David
Murray & The Gwo-Ka Masters. W.E.S Group
@ Pigeon Island, St. Lucia Jazz Festival
10 May 2007
Click an image to enlarge.
The beauty and charm of Pigeon Island
during the day, or night, never fails to excite the senses. With
the Atlantic Ocean on one side, the Caribbean Sea on the other,
delicately lit palm trees gently kissing the sky, combined with
the anticipation of a tremendous musical experience is surely enough
to warm the coolest hearts.
W.E.S Group Biography
Saxophonist/composer, W. E. S. (William E. Smith, Ph.D.) has sought
to enrich the lives of others through sound. His family roots go
deep into the history of jazz and the African-American experience.
W.E.S.’s grandfather and great-uncle, owned a music publishing
company in the 1920s and published music that was performed by the
great King Oliver as well as Noble Sissle. Many musicians used to
come by the family home on the south side of Chicago including Art
Tatum. W.E.S.’s cousin Warren Smith Jr. played percussion
with the Miles Davis, Gil Evans orchestra and many other notable
performers.
In the spirit of this legacy, W.E.S. himself has performed nationally
and internationally with his group and with jazz greats such as
James Moody, Donald Byrd, Kenny Burrell, Wynton Marsalis, and Jon
Hendricks.
W.E.S. is currently an Assistant Professor and the Jazz Ensemble
Director at American University and gives lectures on jazz and hip
hop at the University of Maryland, University of Delaware, and Howard
University.
The Gwo-Ka Masters - biography
David Murray (tenor saxophone and bass clarinet) is a Jazz artist
who has recorded over 130 albums, including 2 recorded in 2006 (Gwotet
and Pushkin) and a forthcoming album to be released in Summer 2007.
He was born in Oakland, California in 1955 and grew up in Berkeley,
where he studied with his mother Catherine Murray (organist), Bobby
Bradford, Arthur Blythe, Stanley Crouch, Margaret Kohn and many
others before he left Ponoma College (Los Angeles) for New York
in 1975. In New York he met and played with Cecil Taylor, who along
with Dewey Redman, gave the young musician the encouragement he
needed. The city would again be a source of new encounters, with
people and with music from all horizons: Sunny Murray, Tony Braxton,
Oliver Lake, and Don Cherry. In Ted Daniel's Energy Band he worked
with Hamiet Bluiett, Lester Bowie and Frank Lowe.
In 1976, after a European tour, Murray set up the first of his mythic
groups, the World Saxophone Quartet, with Oliver Lake, Hamiet Bluiett
and Julius Hemphill. This marked the beginning of an intensely creative
time, when one recording led to another, with an endless permutation
of formations.
From Jerry Garcia to Max Roach, from Randy Weston to Elvin Jones,
David Murray worked as widely as possible until 1978, when he set
up his own quartet, then octet and finally his quintet. From this
time on his focus is more on his own formations, although he frequently
works with other musicians, drawing in a whole range of different
sounds, from strings (the 1982 concert at the Public Theatre in
New York), to Ka drums from Guadeloupe (Créole in 1998 and
Yonn Dé in 2002) and South African dancers and musicians
(Mbizo, 1998), just some of the treasures he has discovered on his
journey.
David Murray's awards include: a Grammy in 1989; a Guggenheim Fellowship
(1989); the Bird Award (1986); the Danish Jazzpar Prize (1991);
Village Voice musician of the decade (1980s); Newsday musician of
the year (1993); personality of the Guinness Jazz festival (Ireland,
1994); the Ralph J. Simon Rex Award (1995).
Two documentaries have been made about David Murray's life: "Speaking
in Tongues" (1982) and "Jazzman", nominated at the
Baltimore Film Festival (1999).
Musicians:
W.E.S Group
Dr. William E Smith (a.k.a WES) – saxophone
Nathan Jolley - drums
Noble Jolley Jr. – piano
Corcoran Holt – bass
Robin Francis
© Michael Valentine Studio Ltd.
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