Sacred Ground

iTunes Review

Tenor saxophonist/composer David Murray has written for and performed in many settings: trios, quartets, octets, big bands, you name it. He’s written for film and dance projects, and was a founding member of the World Saxophone Quartet. He first got attention playing free jazz in the 1970s, but eventually incorporated elements from a number of different styles into his music, so he’s covered a lot of ground. On Sacred Ground, the first and last tracks showcase the vocalist Cassandra Wilson intoning lyrics penned by the novelist and poet Ishmael Reed. (Murray has previously appeared on Conjure and Bad Mouth, two albums produced by Kip Hanrahan that set Reed’s texts to music.) Murray, pianist Lafayette Gilchrist, bassist Ray Drummond, and the always interesting drummer Andrew Cyrille do fine work on the vocal tracks and the disc’s five instrumentals. (One standout, “Banished,” features Murray on bass clarinet.) The opening title track is a stunner. It’s a great vehicle for Wilson’s uniquely textured voice and sharp sense of drama, and its passages of post-Coltrane impressionism perfectly complement the vocal sections. On “The Prophet of Doom,” Wilson embodies another Cassandra, the daughter of Hecuba. The singer excels in this inspired marriage of Greek mythology and African-American sass and soul.