Search - David Murray :: Jug-A-Lug

Available in Japan since 1995, Jug-A-Lug and its sibling, The Tip, document composer-tenor saxophonist and World Saxophone Quartet cofounder David Murray's aptly dubbed Funk Band. With heavy string power from guitarists Bobby Broom and Daryl Thompson, as well as bassist (and latter-day Rolling Stone) Darryl Jones, Murray's band is indeed funky, slinky, and soulful. They've taken the tonal girth of swing-era sax giants such as Ben Webster and Chu Berry and added flairs of postwar soul, funk, and R&B, as well as Murray's signature free-blowing power. The result is a broadly listenable array of colors drawn across spot-on rhythms that would snap wildly were it not for the keyboard touches of Robert Irving. Where the keys might only excite fusion fans, they certainly make Murray's band sound sleek and hip, especially when they give way to great percussion, as on Kahil El'Zabar's "Ornette," or Murray's own gigantic chops, as on "Acoustic Octo Funk." This is the work of a huge musical imagination, so it does the ears good to hear where Murray envisions musical intersections. --Andrew Bartlett