Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist David Murray comes to Hong Kong for the first time

Acclaimed by critics as the most dexterous and soulful living tenor saxophonist, David Murray’s prolific career spans some three decades and his powerfully emotive playing is captured on more than 220 albums.

Most incendiary of the post-John Coltrane tenor saxophonists, Murray defies labelling through his mastery of different styles and genres - traditional roots, blues, free jazz, world music and gospel. His versatility and virtuoso improvisations stem from the ability to play through the extremes of the saxophone’s range.

David Murray Black Saint Quartet is named after the Italian record label Black Saint which catapulted Murray onto the New York jazz scene in the mid 1970s. Black Saint has released 17 albums with Murray, including recordings with his foundation quartet, World Saxophone Quartet, and artists such as Randy Weston.

Be there to experience the magic.

"What a band this would be to hear live" The Sydney Morning Herald

"David Murray is far and away the greatest tenor saxophonist of his generation" The Village Voice

David Murray Black Saint Quartet: The Music that Represents Our Time
by Charles Martin

"A musician's obligation to the public... is to play music that will represent the time that he's in." Saxophonist David Murray's ambition is to be regarded as the musical spokesman for his era, as emblematic of his generation as Charles Mingus or Jelly Roll Morton were of theirs. In such diverse and explosive times, it takes extraordinary ability and a greatness of spirit to shoot for that goal. David Murray has both.

A native of California, Murray went to New York in 1975, when the ghost of John Coltrane loomed large on the jazz scene. So influential was the great tenor player that it had become difficult not to sound like Coltrane, with those cascades of notes and penetrating tone. Yet Murray proceeded on his own path, seeking a new form of expression while borrowing elements from older giants such as Coleman Hawkins. An even more surprising influence on Murray was Paul Gonsalves, a tenor player who distinguished himself in Duke Ellington's orchestra in the 1950s. While Gonsalves was an excellent improviser, he is rarely cited as an influence by younger generations, and Murray's devotion to him was an early sign of the young player's original turn of mind. Another sign was Murray's first album as a leader, entitled Flowers for Albert. Dedicated to the controversial saxophone player Albert Ayler, the album was as assured as it was different from anything else around, veering as it did between honking free jazz and warm lyrical ballad playing. David Murray had announced his arrival in grand style.

Back in those years the New York jazz scene was divided. Most of the well-known clubs provided a forum for traditional bop-inspired jazz. In spacious lofts south of Greenwich Village, however, a newer type of jazz was being played, always enthusiastically but often for small audiences and little money. It was in that experimental atmosphere that Murray found acceptance and encouragement from artists like Cecil Taylor, Oliver Lake, Anthony Braxton, and Don Cherry.

Within a year Murray had teamed with three of the best players in that style – Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, and Julius Hemphill - to found one of the most durable and accomplished ensembles of the era: the World Saxophone Quartet. Unlike many avant-garde groups who languished in obscurity, the WSQ acquired a diverse and enthusiastic following which has lasted to this day. The group's protean style mixed funk and African rhythms with inspired improvisation and compositional brilliance, and also featured a spirited humor that clicked with audiences hungry for new sounds.

Murray's determination to reflect the musical and cultural scene has led to a wide variety of undertakings. Indeed, the jazz writer Gary Giddins has noted Murray's "fierce ambition to play everything, be everything, do everything". Over the past few decades he performed with strings, and recorded countless albums: small ensemble, trios, quartets, sextets, and big bands. He has played solo recitals, duets with pianists and drummers, and he has also accompanied poets, singers to memorable effect.

Murray has also teamed up with musicians from Africa, Cuba and the Caribbean. In 1993 he shared the stage with the Grateful Dead, and was deeply affected by the rapport the band had with the audience. Eventually he recorded Dark Star, a tribute to the deceased leader of the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia. 2010 promises a recording of The Sisyphus Revue, an opera Murray has composed in collaboration with the celebrated poet Amiri Baraka.

Part of what makes each of David Murray's projects so fascinating is not just the new idioms he explores, but the depth into which he goes to master and contribute to those idioms. One of Murray's most prominent associations has been with gwo ka, a type of percussion-driven folk music. While mixing jazz and various tropical rhythms has been a standard practice since the days of Dizzy Gillespie and Stan Kenton, Murray has managed to achieve an organic music "with gwo ka at the bottom of it, so it grows out together, rather than just putting some jazz stuff at the top".

Among Murray's many awards are a Grammy, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and New York's Village Voice Musician of the Decade award. He is among the most recorded jazz artists, with more than 80 albums listing him as a leader.

The Black Saint Quartet is named after the legendary Italian record label for which Murray recorded many gems during the years 1978 to 1993. Apart from David Murray, the Quartet features a multi-faceted and unexpected mix of musicians. Pianist Lafayette Gilchrist, whom Entertainment Weekly called "the heir to Thelonious Monk," leads a dynamic and mercurial band called The New Volcanoes. He is known for infusing his sound with elements of soul, hip-hop, and a percussive subgenre of funk known as "Washington D.C. go-go"

Murray considers double bassist Jaribu Shahid his "right-hand guy – I can always count on him". A native of Detroit, Michigan, Shahid played with the legendary bandleader Sun Ra in the final years of the latter's life and career. He was invited to perform with the Art Ensemble of Chicago after the passing of their bassists Malachi Favors. Shahid has performed and recorded with luminaries such as James Carter, Roscoe Mitchell, and Milt Jackson, among others.

Mark Johnson, who plays drums with the group, is part of a musical family that was headed by his father, William E. "Scat" Johnson, a pioneering jazz guitarist and singer in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Art Blakey urged Mark to go to New York to make his name, which he did, playing with Stanley Turrentine, Cassandra Wilson, and Abbey Lincoln.

Many jazz artists follow a trajectory we think of as typical, establishing a style, and gradually expanding on that style until it becomes familiar and comfortable. David Murray has shunned this rather predictable course, choosing instead to incorporate into his work a vast universe of musical possibilities. He appears well on his way to achieving his goal of becoming a true representative of these musical times, in all their complexity, diversity, and joy.

Charles Martin is a jazz bassist and writer. For many years he presented the jazz show The Sound of Surprise on RTHK Radio 3.