Search - World Saxophone Quartet :: Experience

Hendrix Has Left The Building

El Lagarto | 06/17/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Jimi Hendrix is my all time favorite musician, David Murray is my favorite living musician; I collect everything I can of both musicians. When made aware of this recording, long before it was released even, I was totally excited. When I received the CD I cleared my day of anything to do besides listen to this music. On my first, second, third, forth, fifth, sixth time playing it I was amazed at how dissapointed I was with the overall music presentation. I wondered when was the last time David Murray and the group listened to Hendrix?To make a long story short, Hendrix music is full of rthymn, melody, harmony, emotion...; his music is compelling. All of which this recording lacks. Play almost any tune for a Hendrix fan and they would not recognize most of them, eccept for Foxey Lady, and maybe one other. Hendrix and the WSQ are both masters at improvisation yet Hendrix give us melody, rthymn, harmonies and more upon which he builds improvisations. Here the WQS strips the tunes of these elements and give it a whirl the best way they know how. The apparent effort to dispense with recognizable elements (melody in particular) of Hendrix music has backfired here. For example, Machine Gun, Hendrix's most potent political treaties is rendered as an unrecognizable 'dance tune'. All the more dissapointing when you realize that Murray's playing on 'Like A Kiss That Never Ends' (the title tune from his lastest quartet CD) parralles Hendrix in several ways, including producing the most dynamic extended solo for either instrument. There is no indication of Murray's possibilities on this 'version' of Machine Gun or on any other tune on this disc. Listen to previous recordings by both Hendrix and the WSQ and you find risk taking, a lot of it. Yet, there is no sign of it here. No efforts to recreate highs, lows, drones or anything out of the box. I don't beleive they spent much time producing this recording and it shows.The tune selection as well is very dissapointing. There are Hendrix tunes that lend themselves much better to the style and methodologies of the WSQ. Yet none of that matters if what we get is simular to what is rendered here. Lastly, this pains the hell out of me to write about the WSQ and David Murray (my favorite living musician) in this way. The WSQ would do better releasing this disc as one of completely 'original' tunes having nothing to do with Hendrix.Not taking anything away from the other musicians, however, I have dreamed of a David Murray tribute to Hendrix ever since I heard Murray; still I would like to hear such a tribute for all of the reasons that have caused myself and others to refer to him as the 'Jimi Hendrix of the saxophone'. Though I caution it should reference Hendrix more than this recoring."

Made For Each Other

El Lagarto | Sandown, NH | 11/16/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's safe to say this isn't for everyone. But if you're a passionate devotee of both Hendrix and WSQ, chances are you have an appetite for intensity and outrageousness. You'll find both here, and more. Hendrix wasn't really a great songwriter, few groups even bother to cover his work. (The Kronos String Quartet is an exception, they liked to trot out Purple Haze for an encore, to fabulous effect.) But through some alchemy, WSQ translates Hendrix's unique rock idiom genius into jazz, retaining the essence and adding its own inimitable, no-holds-barred appeal. Hey Joe is stunning, and The Wind Cries Mary has never been given a more haunting or spot-on interpretation."