David Murray

New Life is a studio album by the David Murray Octet, recorded at Sorcerer Sound in New York on October 8, 1985 and released by Black Saint in 1987. Murray, born in Berkeley in 1955 and in New York since 1975, was then leading groups of several sizes, from small bands to a big band, alongside his work in the World Saxophone Quartet. The octet sits between the two, with three brass, two saxophones and a rhythm section of piano, bass and drums, and four of the leader's compositions as its material.

Murray plays tenor saxophone and bass clarinet. The brass are trumpeters Baikida Carroll and Hugh Ragin and trombonist Craig Harris, John Purcell plays alto saxophone, and the rhythm section has Wilber Morris on bass and Ralph Peterson on drums, with Steve Colson at the piano. Carroll, Harris and Purcell had also been in Murray's big band at Sweet Basil in August 1984. Murray produced the session, with Kunle Mwanga as recording supervisor and David Avidor as recording engineer, and the tapes were mixed on March 7, 1986 at the Ranch Track Recording Studio by David Baker. Train Whistle and Blues In The Pocket each run past eleven minutes, Morning Song lasts ten, and the title piece is the shortest at six and a half. The cover reproduces a painting by Jamyl Smith titled Prayer.

This is the Black Saint CD 120100-2 of the album first released in 1987 as BSR 0100.