Tenor saxophonist and bass clarinetist David Murray’s Francesca (Intakt), was lauded by most outlets as one of the top jazz albums of 2024. Murray returns with that same quartet for just the second time for his Impulse! debut, Birdly Serenade. Supporting Murray are pianist Marta Sanchez, bassist Luke Stewart, and drummer Russell Carter. Murray, who has just turned 70, has attained elder status, and like so many, passes it down to a younger generation, as his quartet members are in their late 30s and early 40s.
Impulse!, of course, has an unassailable legacy and carefully selects artists to join the label. Recent additions include only Brandee Younger, Shabaka Hutchings, Irreversible Entanglements, and The Messthetics. Remarkably, given his storied career, the album also marks the first time Murray has recorded in the hallowed walls of Van Gelder Studio. Murray considers birds the original improvisers, and although he was initially just a standby to his wife at an artists’ retreat on Blue Mountain Lake in the Adirondacks, he received an invitation from music supervisor Randall Poster to write music.
The opening title track features the vocals of young Cameroonian- American Ekep Nwelle singing the lyrics of poetry of Francesca Cinelli (Murray’s wife and manager), born out of the locale (“A hazy silence/Caresses the peaceful waters/Of the sleepy lake.”) These words from Cinelli inspired the rhythms of the entire album. Murray’s robust, mostly low register tenor lines offer a direct contrast to Nwelle’s light, floating vocals. Also, in true Murray fashion, he unleashes a spiraling, reaching solo that inspires pianist Sanchez to attack with similar vigor. On “Bald Ego,” Murray doesn’t hold back, blowing as if it might be the last solo he ever takes. This aggressive posture makes him a perfect fit for the label with the moniker “the house that Trane built.” Again, Sanchez displays the complementary fervor, and they make room for a series of exchanges with Carter on the eights. Nwelle returns for the standout “Song of the World,” delivered in a ballad mode, with wonderful melodic contributions from the vocalist, the leader, the pianist, and bassist Stewart, as the tune is dedicated to indigenous musician and activist Mixashawn Rozie, who happened to be at the residency alongside Murray and Cinelli. The latter is heard on the album’s closer, reciting her poem on “Oiseau de Paradis” until she and the saxophonist bring the piece to a climactic conclusion.
Murray moves into his wild free jazz styling on “Black Bird’s Gonna Lite Up the Night,” a jolting contrast to the highly lyrical vocal tracks. This one sounds like a chaotic clash of many birds, equally strong playing in a far different dimension than the previous three, though even here, there are lyrical sequences, perhaps connoting pauses in the fray. Another stormy track is “Capistrano Swallow,” likely a non-retreat composition, drawing from Murray’s youthful memories of the famous swarm of the species at the Mission San Juan Capistrano in Southern California. Sanchez is exceptionally brilliant in both her jagged interplay with Murray and her adept navigation of the startling changes in the piece which reaches that intense ‘swarm’ about three minutes in.
“Nonna’s Last Flight” straddles the line between tender and ‘out’ with Murray injecting a few shrieks and squeaks (bird sounds) along the way. “Bird’s the Word” is a hard swinger, with Murray inevitably quoting the bebop giant of that name. Murray’s appearance on a major label is criminally overdue. Once again, he proves his mettle as a skilled writer, as his saxophone virtuosity has long been documented.
