Hommage To Africa

This was one of the first BYG productions to hit the streets, and was apparently recorded on the same day as the later and musically more successful album Sunshine. The two-part track "Suns of Africa" involves a good dozen players, many of them big names in free jazz, in a kind of big gloppy piece that, even if it was well recorded, would probably not hold up to repeated listenings. A second part of this piece, less then two minutes long, seems to have been concocted from whatever the engineer was able to catch when he flipped the tape. The second side adds the excellent brass players Clifford Thornton and Grachan Moncur to one of the effective small band lineups represented on the previously mentioned Sunshine date. This is a much more exciting performance, although bad recording definitely hampers the trombone sound, as well as everything else including the leader's drums. The tune "R.I.P." is one of Murray's better compositions; simple but put together very well.