David Murray Big Band conducted by Lawrence ''Butch'' Morris (1992)

Each of these impressive albums by tenor saxophonist David Murray, among the first releases on the adventurous Japanese DIW label to be distributed in this country, begins with a blues number. The Big Band blues, ''Paul Gonsalves,'' opens with improvised whistling (by Joel A. Brandon) and builds to an orchestrated transcription of the celebrated marathon saxophone solo created by Paul Gonsalves at a Duke Ellington concert in 1956. Whereas Murray's big band is ripe, rhapsodic, intense, exhortatory, his quartet is ambrosial, greatly benefiting from the after-hours shimmer of Don Pullen's Hammond B-3 organ. Where the big band goes for ecstasy, the quartet mines a groove. That distinction defines the two sides of David Murray, perhaps the most widely admired jazz musician of his generation. David Murray Big Band conducted by Lawrence ‘’Butch’’ Morris: A- Shakill’s Warrior: A