The Jazzpar Prize (David Murray Album)
| The Jazzpar Prize | ||||
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| Studio album by David Murray / Pierre Dørge | ||||
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Publication |
1992 |
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| Label (s) | Enja | |||
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Format (s) |
CD |
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Title (number) |
6th |
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| occupation |
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Studio (s) |
Focus Recording, Copenhagen |
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The Jazzpar Prize is a jazz album by David Murray with the Pierre Dørge New Jungle Orchestra, recorded in Copenhagen on March 16 and 17, 1991 and released in 1992 on the Enja label .
background
Tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist David Murray was the 1991 Jazzpar Prize winner after Muhal Richard Abrams received it in 1990 (when it was first awarded) . Musicians nominated for the award included Don Cherry , Jackie McLean , Martial Solal and Randy Weston . At that time, the Jazzpar Prize was the world's most highly endowed jazz prize, valued at around $ 35,000. Murray was chosen by an international jury made up of Dan Morgenstern , Gary Giddins (USA), Philippe Carles (France), Bert Noglik (Germany) and Erik Wiedemann (Denmark). The award included the opportunity to put together a formation with Danish and international musicians, to play the award-winning concert with them and to record an album. The band that Murray chose was the New Jungle Orchestra of Danish guitarist Pierre Dørge , whom Murray knew from performing together at various festivals. The ten-person ensemble, to which u. a. The Danish keyboardist Irene Becker , the British trumpeter Harry Beckett , who belonged to the German trombonist Jörg Huke and the Danish saxophonist Jesper Zeuthen, had guests here alongside Murray, the American pianist Horace Parlan and the Norwegian drummer Audun Kleive .
At the first concert on March 13th - the Jens Winther Quintet with Al Foster and a formation led by Jesper Thilo performed in the opening act - the formation played an interpretation of the Peer Gynt Suite , improvisations on Brikama and Different Place Diffenrent Bananas . This was followed by Dørge's compositions Do Green Ants Dream? and the David in Wonderland dedicated to Murray , then from Murray's repertoire Shakill's Warrior (the title track from his album for DIW , also recorded in March 1991) and Song for Doni , which he dedicated to his brother Donald. At that time he was choir director in Texas and was featured as a guest vocalist in a gospel medley in which spiritual standards such as Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen and Down by the Riverside were interpreted. This was Donald Murray's first appearance in a long time with his brother David, reminding him of his early appearances in the family band in a Pentecostal Church . The formation gave further concerts in Odense and Aarhus ; on March 16 and 17 the musicians went to a studio in Copenhagen.
The music of the album
In addition to the gospel medley with Donald Murray already performed at the concerts , the Dørge compositions David in Wonderland and Do Green Ants Dream? as well as the two Murray pieces Shakill's Warrior and Song for Doni , the ensemble also recorded Duke Ellington's classic In a Sentimental Mood . While Do Green Ants Dream? is strongly dominated by ensemble playing, in David in Wonderland, after a piano intro parlans, the soloists Murray (on tenor saxophone) and Beckett (on flugelhorn) stand in the foreground. The Gospel Medley is in a big band - Arrangement embedded; while the ballad In a Sentimental Mood is interpreted in the saxophone-piano duo Murray / Parlan, in which Horace Parlan has a longer solo. This is followed by Shakill's Warrior , introduced in a big band arrangement with solo contributions from Murray, Beckett, Dørge and Jens Skov Olsen. The theme of the final song, Song for Doni , is performed by the wind section, with the Parlans and Becketts solos in the middle section.
review
Scott Yanow gave the album 4½ (out of 5) stars and named the recordings
- colorful and often memorable. The performances are avant-garde, but not afraid of using melodies and straight-ahead rhythms when it best suits the music.
Cook / Morton rated it only 3 (out of 4) stars; they responded to Murray and Dørges interest in Ellington's sound world. Murray - who otherwise fits in perfectly with the ensemble - plays here more restrained than usual and his "soulmate with Paul Gonsalves [is] completely free of contradictions"; although he varied the melody in the Ellington piece to spark his solo, his rendition of In a Sentimental Mood was "ironically one of the smoothest and most respectful repertoire performances" among his recordings.
List of titles
- David Murray & Pierre Dørge's New Jungle Orchestra - The Jazzpar Prize (Enja 7031-2)
- Thu Green Ants Dream (Dørge) - 8:58
- David in Wonderland (Dørge) - 7:15
- Gospel Medley (Murray) - 6:14
- In a Sentimental Mood (Ellington) - 9:20
- Shakill's Warrior (Murray) - 12:20
- Song for Doni (Murray) - 10:11
Web links
- Review of Scott Yanow's album The Jazzpar Prize at Allmusic (English). Retrieved June 6, 2011.
- Album cover and information from Enja
Remarks
- ↑ Murray took on in a quartet with Don Pullen , Stanley Franks and Andrew Cyrille .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Gary Giddins : Weather Bird: Jazz on the Dawn of its Second Century. Oxford University Press, Oxford, etc. 2004, ISBN 0195304497 . P. 19 ff.
- ^ Review of Scott Yanow's album The Jazzpar Prize at Allmusic (English). Retrieved June 6, 2011.
- ↑ Cook & Morton, Penguin Guide to Jazz, 6th Edition, 2003. p. 1090.