David Murray – Saxophone Man

The real David Murray might just be hiding in this double DVD set. There is a strange paradox running through these three films: when we watch them, we don’t learn so much about the man, but a lot about his music. Yet this is surely where the true David Murray lies. “I’m a jazzman: don’t look elsewhere, don’t mistake me for someone else. Everything I have to say is in my music; it talks about me and the world…”

 DAVID MURRAY, I’M A JAZZMAN (2008 – 53’) A slice in the life of saxophonist David Murray captured by the camera, a privileged testimony of a life merged with the story of jazz, as one of its ultimate heroes.

Featured artists: Cassandra Wilson, Gwo Ka Masters, Amiri Baraka & others.

 DAVID MURRAY AND THE GWO KA MASTERS – LIVE IN SAINTE LUCIE (2008 – 46’)

This film, shot during a stopover at Sainte Lucie, an island in the West  Indies, restores the energy of a masterful concert performed with traditional Guadeloupian drums – gwo ka – fused with  supremely avant-gardist jazz.

 DAVID MURRAY BLACK SAINT QUARTET – LIVE AT BANLIEUES BLEUES FESTIVAL

(2010 – 38’)  A film in the form of a style exercise, or an exercise with style, pertinence  and sensitivity, like a mirror in which jazz would be reflected.

Featuring Lafayette Gilchrist (p), Jaribu Shahid (b), Hamid Drake (d).

 

Awards and Accreditations:

“One of the most innovative and inventive musicians in jazz, Murray began developing his prodigious skill on tenor sax at the age of nine.” —  www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/