World Saxophone Quartet live in Berlin 2009

Hamiet Bluiett (bs, cl)
Edward "Kidd" Jordan (as)
David Murray (ts, bcl)
James Carter (ts, ss)

recorded live at Kino Babylon, Berlin, Jazzwerkstatt Berlin-Brandenburg: Discover us!,
March 28, 2009

1. River Niger (Jordan)
2. Yes we can (Murray)
3. The god of pain (Murray)
4. The guessing game (Bluiett)
5. Long march to freedom (Murray)
6. Hattie wall (Reprise) (Bluiett)

"Probably the first of several saxophone-only ensembles who proliferated in jazz after 1975, the WSQ is unquestionably the most commercially (and, arguably, the most creatively) successful. Of course, commercial success is a relative thing in jazz, especially when one is speaking of an avant-garde group. At their creative peak, the group melded jazz-based, harmonically adventurous improvisation with sophisticated composition. All of the group's original members (Julius Hemphill, alto; Oliver Lake, alto; David Murray, tenor; and Hamiet Bluiett, baritone) were estimable composers as well as improvisers. Each complimented the whole, making them even greater than the considerable sum of their parts. As a composer, Hemphill drew on European techniques (though his tunes were not without an unalloyed jazz component), while Bluiett was steeped in blues and funk. Lake and Murray fell somewhere in between. As soloists and writers, the early WSQ covered all the bases. The membership stayed constant until Hemphill's departure in 1989." (by Chris Kelsey, allmusicguide)
After several replacements Oliver Lake and Julius Hemphill were followed for this concert by James Carter and Kidd Jordan. "Political Blues" from 2006 is their latest album.