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| 3.906 Ft
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| 1. | Freedom
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| 2. | If 6_ Was 9_
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| 3. | Hey Joe
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| 4. | Machine Gun
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| 5. | Little Wing
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| 6. | Foxey Lady
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| 7. | Hear My Train a Comin'
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| 8. | The Wind Cries Mary
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Jazz
World Saxophone Quartet - Producer
Billy Bang - Violin
Bruce Williams - Arranger, Author, Group Member
Craig Harris - Arranger, Didjeridu, Spoken Word, Trombone
Gene Lake - Drums
Hamiet Bluiett - Author, Group Member, Sax (Baritone)
Matthew Garrison - Guitar (Bass)
Oliver Lake - Arranger, Author, Group Member, Sax (Alto), Sax (Soprano)
* Jim West - Executive Producer
* Reid Morris - Design
In jazz circles, there is a joke that goes like this: how many jazz singers does it take to perform "My Funny Valentine?" All of them. The point of that joke is that too many jazz artists are paying too much attention to overdone Tin Pan Alley warhorses that have long since been beaten to death. The joke is unfair in that it singles out vocalists -- numerous instrumentalists are guilty of the same thing -- but the fact remains that plenty of jazz artists need to realize that worthwhile popular music didn't end with Tin Pan Alley. Of course, not all improvisers are that shortsighted, which is why explorers ranging from Herbie Hancock to the Bad Plus to British singer Claire Martin have been finding the jazz possibilities in rock and R&B songs -- and it's why the World Saxophone Quartet pays tribute to Jimi Hendrix on Experience. This 2003 date isn't the first instrumental jazz release to focus on Hendrix's compositions; bandleader/arranger Gil Evans recorded an entire album of Hendrix gems in 1974. But Experience is the first Hendrix tribute by an avant-garde saxophone group, and the WSQ's 2003 lineup (David Murray, Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, and Bruce Williams) brings an inside/outside perspective to classics like "Foxey Lady," "If 6 Was 9," "The Wind Cries Mary," and "Little Wing." The WSQ's lively, intriguing arrangements are as funky as they are abstract, and the foursome (which is joined by trombonist Craig Harris, violinist Billy Bang, bassist Matthew Garrison, and drummer Gene Lake) has no problem demonstrating that hard rock, heavy metal, and psychedelic rock songs can be successfully reinvented as instrumental jazz. Some die-hard Hendrix lovers might nitpick about the absence of their personal favorites -- perhaps "Purple Haze," perhaps "Voodoo Child (Slight Return)" or "Castles Made of Sand"; regardless, Experience is an excellent CD that finds the WSQ still going strong 26 years after its formation.
--- Alex Henderson, All Music Guide
World Saxophone Quartet
Active Decades: '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: 1977
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Modern Free, Post-Bop, Free Funk, Avant-Garde Jazz, African Jazz
Probably the first of several saxophone-only ensembles who proliferated in jazz after 1975, the WSQ is unquestionably the most commercially (and, arguably, the most creatively) successful. Of course, commercial success is a relative thing in jazz, especially when one is speaking of an avant-garde group. But unlike most free jazz artists, the WSQ managed to attract an audience of significant size; large enough to have garnered a major-label record deal in the '80s, an almost unheard-of occurrence in that retro-jazz decade. The band did it on merit, too, with only a hint of compromise (manifested mainly by albums of R&B and Duke Ellington covers). By the time their first record on Elektra/Musician came out in 1986, the band had evolved from their fire-breathing, free-improvising, ad-hoc beginnings into a smooth-playing, compositionally minded, well-rehearsed band. At their creative peak, the group melded jazz-based, harmonically adventurous improvisation with sophisticated composition. All of the group's original members (Julius Hemphill, alto; Oliver Lake, alto; David Murray, tenor; and Hamiet Bluiett, baritone) were estimable composers as well as improvisers. Each complimented the whole, making them even greater than the considerable sum of their parts. As a composer, Hemphill drew on European techniques (though his tunes were not without an unalloyed jazz component), while Bluiett was steeped in blues and funk. Lake and Murray fell somewhere in between. As soloists and writers, the early WSQ covered all the bases.
The WSQ were founded in 1976 after the four original members (all of them well-established solo artists) accepted an offer by Ed Jordan, the chairman of the music department at Southern University in New Orleans, to conduct a series of clinics and performances with and without a local rhythm section. The enthusiastic audience response to the unaccompanied saxophones convinced the musicians to develop the concept. They played a gig at the (now defunct) Tin Palace in New York, calling the group the Real New York Saxophone Quartet. They were later forced to change the name after reportedly being threatened with a lawsuit by the preexisting New York Saxophone Quartet; hence, the World Saxophone Quartet. In 1977, the band recorded their first album, an almost completely improvised effort called Point of No Return, for the Moers Music label. Later releases on Black Saint document the band's increasing interest in composition. The membership stayed constant until Hemphill's departure in 1989. Arthur Blythe was the first of Hemphill's several replacements. Blythe was with the band from 1990-1992, and from 1994-1995. James Spaulding joined briefly in 1993, and was quickly replaced by Eric Person. In 1996, after Blythe's second tenure, John Purcell took and held the chair.
Although they're a sax-oriented group, the WSQ's members have been multi-instrumentalists. The band always incorporated a wide variety of woodwinds into their sound. After Rhythm & Blues (1986, Elektra/Musician), the WSQ began using other musicians in their recordings and performances. Metamorphosis (1990, Elektra/Musician) added African drummers and electric bassist Melvin Gibbs. Later records utilized pianists, vocalists, bassists, and drummers. In adding other musicians, the band sacrificed part of their distinctiveness. The novelty of the band's original approach, and their ability to swing so hard sans rhythm, set them apart. By the end of the '90s, the WSQ had lost their major-label deal and much of their identity.
---Chris Kelsey, All Music Guide |
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