Boundary crossing and genre mixing are no longer a big deal in jazz, but few do them with the raw power and awe-inspiring glee of David Murray. His list of musical projects reads like a postmodern smorgasbord: Guadaloupian vocals and percussion; Caribbean instrumentation; a musical tribute to Picasso; exploratory takes on the Grateful Dead; etc. And he's continually returning to the legacy of John Coltrane. Murray offers new releases at the rate of two or more a year, and the quality is consistently brilliant. His latest project, "Now Is Another Time," pits his rough, free-form sax style against a vibrant Latin big band for satisfyingly wild jamming and deep Cuban grooves.
The modern jazz flourishes of Murray's tenor sax -- along with longtime collaborators Hamiet Bluiett on baritone sax and Hugh Ragin on trumpet -- at first sound out of place in the full-on fury of a Latin big band. These three jazz heavies seem to be scrambling for position in front of the surging energy of percussion and brass section culled from Cuba's crema de la crema. On second listen, though, the combination of jazz soloing on the upper register, together with the punch of brass and pulse of percussion, makes you wonder how they could have been separated for so long.
Most Latin big bands go for solos that ratchet up the energy level, but they remain rather tame melodically. Murray, Bluiett and Ragin, however, let loose with expansively free blowing that inspires the Cuban players to dig in that much harder and faster. At the end of every song, no one wants to say goodbye, and the whole band keeps rolling out chorus after chorus of explosive jamming.