Ming's Samba

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Ming's Samba
Studio album by David Murray

Publication
(s)

1989

Label (s) Columbia Records / Portrait

Format (s)

CD

Genre (s)

jazz

Title (number)

5

running time

39:35

occupation

production

Bob Thiele

Studio (s)

CBS Studios New York City

chronology
Spirituals
(1988) 		Ming's Samba Special Quartet
(1990)

Ming's Samba is a jazz album by the David Murray Quartet. It was recorded on July 20, 1988 in New York City by Bob Thiele and was released in 1989 on the Portrait label , a Columbia Records sub-label .

The album

After his debut concert in New York with Mark Dresser and Stanley Crouch in 1975 and a series of albums that David Murray since the late 1970s for smaller label as did Art , India Navigation , Black Saint or DIW had recorded, received the then 33-year-old tenor saxophonist and bass clarinet player had the opportunity to record for a larger label for the first time for his album Ming's Samba . At the beginning of 1988 Murray and his working band made up of Dave Burrell , Fred Hopkins and Ralph Peterson Jr had recorded a cycle of four themed albums for DIW; Lovers, tenors, ballads and spirituals . Even the four DIW albums, after his avant-garde early years, showed David Murray's consistent move towards a more jazz tradition of playing since the mid-1980s.

For the portrait session, Murray worked with familiar musicians; With the pianist John Hicks , the bassist Ray Drummond and the drummer Ed Blackwell he had already recorded the Black Saint album I Want to Talk About You in 1986 . Ming's Samba opens with the calypso-like title track “Ming's Samba”; The quartet played it in an exuberant carnival-like South of the Border mood and gives the title a barrelhouse atmosphere with vibrato , says Carlos Figuera in the liner notes . Here Murray freely fuses Afro-Caribbean sounds with blues , gospel and free jazz sounds.

David Murray 2004 at the Moers Festival

The subsequent “Rememberin 'Fats” is dedicated to the memory of Fats Waller ; the mid-tempo number is supposed to reflect the good-humored mood - if not the style of Waller, according to Scott Yanow - that the legendary swing pianist has with his songs like “The Joint is Jumping”, “Hold Tight” or “Viper's Drag” Saturday night shows spread. John Hicks has the opportunity here for an extended solo in the funky blues idiom .
The ballad "Nowhere Everafter" was contributed by longtime musical partner Lawrence "Butch" Morris , a classic example of David Murray's ballad playing influenced by Paul Gonsalves and Ben Webster . In the short piece, the saxophonist goes into the highest register of his instrument with ecstatic feeling . It is especially the slow pieces in his repertoire of this phase that he brings deep feeling and that reveal all his strength and flexibility.
"Spooning" is "a dark, elegant and moving tango that shows the romantic side of David Murray," wrote Carlos Figuara, "his voice here is fiery with lust and passion". He receives reliable support from Ed Blackwell, who incites Murray like a march .
Murray dedicated the last track on the album, "Walter's Waltz" , to the memory of his father Walter P. Murray , who switched to bass clarinet ; in the middle section, pianist John Hicks and bassist Ray Drummond have two longer solos; it ends with a coda .

Reception of the album

In his review of the album on Allmusic , which awarded the album the second highest grade, Scott Yanow said that Murray was playing "in the tradition" of the classical quartet line-up. Yanow particularly mentions "Nowhere Everafter"; it is a "warm, breathy ballad". The style of the solo is reminiscent of tenor saxophonist John Klemmer . The author also mentions the tango "Spooning"; the (expected) influence of the bass clarinetist Eric Dolphy is shown in "Walter's Waltz", although Dolphy never played with slap-tongued noises . Pianist John Hicks had some brilliant solos in the complex material during this session, Drummond was excellent with Murray (as heard in "Walter's Waltz") and the dazzling Ed Blackwell turned out to be a perfect counterpart for the leader . The album is recommended, even if it is probably very difficult to find.

Scott Albin from Jazz.com rated Ming's Samba 95 (out of a possible 100) points; He praises the fact that, in the thirteenth year of David Murray's recording career, the unreservedly entertaining album shows his well-rounded and well-anchored ability to fuse different styles such as hardbop and free jazz with the gospel, R&B and funk roots of his youth. Albin particularly emphasizes the calypso title track, in which Murray "struts along with a rhythmic certainty and shows an unrelenting creative impulse, reminding of Sonny Rollins ' calypso attacks". Here in particular, Murray's timbre is closer to Rollins' than usual. His long solo, at times dense and intricate, is highly entertaining; he plays with screaming and screeching in the highest registers and overblowing , but otherwise remains in a more traditional, relatively reserved straight-ahead style of play in this set. The album can therefore only disappoint those listener who expects a rather daring Murray; meanwhile, everyone else who has never heard him play so unpretentiously will be pleasantly surprised.

The title of the album

John Hicks
  • David Murray: Ming's Samba (Portrait RK 44432)
  1. Ming's Samba - 10:55
  2. Rememberin 'Fats (for Fats Waller) - 8:46
  3. Nowhere Everafter ( Morris ) - 2:54
  4. Spooning (Morris) - 7:33
  5. Walter's Waltz (for Walter P. Murray) - 9:24
All other compositions are by David Murray.

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Murray's Trio performed at Studio Rivbea , a loft on Bond Street in Lower Manhattan operated by saxophonist Sam Rivers . See S. Fuguera, liner notes.
  2. ↑ Cf. Cook / Morton, 6th edition, p. 1089. Günter Huesmann and J.-E. Berendt called this in their "Jazzbuch" (1991) Murrays "Neoclasicism".
  3. ↑ See Kevin Whitehead
  4. ↑ Quoted from Figuera.
  5. ↑ See Scott Yanow, allmusic.
  6. ↑ See Albin, Jazz.com.