Murray, David (Keith)

Murray, David (Keith), jazz tenor and soprano saxophonist, flutist, bass clarinetist, leader; b. Berkeley, Calif., Feb. 19, 1955. Murray started in the church playing gospel music alongside his brother, cousin, mother and father. He admired Sly Stone, whom he met in church when he was in Vallejo. He started playing alto sax at age nine; he saw Sonny Rollins at the Berkeley Jazz Festival when he was 11 or 12, which inspired him to switch from alto to tenor. At that time, he played guitar in addition to playing R&B saxophone

with Notations of Soul and doing steps in the horn section. In high school, he played “A Taste of Honey” and other songs with an organ player and drummer at pizza parlors all over the Bay area, and eventually began doing jazz. In college he studied with Bobby Bradford, Arthur Blythe (from whom he first learned free jazz), and Stanley Crouch, who became an important mentor and played drums in Murray’s trio when they first moved to N.Y. in 1975. He formed the World Saxophone Quartet with Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, and Hamiet Bluiett in the mid-1970s. He has led and recorded with his own big band and small groups, and played in Jack Dejohnette’s Special Edition. He has worked with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Anthony Braxton, Sunny Murray, James “Blood” Ulmer, Ed Blackwell, McCoy Tyner, Fred Hopkins, and Andrew Cyrille. Since the mid-1990s, he has lived in Paris.

Discography

Live at the Peace Church (1976); Flowers for Albert (1976); Interboogieology (1978); Ming (1980); Murray’s Steps (1982); Morning Song (1983); Spirituals (1988); New Life (1988); Ming’s Samba (1988); Lucky Four (1988); Deep River (1988); Special Quartet (1990); Shakill’s Warrior (1991); David Murray Big Band, Conducted by Butch Morris (1991); Black on Black (1992); Jazzpar Prize (1993); Jazzosaurus Rex (1993); Shakill’s 2 (1994); Live ’93 Acoustic Octfunk (1994); Blue Monke (1995).

—Lewis Porter