David Murray Big Band feat. James Newton plays 'The Obscure Works of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn'

David Murray Big Band featuring James Newton plays 'The Obscure Works of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn'
Jazzfest ñ Haus der Kulturen der Welt, November 7th 1998.

African Flower 19:03
Such Sweet Thunder 7:53
Chelsea Bridge 7:36
Love You Madly 7:51
Bloodcount 6:18
Wig Wise 11:11
Praise God 4:21
Warm Valley 12:10
Blue Pepper (Far East Of The Blues) 6:02

Carmen Bradford (vocals)
David Murray (tenor sax, bass clarinet, conductor)
Ricky Ford (tenor sax)
James Newton (flute, conductor)
James Spaulding (alto sax, flute)
John Purcell (saxello, clarinet)
Pablo Calogero (baritone sax)
Craig Harris (trombone)
Frank Lacy (trombone)
Gary Valente (trombone)
Ravi Best (trumpet)
Hugh Ragin (trumpet)
DD Jackson (piano)
Jeff Chambers (bass)
Andrew Cyrille (drums)
Klod Kiavue (percussion)

"James Newton and myself are interested in bringing to light some of Ellington's obscure extended works, while at the same time realizing Billy Strayhorn's influence on Ellington and unveiling the uniqueness of their collaboration" David Murray (http://www.festwochen.de/jazzfest/2002/archiv/jazzfest98.html)

I am in debt to LYM for a copy of the recording.

The first indication of Murray's interest in Ellington in the former's recordings came when Come Sunday appeared on one of the the saxophonist's solo albums, Conceptual Saxophone, in 1978. Given Murray's gospel background the choice may have been connected to the opportunity that the theme gave to Murray to explore his interest in the ecstatic.

There are, though, indications that Murray's interest in Ellington preceded this recording, and goes someway back into Murray's musical origins. Murray grew up in California, and studied on Stanley Crouch’s Black Studies programme at Pomono College and, according to Brian Case's sleeve notes to Conceptual Saxophone, Murray originally came to New York on a research trip for a thesis on Jazz saxophone. According to an interview in the Washington Post with Hollie I West he says specifically the paper was on changes in Saxophone playing since 1959. Case’s sleeve notes also cite Murray’s interest in Paul Gonsalves – Ellington’s long time tenor player – as an influence, and Gonsalves would certainly have been one of the key players in influencing post-1959 players. Many of Murray's later works signaled an interest in Gonsalves, Murray even gave a composition on his 1991 big band recording the title 'Paul Gonsalves'.

Murray went on to record 13 Ellington and seven Billy Strayhorn compositions with his own bands or the WSQ, and many more pieces from the Ellington band book. 'In A Sentimental Mood' gets four outings with different bands. Gary Giddins has suggested other Gonsalves-inspired thinking beyond the debt in muscular tone, when he notes that Murray's solo on Ellington's 'Take the Coltrane' is 27 choruses long, the same length as Gonsalves' solo insertion in the famous Newport performance of 'Diminuendo and Cresendo in Blue'.

Murray also seems to owe a debt to Ellington in his bag band work. Although large ensembles had been a key feature of the California new jazz scene in the early 1970s, and many of Murray's earliest New York appearances were in large bands, his big band recordings always seem (to me at least) to have much of the majesty of Ellington's classic performances.

In this context it's not surprising that Murray would get round to a detailed investigation of the Ellington oeuvre. And this is it: 'The Obscure Works of Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn'

I'm not sure why Murray titled the whole performance 'The Obscure Works' because most of the compositions will be well known to Ellington fans, and a number have standard status. This project has clearly been in development for some time, and Murray used the basic idea many times. Giddins refers to a performance of the project in 1997 in Paris with big band plus string orchestra. He also suggested that the concert was recorded, edited and released in 1998, but I haven't been able to track down a copy, let alone another mention of the record. Giddins doesn't give a recording label, like he does for every record release in the book, so I'm even less sure how to find it (if it exists). There is clearly a recording, though because Giddins discusses it over several pages of the book. The band and set seem to be very similar as this one.

The project had several performances including:

Paris 1997
Carmen Bradford (vocals)
David Murray (tenor sax, bass clarinet, conductor)
Ricky Ford (tenor sax)
Hamiet Bluiett (sax)
Arthur Blythe (sax)
James Newton (flute, conductor)
James Spaulding (alto sax, flute)
John Purcell (saxello, clarinet)
Charles Ownes (sax)
Craig Harris (trombone)
George Lewis (trombone)
Ray Anderson (trombone)
Bobby Bradford (trumpet)
DD Jackson (piano)
Art Davis (bass)
Andrew Cyrille (drums)


JazzFest Berlin 98, Saturday 7th November 10:30 pm Auditorium
Carmen Bradford (vocals)
David Murray (tenor sax, bass clarinet, conductor)
Ricky Ford (tenor sax)
James Newton (flute, conductor)
James Spaulding (alto sax, flute)
John Purcell (saxello, clarinet)
Pablo Calogero (baritone sax)
Craig Harris (trombone)
Joe Bowie (trombone)
Gary Valente (trombone)
Bobby Bradford (trumpet)
Ravi Best (trumpet)
Hugh Ragin (trumpet)
DD Jackson (piano)
Art Davis (bass)
Andrew Cyrille (drums)
Klod Kiavue (percussion)


Brecon Jazz Festival, August 1999
Hugh Ragin
Rassul Siddik,
Nathan Breedlove (t)
Craig Harris
Gary Valente
Joe Bowie (tb)
James Newton
John Purcell
James Spaulding
Ricky Ford
Hammiet Bluiett (rds)
Hilton Ruiz (p)
Jaribu
Shahid (b)
Andrew Cyrille (d)
Klod Kiavue (perc)
Carmen Bradford (vo)

A scaled down version of this group played the North Sea Jazz Festival in July 1999 consisting of Murray with, Ragin, Harris, Newton, Purcell, Bluiett, Ruiz, Shahid and Cyrille and possibly one other (http://johnjazz.homestead.com/davidmurray.html).

I would be very interested to find out any further information, hear other performances of the project, and track down a copy of the record Giddins mentions.