Portrait


There are few jazz musicians keener to explore variegated musical horizons than David Murray. The harmonies and rhythms from as far afield as Cuba, Guadeloupe, South Africa and Senegal have infused his compositions. The road has thus been long from his home town of Oakland, California, and the city he grew up in, Berkeley. His childhood was couched in the music of the Church of God and Christ, and the organ of his mother Catherine Murray. In 1969, he performed his first concert as a sprightly 14-year-old saxophonist in California. But Murray’s world vision was unalterably transformed by the free spirit that swept through jazz in the Seventies.
In 1975, he moved eastwards to New York where he became a key figure in the Loft Generation that included Don Cherry, Sam Rivers and Julius Hemphill. A year later, Murray and Hemphill set up the World Saxophone Quartet. Yet, the former also became known as one of the world’s best clarinet players since Eric Dolphy.
Murray’s circular breathing technique and remarkable dexterity earned him the title of Musician of the Decade from the Village Voice in New York. His sax playing reflects the mark made on him by Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young and Paul Gonsalves. But Murray also acknowledged the influence of John Coltrane, most notably in his 1988 album Blues for Coltrane. The following year, this record took the Grammy Award in the Best Jazz Instrumental Group Performance. Two years later, Murray was rewarded the equivalent of a Nobel with the Danish Jazzpar Prize. It was officially for his explorations of the links between jazz and its African roots, and his refusal to accept the prevalent jazz norms.
Shortly after, Murray settled in Paris where he crossed paths with the Gwo-Ka percussion masters from Guadeloupe. This meeting fructified and led to two recordings, the latest of which, Gwotet, out in 2004, is reviewed here by Mondomix (http://david_murray.mondomix.com/en/artiste.htm) . During his sojourn in the French capital, he has worked with a number of European labels, notably the Milan-based company Black Saint.
Murray has established himself as one of the world’s most prolific artists, constantly challenging the frontiers of jazz and world music. He refutes the latter term, incidentally, insisting he is a musician of the world and not a world musician. Two documentary films have been made on the saxophonist, “Speaking in Tongues” and “Jazzman”.

March 19th 2008