by Thom JurekDavid Murray has been collaborating in one way or another with poet, novelist, and cultural critic Ishmael Reed (co-founder of the Before Columbus Foundation) since 1980. They have worked on Reed's three Conjure recordings as well as his For All We Know CD. Sacred Ground is a Murray date, recorded for his now longtime label Justin Time, performed with his brilliant Black Saint Quartet that includes drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist Ray Drummond, and pianist Lafayette Gilchist (who replaced the late John Hicks). Murray had scored the soundtrack for Marco Williams' brilliant film Banished, about the dozen or so American counties in the South and Midwest that expelled -- often violently -- thousands of blacks between Reconstruction and the Great Depression. Murray's appetite for investigation (which has always been enormous anyway) was whetted and he continued his own independent thinking and research. He asked Reed to participate in the project by writing poems for Cassandra Wilson to sing. Those two songs bookend this set. Murray's tune "Banished" is here, as is music that he extrapolated upon apart from the film. Murray is a more than prolific artist, having recorded upwards of 100 albums in his career thus far, and has been part of at least another 150. Saying that Sacred Ground is one of his most satisfying and deeply expressive offerings is risky, but it's also true. For starters, there's the band. The Black Saint Quartet have been together long enough to understand one another intimately. As a composer, Murray writes to the strengths of each player and creates bridges for members to speak to one another both inside and outside his compositions. Then there's Wilson, who sings with such understated yet unmistakable authority here. Her restraint and trademark phrasing is a tribute to her discipline, to allow words to speak for themselves and to bring out only their hidden meanings. Yet here, on the title track, it is she who gets stretched, too. Reed's words carry within them both anger and resignation, journalistic acumen, and deep cultural commentary, without once falling into the obvious. ... Read More...