fidi e di grande levatura, come Jaribu Shahid al contrabbasso, Hamid Drake alla batteria e Lafayette Gilchrist al pianoforte, e circondato da un orchestra d’archi ...
Continue ReadingDavid Murray Trio: 3D Family
by Jeff Dayton-Johnson
I think of David Murray's long career in two phases: before and after Ming (Black Saint, 1980), the breakthrough album that signalled a substantial jump in maturity as well as a move toward jazz's musical center. But such a division betrays my age. From the distance of nearly thirty years, it's obvious that much of the “early" Murray--the pinnacle of which was Flowers for Albert (India Navigation, 1976)--could be heard in the “later" Murray. This includes notably the dizzying marriage ...
Continue ReadingDavid Murray 4tet & Strings: Waltz Again
by Ollie Bivens
Saxophonist David Murray is arguably the most recorded jazz musician in history. In the last ten years alone he has released over thirty albums. During the course of his thirty-year career, Murray has played bebop, Latin jazz, swing, world music and free jazz, performing in almost every configuration imaginable--solo, duo, trio, quartet, quintet, octet and big band.
Waltz Again is a strings project with a Murray twist: a quartet with familiar associates (Hamid Drake, Jaribu Shahid, Lafayette Gilchrist) plus a ...
Continue ReadingDavid Murray 4Tet & Strings: Waltz Again
by R. Emmet Sweeney
Waltz Again begins with a thick squall of strings and hyper-Ayler sax wailings, laying down a warning. The strings in this recording will not sit still as a plush backing for treacly balladeering, but will instead bob and weave in constant interplay with the quartet. And when the true ballads come, their beauty gleams off the frenzy that passed before and will rage after.After the squall there is mourning, a swirling dirge of violins that would have Bernard ...
Continue ReadingDavid Murray and the Gwo-Ka Masters: Gwotet
by Rex Butters
A passionate prolific player with lots to say and the vocabulary to preach, David Murray finds an aggregation capable of burning through the music with him in the Gwo-Ka Masters. Anchored by the ambi-rhythmic drummer Hamid Drake and Gwo-Ka drummer Klod Klavue, this thirteen piece ensemble rolls like an 18 wheeler downhill. Using hyper funk rhythms of Afro-Cuban music, Murray keeps his big, rough sound light on its feet for the fast dance through hurtling beats. Herve Samba and Christian ...
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