David Murray Quartet

Tenor saxophonist and bass clarinettist David Murray (b. 1955) was a tireless hero already at the onset of middle-age. Now, over thirty years later, his productivity might just take your breath away. A long-time resident of Europe, Murray has made over a hundred albums of his own and featured on 300 or so other records since 1976.

It might just be that “quantity increases quality, as you only learn by doing” – as was stated by the 39-year-old Murray in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat in November 1994 just before his fourth Tampere Jazz Happening concert. 

This year, Murray will take the Jazz Happening stage for the sixth time with an ensemble of his own, and the instrumentation is yet again different. So it’s not a trio, quintet or octet, nor an electric funk quartet or one with a poet-musician. No. On late Friday evening, Murray’s ensemble will feature the most common jazz lineup for the very first time: an acoustic quartet of tenor saxophone, piano, double bass and drums. 

Long gone are the days when Murray’s name was overshadowed by his avant-gardist reputation, unless it was a misunderstanding from the start. He has, of course, integrated free-jazz elements into his style, but his roots are deep in blues, gospel and the traditions of early masters. When Murray was fifteen, the Coleman Hawkins Encounters Ben Webster (1957) album left a great impression on him, and he likes to revisit it time after time – never losing curiosity. “I always strive for the impossible: do what I can’t do, don’t know how to do or shouldn’t do,” Murray said in November 1994, back when he was usually the junior of the group. 

Now at 69, things are different. Murray is both a mentor and a senior, which will be more apparent than ever with his fresh quartet in Tampere where he will be the oldest by at least 30 years. It’s safe to say that the tables have turned since his first concert in Finland – in April 1982 in Tampere – where he was spurred on by the much more experienced double bassist Johnny Dyani and drummer Steve McCall.