''Witness'' is the 18th

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

er Dave Douglas. It was released on the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

label in 2001 and features performances by Douglas,

Chris Speed Chris Speed (born February 12, 1967) is an American saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. Early life and career Speed grew up outside of Seattle and studied classical piano and clarinet from an early age. He later began studying jazz, took up ...

, Joe Daley, Mark Feldman,

Erik Friedlander Erik Friedlander is an American cellist and composer based in New York City. A veteran of New York City's experimental downtown scene, Friedlander has worked in many contexts, but is perhaps best known for his frequent collaborations with sax ...

Drew Gress Drew Gress (born November 20, 1959) is an American jazz double-bassist and composer born in Trenton, New Jersey and raised in the Philadelphia area. Biography Gress studied at Towson State University and Manhattan School of Music. In the late 1 ...

Bryan Carrott Bryan Carrott is an American jazz musician playing vibraphone and marimba. He has recorded with Butch Morris, Henry Threadgill, Dave Douglas, David "Fathead" Newman, Ralph Peterson, Steven Kroon, Greg Osby, Tom Harrell, John Lurie and The Loun ...

Michael Sarin Michael Towne Sarin (born September 20, 1965, Stockton, California) is an American jazz drummer. Sarin moved to the Puget Sound area as a child, where he began studying percussion as a teenager. He studied music at the University of Washington an ...

Ikue Mori (born 17 December 1953), also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, electronic musician, composer, and graphic designer. Mori was awarded a "Genius grant" from the MacArthur Foundation in 2022. Biography Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She sa ...

, Joshua Roseman and

Yuka Honda Yuka Honda is a Japanese-American musician who resides in New York City. She is a multi-instrumentalist (mainly piano, synthesizer, sampler and other keyboards), composer, record producer, and co-founder of the band Cibo Matto. Throughout her c ...

with

Tom Waits Thomas Alan Waits (born December 7, 1949) is an American musician, composer, songwriter, and actor. His lyrics often focus on the underbelly of society and are delivered in his trademark deep, gravelly voice. He worked primarily in jazz during ...

providing vocals on one track.

Reception

The

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

review by Alex Henderson awarded the album 4 stars stating "One of the things that makes Dave Douglas such a compelling voice in avant-garde jazz is his open-mindedness. The New York-based trumpeter has made a point of exposing himself to a wide variety of music -- everything from

Lester Bowie Lester Bowie (October 11, 1941 – November 8, 1999) was an American jazz trumpet player and composer. He was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians and co-founded the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Biography Born in t ...

's innovations to classical to East European folk -- and his willingness to be influenced by so many different things has made for a lot of fresh, adventurous albums. ''Witness'' is no exception; this 2001 release finds the jazzman being affected by classical as well as Middle Eastern and North African music... ''Witness'' is yet another album that Douglas can be proud of".Henderson, A
Allmusic Review
accessed September 26, 2011 On

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

David Adler stated "With ''Witness'', Dave Douglas's first overtly political album, the trumpeter/composer stimulates our imaginations even as he encourages us to confront global injustice". In

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

Doug Ramsey wrote "Dave Douglas focuses his artist's conscience and political acuity on our time and finds plenty to protest. His ''Witness'', initially inspired by arms profiteering during the war in Yugoslavia, also concerns itself with the suppression of political rights, social justice and feminist aspirations. The music calls on the tradition of his jazz predecessors and contemporaries but also draws from Balinese, African and Middle Eastern forms and, heavily, from modern classical composers like Lutoslawski, Ligeti, Stockhausen and, one suspects, Steve Reich ...How would the music stand on its own if a listener didn't know it was protest music? Pretty well. It's interesting stuff. There might be puzzlement about his category, but there would be no doubt about Douglas' passion".Ramsey., D.
JazzTimes Review
November 2000

Track listing

''All compositions by Dave Douglas'' # "Ruckus" - 4:45 # "Witness" - 8:16 # "One More News" - 3:03 # "Woman at Point Zero" - 7:40 # "Kidnapping Kissinger" - 3:02 # "Mahfouz" - 23:51 # "Episode for Taslima Nasrin" - 4:41 # "Child of All Nations" - 7:14 # "Sozaboy" - 3:59

Personnel

* Dave Douglas: trumpet * Mark Feldman: violin *

: tenor saxophone, clarinet * Joe Daley: tuba *

: cello *

: bass *

: vibraphone, marimba *

: drums *

: electronics with guests: * Joshua Roseman: trombone (1, 4, 6, 9) *

: sampling keyboard (1, 6) *

: vocals (6)

References

{{Authority control 2001 albums Dave Douglas (trumpeter) albums RCA Records albums