Composer and multi-instrumentalist
David Murray has issued well over 100 albums as a bandleader and played on more than 500 others. Since returning from Paris in 2017 after a 20-year sojourn,
Murray remains an active musician and serves as a mentor and guide to younger players. This is one of two recordings for 2024; the other,
Sun / Moon, is a collection of bass clarinet and saxophone solos. This quartet grew out of
Murray's touring trio with bassist
Luke Stewart and drummer
Russell Carter. The addition of Madrid-born pianist
Marta Sanchez, a celebrated bandleader and composer, is an anomaly given the saxophonist's historically complex relationship with pianists. She is a canny accompanist and formidable soloist who implicitly understands the sometimes subtle but important difference between comping and cluttering another soloist's creativity. This group recorded
Francesca in Switzerland after a tour.
Murray plays tenor and bass clarinet here. He wrote everything but "Richard's Tune" by pianist
Don Pullen. The bright opening title track was composed for his spouse, jewel tie designer
Dr. Francesca Cinelli-Murray. Nearly 11 minutes long, its opening sax vamp is adapted from
Irving Berlin's "Cheek to Cheek" and gets transformed into a thing of post-bop beauty with
Sanchez swinging ahead of the rhythm section.
Murray moves from lyricism to angular modal invention in his solo.
Carter delivers a solo and engages in knotty interplay with
Stewart. The ten-minute "Ninno," introduced by
Stewart and
Carter, weds samba and
Horace Silver-esque funk. A straight-ahead, midtempo groover, it finds
Murray and
Sanchez winding around one another in a circular phrase as the rhythm section double-times.
Murray plays bass clarinet on "Shenzen." He opens with a warm, limpid solo as
Stewart introduces a bluesy rumba.
Carter uses mallets to introduce
Sanchez, who responds gently from the upper middle register. The pianist offers
Murray lovely, dark, contrasting chords and skeletally framed vamps to play off. "Come and Go," in 5/4 time, is blistering, as
Murray and
Sanchez go head-to-head; her solo, weaving contrasting harmonic lines and chords, is as dazzling as it is elegant. "Am Gone Get Some" was originally recorded for 2022's
Seriana Promethea with
Brad Jones and
Hamid Drake. Melding post-bop, gospel, and Latin overtones,
Murray and
Sanchez trade fours with one another and
Carter.
Murray plays bass clarinet on "Richard's Tune," a tender midtempo ballad inspired by tropes in the Great American Songbook.
Stewart's playing on "Free Mingus" is striking in its fluidity and lyricism.
Murray and
Sanchez wed gospel, funk, and bolero, recalling
Pullen's playing in the
Mingus band. The strutting closer, "Cycles and Seasons,'' lopes from a 7/4 sprint to 4/4 swagger, folding in rumba, descarga, hard bop, post-bop, and rich counterpoint.
Francesca is remarkable, both for the depth of
Murray's compositions and for his band's willingness to pursue forward-thinking yet always balanced communication as the root of collective exploration. ~ Thom Jurek
