David Murray [Ming's Samba]
A disc i hired out from my local library, must be 17 years ago now, and it took a while to 'get it', but once i understood what Murray was trying to do, another world opened up for me, of course i bought my own copy, this isn't the Library's!.
On this listen track 1 'Ming's Samba' just blew me away, named after his wife Ming, it's of course a samba, Ed Blackwell on Drums keeps hitting what sounds like a tin [not sure what it should be called], to give it a slight latin feel, his drums are also superbly caught by the recording, and his variety of drums/technique make him endlessly fascinating to listen to, Ed Blackwell died in 1992, sorely missed, on this track i most of all enjoyed the main tune played straight by Murray [0:13-1:17], big fat tenor sax, slight effective warble here and there, and then Murray proceeds to play a bunch of variations, easy differences to begin with, but slowly becoming more complex, gradually breaking down the tonal elements of Jazz, and moving towards the atonal, but i can always follow the main melody, even if it strays far from the theme, Murray takes us through a series of scowls, squeals, wails, squeaks etc, all employed with the tune in mind, the return of the theme by Murray at the end is a magical moment.
Just listen to Murray play 'Morning Song' live at the Village Vanguard on YouTube, you'll get an idea how he states a simple tune, then takes it all apart in a bunch of ever increasingly complex variations.
