The first David Murray Octet recording that I heard -- and still the one that I play most frequently.
An old friend, who -- somehow -- seems to NEVER GET OLD.
Yeah, I remember. The 1980's were when I was just beginning to dig into jazz -- and it seemed like Murray was releasing a new album every week!
Speaking of the superb rhythm section . . . Ed Blackwell plays SO beautifully on that record.
I suppose much of this music is "easy listening" rather than jazz. But Clare Fischer's arrangements (on three-fourths of the cuts) transcend most efforts in that genre. There's personality in the music -- even when there isn't much improvisation.
Braxton also talks about his chess playing in Graham Lock's book Forces In Motion. ... I'm paraphrasing here, but I remember Braxton said that playing chess at a very high level wasn't conducive to being the sort of person he wanted to be. It brought out too much competitiveness.
I thought that was a very honest, revealing comment. ... Lock's portrait of Braxton is fascinating from start to finish.