''Shakill's Warrior'' is an album by David Murray released on the DIW/

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label in 1991. It features eight quartet performances by Murray with Stanley Franks,

Don Pullen Don Gabriel Pullen (December 25, 1941 – April 22, 1995) was an American jazz pianist and organist. Pullen developed a strikingly individual style throughout his career. He composed pieces ranging from blues to bebop and modern jazz. The grea ...

, and

Andrew Cyrille Andrew Charles Cyrille (born November 10, 1939) is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographe ...

Critical reception

Reviewing for ''

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'' in April 1992,

Robert Christgau Robert Thomas Christgau ( ; born April 18, 1942) is an American music journalist and essayist. Among the most well-known and influential music critics, he began his career in the late 1960s as one of the earliest professional rock critics and ...

hailed Murray as "the most generous saxophone virtuoso since

Sonny Rollins Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins (born September 7, 1930) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians. In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as ...

" and ''Shakill's Warrior'' "the funkiest record he's ever made", as well as "one of the most evocative". He highlighted the playing of Pullen, saying he and Murray "dig deep into the most declasse kind of organ jazz", and went on to write: Christgau later ranked ''Shakill's Warrior'' as the second best album of 1992 in his year-end "Dean's List" for ''

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''s Pazz & Jop critics poll. In '' Christgau's Consumer Guide: Albums of the '90s'' (2000), he assigned the album an A-plus grade, although he later said in 2020, after relistening: "in what may have been the first time in 25 years, one thing became clear quick: not an A plus." In another retrospective appraisal,

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Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born October 4, 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author. Allmusic Biography/ref> Biography Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Since 1974, he was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles a ...

awarded the album 4 stars, stating: "The music, with the exception of some typical Murray outbursts into the extreme upper register, is generally respectful and soulful, one of Murray's mellower efforts.".Yanow, S
AllMusic Review
accessed August 9, 2011.

Track listing

# "Blues for Savannah" (Murray) – 7:26 # "Song from the Old Country" (Pullen) – 7:01 # "High Priest" (Cyrille) – 11:59 # "In the Spirit" (Pullen) – 9:49 # "Shakill's Warrior" (Murray) – 8:37 # "At the Cafe Central" (Pullen) – 10:52 # "Black February ( Butch Morris) – 8:53 # "Milano Strut" (Pullen) – 8:17

Personnel

* David Murray – tenor saxophone *

– organ *Stanley Franks – guitar *

– drums

References

{{Authority control 1991 albums David Murray (saxophonist) albums DIW Records albums