New Zoot Revue

LITTLE SAMBA
HYMN FOR THE OLD YEAR
World Saxophone Quartet
Revue
Black Saint : 1982
OmniTone

David Murray, tenor sax, bass clarinet; Oliver Lake, alto, tenor, soprano sax, flute; Hamiett Bluiett, baritone sax, alto clarinet; Julius Hemphill, alto, soprano sax, flute.

In August 1990, the Village Voice published a jazz special that included thirty-plus critics offering their ten best jazz albums of the 1980s. Among the top two or three vote-getters was this crackerjack set from WSQ, recorded as the decade opened, in October 1980, in Paris. We will be forever indebted to this list for many reasons (and will attempt to give something back next week), but chief among them is the simple fact that this record lives in our collection.

We’ve previously highlighted the r&b stylings of the group. Here, we’ve selected a couple of the more probing cuts from Revue. “Little Samba” is a Hemphill tune; not exactly hummable, but we love the precise interplay, the perfectly balanced high-end, low-end textural combinations. The shape of the song is a little unusual, too, starting off more open and unfocused and eventually settling into a comfortable theme.

“Hymn for the Old Year” is Lake’s, and he shines on an extended introductory solo that takes up well more than half of the four-and-a-half minute tune. It’s a taut, articulate wail. When the rest of the cohort comes in, they almost literally supply the bedding for a nearly-spent Lake to fall into. The pacing, the silences, the unerring combination of elegy and acceptance, the concision — it’s a wonderful statement. And the album is chockablock with similar wonders; we could have picked any two songs and ended up with something worthwhile to share.

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As for next week, it’s the 1990s all over again. Hope you can visit with us as we pay tribute to the would-be decade-that-jazz-forgot, in our version of We Love the Nineties – starring many of our friends, new and old (see at right). Please stop on by.