Sax appeal

"When David Murray solos, he wrestles with his saxophone as if it were a mortal enemy," Dean Robbins writes in his review of the David Murray Octet's "two wild, lusty, luxuriant sets" at the Madison Civic Center's Isthmus Playhouse. "He jerks it, shakes out the notes, smacks the keys while lurching forward and jumping up on the balls of his feet.... One thing that distinguishes Murray from many other free-jazz types is his devotion to order. Like James Joyce, he has a penchant for stream-of-consciousness tirades, but only insofar as they relate to a composition's overall structure. In the first few bars of every solo, his tenor sax sounded like his speaking voice: gentle and light, with a soft, Ben Webster-ish breathiness. But after that, run for cover!" Now based in Paris, Murray maintains a prolific recording career and played Milwaukee's Alverno College this past spring while touring in support of his latest disc, Waltz Again.