See “Five Chord Stud.”
Five Chord Stud
Mr. Critical
Composition for saxophone sextet (two soprano, alto, two tenor, and baritone). Although it was never recorded with a rhythm section, the score in the archive includes material for bass and drums. This instrumentation suggests a connection with “Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera.” According to Marty Ehrlich, however, it was not used in the versions of “Long Tongues” with which he was involved.
Found on: Five Chord Stud, The Hard Blues: Live in Lisbon.
From Marty Ehrlich: This piece is a musical homage to Ornette Coleman, to whom Julius was related. Julius told members of the Sextet that “Mr. Critical” refers to a nickname given to Ornette as a young man in Fort Worth, Texas—where both Coleman and Hemphill are from—by saxophonist Red Conners. Conners gave him that name, as I remember Julius telling it, as much for his appearance as for his playing. Ornette had long hair at a time and at times wore an overcoat in the Texas summer. Julius would say, “Critical, as in Critical Care Unit,” with a great smile, as a kind of in-the-family joke. (In my years presenting concerts posthumously with the Hemphill Saxophone Sextet, I gave up trying to tell this story before we performed “Mr. Critical”, as it made no sense coming from me.)
Moat and the Bridge, The
Composition for saxophone sextet (three alto, two tenor, and baritone), recorded by the Julius Hemphill Sextet on Five Chord Stud (1994). The piece is included in the Saxophone Sextet Collection published by Subito Music.
Found on: Five Chord Stud.
From Marty Ehrlich: Hemphill wrote for the Sextet in three major areas. One was pieces such as this one, composed for recordings and concerts. The second was the extensive amount of music he wrote for the collaboration with Bill T. Jones. A third was “Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera.” I remember “The Moat and the Bridge” as one of the first pieces Hemphill composed when he formed the Saxophone Sextet. Its upbeat feel and infectious vamp, which we were able to stretch out on, represented something he was going for in the Sextet.
Mirrors
Composition first recorded as a trio of alto saxophone, cello, and drums on Raw Materials and Residuals (1978). The Julius Hemphill Papers has a small-group score in Hemphill’s hand for alto saxophone, trumpet, baritone saxophone, cello, and guitar. Hemphill also arranged the composition for saxophone sextet (two soprano, alto, two tenor, and baritone), and it was recorded by the Julius Hemphill Sextet on Five Chord Stud (1994). It was published in the Julius Hemphill Sextet Collection by Subito Music.
Found on: Raw Materials and Residuals, Five Chord Stud.
From Marty Ehrlich: From trio to quartet to saxophone sextet, “Mirrors” is for me one of Julius’s iconic pieces, in the totality of its compositional parts, and in the way Julius’ gave it voice, with Abdul Wadud, on his horn. I first heard Hemphill perform this work in 1971 at Washington University in St. Louis, in a trio with Wadud on cello and Charley Payne on drums. We performed the work often with the Julius Hemphill Sextet.
Georgia Blue
This composition was performed and recorded with several different ensembles, including the World Saxophone Quartet, the Julius Hemphill Sextet, the Julius Hemphill Trio (alto saxophone, cello, and drums), and the JAH Band (alto saxophone, bass, guitar, drums, and percussion). The earliest commercial recording of the song comes from the JAH Band’s album Georgia Blue (1984). The Julius Hemphill Papers includes various parts, as well as scores for saxophone quartet (solo alto, alto, tenor, and baritone) and saxophone sextet (solo alto, soprano, alto, two tenor, and baritone). This composition was incorporated into the large-scale work “Long Tongues: A Saxophone Opera,” from which the sextet version was made. It is also included in the Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet Collection published by Subito Music.
Found on: Georgia Blue, Live at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Live from the New Music Cafe, Five Chord Stud, Live at Kassiopeia.
From Marty Ehrlich: Hemphill wrote this piece in honor of dancer Joanne Robinson. He performed it extensively with his JAH band and other small groups.
Near the end of his life, Hemphill could no longer perform on saxophone for a whole concert. The Julius Hemphill Saxophone Sextet became a Septet, with Julius playing some solos from his wheel chair. Tim Berne and Andy Laster joined the ensemble to round out the alto section with Sam Furnace and myself. On our last sextet recording under Julius’ leadership, Five Chord Stud, Julius was in the studio directing us. I was to play his two solo features, “Spiritual Chairs,” and “Georgia Blue,” and the solo alto part for “Georgia Blue” did not have chord changes written in. Knowing I would be playing this work and taking an improvised chorus over the ensemble arrangement, I had asked Julius prior to the session if he had a lead sheet for the chords. We were in his apartment, where he was mostly bedridden. He gave me the changes right then, from his memory, according to measure numbers and lengths. His great mental acuity and full command of his musical language was always there and always inspiring.