Big Tip! David Murray emerged in mid-1970s New York at a pivotal moment for jazz. As cultural shifts and urban decay created vacant buildings and low rents, aspiring artists converged on the city from Chicago, California, and St. Louis, drawing inspiration less from the mainstream than from the first thrusts of free jazz—John Coltrane, Cecil Taylor, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler. They established performance spaces in lofts and apartments, downtown storefronts, art galleries, and abandoned warehouses. Murray himself shared a loft with Stanley Crouch above an East Village club called the Tin Palace, co-founding Black Music Infinity.

Kahil El'Zabar connected more loosely to the scene through Chicago's outflux tied to the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. The two have collaborated frequently since El'Zabar's 1989 duo album Golden Sea, repeated with One World Family (2000) and Spirit Groove (2020). They share an innate chemistry, with El'Zabar somewhat tempering Murray's wide tone and once fiery register while maintaining thematic richness and bold strokes, their sense of swing easy and unconquerable. Spirit Groove: Golden Sea Duo in Shenzhen captures their 2023 performance at the OCT-LOFT Jazz Festival, released by Old Heaven Books—a record label, bookstore, and performance space within the OCT-LOFT cultural complex in Shenzhen. For over a decade, this former warehouse district has hosted an annual jazz festival featuring artists from Peter Brötzmann and Mats Gustafsson to William Parker and Hamid Drake. After a four-year pandemic hiatus, the 2023 festival returned with El'Zabar and Murray as its centerpiece.

The opening track begins with El'Zabar's repeating kalimba pattern—pellucid and trance-like—as Murray moves from watery sounds to harsher wails through his thick tenor. El'Zabar introduces Murray by name, then solos, extracting remarkable depth from the metal tines while accompanying himself with fierce growls. The effect suggests Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders's Promises taken to its outer edge, or the music box miniature of Björk's "Frosti." Murray returns to squall until the last, capping an enthralling composition before clamorous applause.

'Am Gone Get Some' operates as hard bop romp with El'Zabar's percussion providing the pocket for Murray's plosive beats. On 'Syriana Promethea'—a take on the title track from Murray's 2022 Brave New World Trio album—El'Zabar falls into a West African groove as Murray summons an especially clear tone, his tenor cascading over the rhythm. El'Zabar's solo breaks into staccato lyric, repeating "tell me that" in the manner of an old rhythm and blues holler, his flow redolent of Skip James without the wiry falsetto.

Drawing from their 1989 debut, 'Golden Sea' is more aching and languorous, El'Zabar's plangent kalimba going deep-sea diving beside the furry swathe of Murray's horn. Tender growls and tarrying sputters cede to bird calls as the lines evoke a lullaby before El'Zabar pulls off guitar-like licks from his plucked tines. 'Sweet Meat' builds to El'Zabar's crashing cymbal-led crescendo, segueing into scattershot marching band batteries as Murray touches upon Ayleresque themes.

The crowd demands an encore: 'In My House' from Spirit Groove, rendered slinkier and rowdier than the original. "You can dance / jump and shout / move the body / all about," El'Zabar chants, compelling the audience. A writhing piece whose pooling drums offset solitary horn honks that become wafting spirals, the album documents how El'Zabar and Murray turned OCT-LOFT into their house for 63 minutes and 47 seconds—proof that the loft jazz spirit, born in 1970s New York warehouses, thrives in a former Shenzhen industrial complex half a century later.

David Murray - Saxophone  
Kahil El'Zabar - Percussion /  Kalimba /  Voice

Recorded at the 10th OCT-LOFT International Jazz Festival, B10 Live, Shenzhen October 27th, 2023