Next week will be the 30th yahrzeit of one of the greatest jazz musicians of the 20th century, sax player-composer Julius Hemphill (1938-1995), co-founder of the multidisciplinary arts collective Black Artists’ Group, founder of the World Saxophone Quartet (with Oliver Lake, Hamiett Bluiett and David Murray) and Hemphill Sextet, mentor of sax players Tim Berne and Marty Ehrlich (now the archivist of Hemphill’s compositions) and collaborator of Anthony Braxton, Bill Frisell and Björk.
The Hemphill Stringtet is an American improvising string quartet, dedicated to the music of Hemphill, and featuring experienced improvisers who are equally at home in contemporary composed music and improvised situations – violinist Curtis Stewart (of the contemporary PUBLIQuartet) and Sam Bardfeld (of The Jazz Passengers), violist Stephanie Griffin (who has played in Braxton’s ensemble and of the contemporary Momenta Quartet), and cellist Tomeka Reid (who also collborated with Braxton, leads her quartet and plays in Myra Melford’s Fire And Water Quintet and Roscoe Mitchell’s Quintet).
Plays the Music of Julius Hemphill is the debut album of The Hemphill
