7 January 2008

David Murray Quartet Last of The Hipman (flac and lame)




Red Records VPA129

David Murray Tenor Saxophone
Lawrence ‘Butch’ Morris Trumpet
Johnny Dyani (spelt Dyiani on record sleeve) Bass
George Brown Drums, percussion

Monk’s Notice (James Newton) (21, 41)
Patricia (David Murray) (13, 17)
Last Of The Hipmen (David Murray) (10, 34)

Recorded in concert in Rouen on January 30th 1978

Produced by Alberto Alberti and Sergio Veschi

Mixed at Studio 67 Bologna March 1978

This is another very early recording from Murray, this time with a full quartet. It’s one of a number released on European labels, and recorded in France or Italy during 1978. Five LPs were produced out of two concerts: one on the 30th January at Rouen University, and one over two nights on 6th and 7th February at the Theatre Mouffetard, Paris. There’s some evidence that Murray’s manager at the time, Kunle Mwanga, arranged for the recordings, and then sold tapes to different independent jazz labels. The 30th January date resulted in Let The Music Take You (released on [and still available from] Marge Records in France) and this record, released on Red Record based in Milan and currently not available commercially. The February solo performances were released on three vinyl LPs on different labels and I’ll post the two that are currently unavailable over the next few weeks.

The record gets its title from one of the tracks, although the track’s called 'Last of the Hipmen', the album sold as Last of the Hipman. As the album title doesn’t seem to make much sense (it certainly wasn’t the last that we heard of Murray), and only appears on the album sleeve, I’ve always wondered if it was a typo. They mis-spelt Dyani anyway.

Although my copy is visually perfect, you’ll get the full vinyl experience as I haven’t tried to remove the low volume crackles.

During this time there was no real stability to Murray's bands. Butch Morris was clearly in Europe with Murray at this time because he appears on the February Milan Stuio recording that was released by Black Saint as Interboogieology and an August live recording in London (released as The London Concert). Expatriate South African Johnny Dyani was heavily involved in the London new jazz scene at the time, and he appears on this date, The London Conference and the recording for 3D Family on September 3, 1978 live in concert at Willisau Jazz Festival (available on hatArt). Dyani seems to have made a big impression on Murray, and he dedicated recordings to him over the years using Dyani’s African name of M’Bizo. I know nothing about George Brown, and it seems unlikely from his playing here that he was the same G Brown who played Bop drums in the 1960s in the US.

As I noted in an earlier post 'Monk’s Notice' is a James Newton composition also recorded for Solomon's Sons almost exactly a year before, and the two Murray compositions were often featured in other recordings ('Hipmen' in 1981 and 1987; 'Patricia' in 1977, and 1986). You can find out more about Murray’s work during this time at my own blog http://wallofsound.wordpress.com/2007/09/11/david-murray-the-making-of-a-progressive-jazz-musician-part-two/)

The record company is also worthy of some note. Red Record was (and still is) run by Sergio Veschi in Milan, and started recording and / or releasing free jazz as part of the Italian left cultural movement. It's likely that the red in question was therfore the symbol of left-wing politics in Europe. Better known today for musicians like Bobby Watson, the label is a key institution of Italian and European jazz, and supporter of the American avant-garde (more details at www.ijm.it/wp/whos-who/sergio-veschi).

I rate this as one of Murray’s most interesting records of the 1970s. I hope you enjoy it. I just don’t know why it didn’t get a re-release.

37 comments:

  1. Have you made this available and if so in mp3 >

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  2. I'm having trouble getting the first track down below 100mg for rapidshare, and don't know how to create a divided rar on a Mac yet (and advice welcome). As soon as I've learnt I'll post Flac versions, but for now here's some 320 kbph mp3s.

    http://rapidshare.com/files/83241078/Last_of_the_Hipman.zip.html

    Let me know what you think. More Murray posts to follow.

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  3. this is great mp3's worked fine thx

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  4. JAZZME said I used anonymous as this dumb system will not let me use my password mp3's worked fine thx

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  5. I try to explain how to create multi volume archives with rar.
    I do this operation in Linux using the command line (console). It should be the same in mac too. You need the rar executable.

    rar a -r -m0 -v100m archive.rar albumDirectory

    options:
    a -> add files
    -r -> recursive
    -m0 -> no compression (mp3 & flac are already compressed)
    -v100m -> multivolume with dimension 100 MB

    Using the command line is simple to create the flac files too (you must install the flac executable)

    flac -8 *wav

    option -8 -> sets the best compression

    I hope to be useful :)
    bye

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  6. Thank you cianix. I am not a computer expert, so I will try this, but also look for a piece of software that will do it in a way I find easier. Hope you enjoy the music.

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  7. Thanks for this; it is always good to hear David Murray from this time, but an especial treat to have Butch Morris playing.

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  8. Thanks a lot for this Wallofsound. I had no idea this recording even existed. Hearing anything new from the Murray's early work is always a treat!

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  9. thanks for posting this.. a great concert and i think at least marginally better than its other half on marge.

    looking forward to further instalments,.
    cheers

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  10. Superb recording, thanks. Completely different lineup, but reminds me of Lyons' Other Afternoons.

    RN

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  11. Thanks a lot for this and past postings.Inconstant sol is definitely the mecca of free jazz aficionados.

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  12. Thank you Wallofsound for this concert. I love Murray, and anything by him is great to hear. Of the earlier stuff, I really like the last 3 tracks on 3D Family. There seems to be more of a root to the music on those tracks. To hear more with Dyani, and from the same period, is a real treat. thanks again,

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  13. Thanks a lot for you dedicated work. Brings to me so many good old days, and so many vinyls bought, sold, given, lost or wrecked. It's a joy to be able to listen to them again. And by the way David & his music were so flamboyant then. May be someday, we'll see Flowers for Albert (India Nav.) again? Keep going & let's make a joyful noise with our dreams of freedom.

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  14. Thanks for this, sounds good.

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  15. Hey, any chance for a FLAC version?
    I'm no Mac user, so I'm not sure how to split files up, but if you use WinRar to create .rar-files, it should work - there's an option to create 100MB files which is very easy to use - get winrar here:
    http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm
    (the free version remains fully functional but you'll have to click away a pop-up after 30 days)

    Hit the "Add" button and select "Zip100: 98078 kb" under "Split to volumes, bytes". That's all - the folder you've selected to add to a rar-archive file will automatically split up in chuncks of 100 MB.
    You also don't need to add the tracks separately to different rar-files, instead you can just select the whole folder and it will split up automatically in as few files as necessary - very easy to do!

    (feel free to drop me a line if you need further help, you can find a mail address in my blogger profile)

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  16. wallofsound sorry will remove forthwith , was a contribution from e-mile no offense intended

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  17. wallofsound it seems I have to apologize again
    I dont have a premium account with rapidshare so I put e-mile's post on the blog without dl his artwork, getting the artwork off the net and there lies the mistake, it was a totally different album and IS called The Last of The Hipmen from 1989
    Ultimately that was my mistake, sorry mate

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  18. i realise this is well and truly after the event, but... the first track cuts out abruptly at 16.25 (in the middle of dyani's bass solo). apparently no-one else has noticed, but... is it possible to re-do it? :)

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  19. hello. I knew George Brown well. Sadly he passed away 2 years ago (in Paris where he spent the last 30+- years of hius life. This is the same george brown that recorded with wes montgomery (PORTRAIT OF WES RIVERSIDE) Toured woith Sonny Rollins 1968. A native of grand rapids MI, he also played with MOTOWN REVUE Tours and also did a duo concert with cecil taylor (among many many other things including an album that i conducted). it just goes to show that, as i always tell my students, that if someone has mastered the Bop idiom and he/she has the will and the creativity, there is a way. Yet it's VERY infrequent to go in the other direction… (As the Poles say: You can make fish soup out of a fish, but you can't make a fish out of the Fish soup …)

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  20. I realize I've come across this late but it no longer works. Would love to hear this. Hopefully it may happen. Thanks for all you do!

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  21. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  22. A couple of notes:

    (1) This rip is incomplete. As was noted in one of the comments above, the first track ends rather abruptly in the middle of a bass solo by Mbizo. This version runs for 16:25, but checking against the Discogs entry, it should have been 21:41. So there's about five minutes missing.

    (2) This is a 1978 record on the Red Record label out of Italy. But there's also a "Last of the Hipmen" (note the plural) which was out on Jazzline in 1989 and with a totally different lineup.

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  23. great, thanks much, Kinabalu!
    didn't know about the existence of two different records under this title in singular and plural forms, but this one from 1978 is exatly what i want to listen to!)

    Igor

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  24. Thanks very much for re-upping this.

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  25. Glmlr has kindly supplied us with a complete recording of the Hipman. Thanks, G.

    http://www62.zippyshare.com/v/41293976/file.html

    http://www10.zippyshare.com/v/93756664/file.html

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  26. Thanks Glmlr, much appreciated.

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  27. I attended this concert while visiting France in 1978. 3 recollections.

    The hall was filled and when the musicians came on stage Mr. Murray noticed a dog in one of the front rows. He said that the performance was being recorded and requested the dog leave. After some discussion, the dog, probably along with its owner, left.

    Somewhere in the middle of the concert it was announced that there would be a delay for changing the tape (a different era).

    And at some point Mr. Murray apologized for not being able to speak French but said his second language in college was Swahili.

    I don't recall the music so clearly so look forward to listening to this post.

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  28. Glmlr has supplied us with yet another DM record, this one called "Let The Music Take You" on Marge 04. This comprises the other half of the Last of the Hipman concert, but released on another label. Location, date and personnel are the same.

    http://www19.zippyshare.com/v/48831331/file.html

    http://www63.zippyshare.com/v/54841459/file.html

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  29. thank you kinabalu and glmlr for both records.

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  30. Many thanks especially to Glmlr for both LP rips. Thank you all!

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  31. any chance of a re-up ?

    thanks

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  32. Refreshed links for glmlr's rips:

    Last of the Hipman - https://depositfiles.com/files/66x70ekf4
    Let The Music take You - http://depositfiles.com/files/4or2ty1kv

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