Blues for Memo (Motéma)
David Murray feat. Saul Williams
Released February 2018
New York Times Best Jazz Albums of 2018
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mVPnQiyYr830bP-YYeuDlNQljt8qSVZF4
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3XGfyl6FGqqGUjRGH3OvVc?si=c2F6HE1MR1G9UDwRV-ulig
About:
Jazz innovator David Murray and acclaimed actor/poet Saul Williams craft a powerful, political expression of the blues, paying homage to a pioneer of Istanbul’s jazz scene, Mehmet “Memo” Uluğ. Inspired further by the legendary conductor/cornetist Butch Morris and poet Amiri Baraka, ‘Blues for Memo’ is a cutting-edge collaboration of jazz and poetry.
At Amiri Baraka’s funeral in 2014, Saul Williams recited a poem imploring the iconic poet, author and social critic to “get out of the coffin” and continue his important work. Sadly, Baraka was beyond hearing the younger poet’s words, but they did reach the ears of one of his closest collaborators: saxophonist David Murray.
Williams’ impassioned reading made such an impression on Murray that a day later he was on the phone, proposing a new collaboration. Williams sent several of his works to Murray, mostly pieces that were soon to be published in his politically scathing 2015 collection, US(a.), which powerfully confronts issues of race, class, gender, economics and culture in modern-day America. The saxophonist responded to the poet’s words with his trademark vigor, resulting in their new album, Blues for Memo, due out February 16th on Motéma Music.
Track Listing:
1. Kush (Nasheet Waits / Saul Williams) 05:13
2. A Mirror of Youth (David Murray / Saul Williams) 05:33
3. Cycles and Seasons (David Murray / Saul Williams) 05:08
4. Blues for Memo (David Murray) 06:44
5. Obe (Lawrence “Butch” Morris / Saul Williams) 04:27
6. Citizens (David Murray / Saul Williams) 07:50
7. Positive Messages (David Murray) 05:19
8. Red Summer (David Murray / Ishmael Reed) 05:52
9. Enlightenment (Hobart Dotson / Sun Ra) 04:48
10. Deep in Me (David Murray / Saul Williams) 05:41
11. Music of the Mind (David Murray / Saul Williams) 05:55
12. Forever Brothers (David Murray) 05:01
Personnel:
David Murray: saxophone
Orrin Evans: piano
Nasheet Waits: drums
Jaribu Shahid: bass
Saul Williams: poetry, spoken word
Craig Harris: trombone
Pervis Evans: vocals
Jason Moran: fender rhodes (4, 6)
Aytac Dogan: kanun (4)
Mingus Murray: guitar (6)
Recorded October 27 – 29, 2015 at Babajim Studios, Istanbul, TR
Eastside Sound Studios, New York, NY
Produced by David Murray and Brian M. Bacchus
Engineer: Saygın Özatmaca
Assistant Engineer: Bartu Çankaya
Mixed by Fran Cathcart
Mastered by Mark Wilder
Design: Ulaş Eryavuz
Executive Producer: Ahmet Uluğ, Valerie Malot
Review:
Tenorman David Murray has a rich history of collaborating with African American poets, including recordings with Amiri Baraka and Ishmael Reed. Here, he teams up with poet, actor and spoken word artist Saul Williams, offering up a suite of tunes mostly based on Williams’ acerbic observations on the realities of life in 21st century America. Right from the start there’s a curious dynamic at play, with Murray’s rich, warm tone that owes so much to Coleman Hawkins and Ben Webster chafing against Williams’ coolly snarled proclamations. Opening track, ‘Hush,’ is a perfect example: an insouciant waltz jerked awake by Williams’ litany of surreal ‘Wanted’ ads, with the casually spat line: “Young nigger seeks truth” triggering a cramped piano solo from Orrin Evans. That said, Murray’s perfectly prepared to spiral into tightly coiled altissimo when the mood calls for it and, on ‘Citizens,’ he wields a dusky bass clarinet that drops deep into a slinky groove, with his son, Mingus Murray, adding flashes of funk-heavy electric guitar. The album highlight, however, has to be the instrumental title-track – a crawling blues lament with Turkish virtuoso Aytaç Doğan adding melancholy licks on the traditional, zither-like kanun.
Daniel Spicer (Jazzwise)
