We see albums covering the work of a great composers all the time, and it’s pretty much a ritual in the jazz world. Among the list of the usual suspects are Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, Duke Ellington and Wayne Shorter. Julius Hemphill isn’t put in that pantheon often but some thirty years after his death, the saxophonist who co-founded both the St. Louis-based vanguard arts collective Black Artists Group and the World Saxophone Quartet is slowly getting the recognition he deserved while he was alive.
The latest tribute Plays The Music of Julius Hemphill (Out Of Your Head Records) comes from quartet of string players formed expressively to do just that, The Hemphill Stringtet. Comprising of Curtis Stewart (violin), Sam Bardfeld (violin), Stephanie Griffin (viola) and Tomeka Reid (cello), they make a case for the genius of Hemphill’s charts by casting his music not only apart from the saxophone but from any horn or other instrument normally associated with jazz.
Hemphill’s compositions made its greatest visible impact through his contributions to the World Saxophone Quartet, and the Hemphill Stringtet naturally looked there for material to adapt. “Revue” first appeared on the 1980 WSQ album of the same name. Imbued in the blues but also with elegant Strayhorn touches, the Quartet brought out the lushness inherent in the song by blending their reeds into chordal constructions. The Hemphill Stringtet however is capable of playing more notes at once and leverage that into fuller harmonics. “My First Winter/Touchic” bundles a couple of songs first found on the WSQ’s Live in Zurich album. The former’s Ellingtonian lush elegance carries over well to the string quartet, while “Touchic” changes the pace with its harder, more elaborate melody.
The ‘Mingus Gold’ trio of pieces are Hemphill re-imaginings of Charles Mingus compositions, first performed by the Kronos Quartet in 1988 and eventually performed by the Daedalus String Quartet in 2007. The Daedalus performances were recorded and eventually found their way into the voluminous The Boyé Multi-National Crusade for Harmony Hemphill box set released in 2021. The Hemphill Stringtet’s version of the Mingus Trio, therefore, are adaptations of Hemphill’s own adaptations.
“Better Get Hit In Your Soul” shares a lot of similarities with the Daedalus rendering, but executed with more vigor by the Hemphill Stringtet. Hemphill’s fondness for Mingus’ music is easy to understand: both loved using blues as a launching to jettison jazz into atmospheric reaches. The blues is clearly evident throughout “Nostalgia In Times Square” but with the complexity of jazz and chamber music cleverly woven into it. “Alice In Wonderland” (based on Mingus’ “Alice’s Wonderland”) showcases a cello concerto featuring Reid.
The loping “Choo Choo” is an example of the quality charts Hemphill left on the table when he passed in 1995, first recorded a couple of years afterwards by his still-living Julius Hemphill Sextet (another all-saxophone ensemble). Reid leads in presenting the main figure — as a bass line — and the others frolic around it.
Julius Hemphill’s songs might be nominally jazz but to hear them in a chamber music setting as rendered by the Hemphill Stringtet is a revelation. Curtis Stewart, Sam Bardfeld, Stephanie Griffin and Tomeka Reid managed to unlock more artistry from these scores, further uncovering Hemphill’s flair for composing. That’s the big achievement of Plays The Music of Julius Hemphill.
Get a copy of The Hemphill Stringtet’s Plays The Music of Julius Hemphill from Bandcamp.
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