Saxist Dave McMurray hit the jackpot a couple of years ago with a funky trio album Music Is Life that mixed fiery jazz with a hip backbeat. This time around, McMurray gets a bit ambitious, taking on the songbook of The Grateful Dead, and it works almost as impressively well.
McMurray keeps his core team of bassist Ibrahim Jones and drummer Jeff Canaday, but with Don Was’ production, adds in Wayne Gerard/g, Maurice O’Neal/dr, Luis Resto/p and Larry Fratangelo/perc to add a bit of space truckin’.
The music itself ranges from a Marvin Gaye-ish soulful “Eyes of The World” to a swampy blues of “Loser” with gritty vocals from Bettye LaVette. He does some effects with his mouthpiece as he taps into his inner Jr. Walker on “The Eleven” and sounds like he’s joined in with the Doobie Brothers on the upbeat “Franklin’s Tower”. With some spacey keyboards and funky grooves, a reggae’d “Estimated Planet” and snazzy “The Music Never Stopped” could be mistaken for a missing Sly and the Family Stone session, while McMurray gets Coltrane-ish on his epilogue of “Touch of Grey”. I missed this guy last time he came to LA; I won’t make that same mistake twice.