Search - World Saxophone Quartet :: Requiem for Julius

It's generally acknowledged that the World Saxophone Quartet hasn't made albums as frenetic and chattery as their Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music since Julius Hemphill departed (and later died). Call it coincidence, but the WSQ has chosen Requiem for Julius as a return to their early forms. They've of course spent several years playing with African drummers, (Metamorphosis), gospel singers (Breath of Life), and sundry other musicians to boot (M'bizo). So this opportunity to hear the foursome (John Purcell has assumed the seat vacated by Hemphill and, later, Arthur Blythe) unadorned is welcome. They play their wildest when nodding to Hemphill on the title track. But they stretch themselves in broad painterly strokes for "All Praise" and then swing wholeheartedly to open "Hurricane Floyd" before dipping in and out of the tune in register-expanding blasts. Requiem is unique for its homage to one of the band's cofounders, and it reinvigorates them with a wild energy that makes the composed and improvised parts mesh together, indistinguishable one from the other. --Andrew Bartlett