The following is an interview between jazz journalist Morgan Enos and tenor saxophonist/bass clarinettist David Murray. His new album, Francesca, was released 17 May via Intakt Records, and features pianist Marta Sanchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Russell Carter. Links to purchase the album, and to Murray’s website, can be found at the bottom of this article.
“Talk.”
That’s how the veteran saxophonist David Murray kicks off an interview, which could come off as a touch brusque, if that wasn’t how he is as a musician. His playing is as elastic and voluble as human speech, and whoever accompanies him has the floor to make their voice heard.
That certainly applies to pianist Marta Sanchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Russell Carter, who accompany Murray on his new album, Francesca.
Seven out of eight songs on the quartet album, like “Ninno,” “Am Gone Get Some,” and “Cycles and Seasons,” are Murray originals; the lone outside composition is “Richard’s Tune,” Don Pullen’s tip of the hat to A.A.C.M. founder Muhal Richard Abrams.
Named for his wife, designer Dr. Francesca Cinelli-Murray, and recorded in Switzerland in the wake of a European tour, Francesca is a triumph from a preeminent talent, more than a half century into his career. Read on for an interview with Murray about how it came to be.
UK Jazz News: Can you start off by talking about the title track, “Francesca”?
David Murray: It was written because of my admiration for her. I was trying to figure out the different facets of how she is. This helped me in my life, and I was trying to pay a tribute to her.
Along the way, it took me a couple of years to learn how to bring that song to the forefront. Sometimes, you have to play a song for a couple of years to find the strength; at first, the inspiration for the song was stronger than the song.
You listen to some of the greats at certain periods of their lives. In a nine-month period, maybe a couple of tours, they’re playing that song differently than they played it when it was written.
I hadn’t gotten my technical ability up to the emotion. And finally, after two years, the technical ability could match the emotion. It finally equaled the vastness of the song itself.
UKJN: I love the way you manipulate or alter the sound of the sax on Francesca. It’s super evocative.
DM: I’m just trying to express myself in a way that the music feels. I take my cues from great writers like Albert Murray, Ishmael Reed, and Stanley Crouch.
[Albert Murray] and I went out on the road one time. I had an octet, and I would have him speak inside my music, and give an oration of what he thought my music was about. I did a suite one time called “Train Whistle Guitar,” which is one of his novels. Right now, I’m reading [2005’s] The Magic Keys.
UKJN: How is it?
DM: It’s beautiful. It’s a book that he wrote later, after [1970’s] The Omni-Americans and all that. It goes back to his beginnings in Mobile [Alabama].
He’s one of my master teachers. He taught a lot of people, like Stanley Crouch. He was his mentor, and he was mine, and he was Wynton Marsalis’ teacher. It’s a whole process.
UKJN: What do you appreciate about each member of the Francesca band, starting with Marta Sanchez on piano?
DM: She’s amazing. Her dexterity [is impressive]. For the age that she is, I think she’s accomplished a lot, especially being a person who has to navigate in another language, [given] she’s from Madrid. Her left hand is very keen.
She’s always thinking; sometimes I let her go. Everybody in the band has a solo that they play out in front of the song. I don’t want to have my musicians tight; I encourage them to be as free as possible. If they want to extend the section, they can.
That’s what makes music alive. The paper of the music becomes almost unimportant after you’ve spent hours and hours on the bandstand. The best music is off the page.
When I explain those things to her, she really understands that she has freedom. Some people are scared to take it, but she’s not. She’s willing to take the challenge, and have the rug pulled out from under her. She doesn’t mind. That’s the kind of people I want in my band, and I think she exemplifies that, absolutely.
UKJN: And how about Luke Stewart on bass?
DM: Luke is a solid bass player. He can sustain the band. He’s really into the idea of a real team, and to have a good team, you’ve got to have a good bass player.
UKJN: Finally, we have Russell Carter on drums.
DM: You’ve got to have a good timekeeper. He’s a person who has perfect time, and can go in and out of time, and has studied all the styles and great musicians.
I know he likes Max Roach, but he doesn’t have to mimic Max Roach in order for me to know that he likes Max. He knows the approach that [Roach] came from, but he’s not playing his licks.
Copying somebody is easy to do. But to get the feeling, and combine it with what you’re building up yourself, and make something new and creative out of it – that’s the idea of the jazz I’m trying to play with my band. I think Russell’s learned that.
UKJN: How was the vibe of the session?
DM: Even though we sweated it out over the hours on the bandstand, when you get into the studio, it’s like everybody comes under a microscope, and everything is scientific.
So, what you have to do is mix that whole science of the music into the energy you brought in the live performance, and crystallise it inside of the studio.
Everything can be fixed technically, so I don’t worry about [mistakes] as much as having the feeling and cohesiveness of the band on the record.
I have a two-track mind: one is about feeling, and one is about technique. After 50 years of blowing the horn on stage, I’ll take the feeling over the technical part every time.
UKJN: That’s what’s always attracted me to your playing.
DM: To me, it makes a record that will stand the test of time. I know a lot of records that are technically sound, but there’s no feeling on it. It sounds like a homework assignment. The whole thing in the universities is for everything to be just right and perfect.
