Ship Without a Sail Archive

Mike Murley Trio – Ship Without A Sail – Cornerstone

by Audiophile Audition | Jul 7, 2016 | Jazz CD Reviews

Mike Murley Trio – Ship Without A  Sail – Cornerstone CRST CD 145, 52:15 ****: A sprightly and imaginative trio session. (Mike Murley – tenor saxophone; Reg Schwager – guitar; Steve Wallace – bass) The Mike Murley Trio is the complete opposite to the title of their most recent release Ship Without A Sail. They are a musical vessel sailing to  a destination with which they are very familiar, thus avoiding the shoals and rocks of uncharted waters. The result is a voyage worth the journey. The musical interdependence that this group has created in their approach to the material, has resulted in an instrumental harmony that’s evident from the first bars of “In Love In Vain”. Murley’s tenor sax takes command as he runs through the melody in full-throated form. The comping by guitarist Schwager and bassist Wallace push him along in lightly swinging mode. In 1929 Rodgers and Hart wrote “A Ship Without A Sail” for the musical Heads Up. The number was not considered one of this duo’s most popular tunes and is an interesting choice of the band for the title track, which for some unexplained reason they decided to forgo the letter A in the […]