david murray

i snoozed on his first three octet records back in the '80s, but i scored a copy of murray's steps at doc's yesterday, my interest piqued by the presence of pianist curtis clark, who plays on a coupla new sides by dennis gonzalez and his sons. it's like a classic mingus sesh: great writing, fiery playing by a band that includes two reeds (murray and henry threadgill), three brass (bobby bradford, murray's longtime conductor butch morris, craig harris) and riddim. reading morris' ideas about conduction in howard mandel's future jazz -- morris, clark, and murray were part of fort worth expat charles moffett's workshops in oakland, where they bumped up against moffett's musical sons charnett and codaryl -- and thinking how they might be applicable to the hentai improvising orchestra.