A Quartet's Last Prayer in Tenor
Ware roars and declaims like a storefront preacher while Shipp plays like a man possessed.
David S. Ware recorded Flight of I (1992) in 1991 with William Parker on bass, Matthew Shipp on piano, and Marc Edwards on drums—the last time this lineup would work together. It's a deliberate shift: Ware sets aside his soprano sax and double duties, committing entirely to tenor saxophone across these meditations. The choice matters. Tenor forces a different voice from him, earthier and more declarative, and the quartet responds to that single-minded focus.
Two standards anchor the session: Harry Warren's "There Will Never Be Another You" and Jerome Kern's "Yesterdays." These are not Ware vehicles rewritten for the moment; they're genuinely tackled, which is rare in this group's discography. The ballad "Sad Eyes," composed by free jazz saxophonist Arthur Jones, sits between them. What strikes you first is how much air Shipp leaves in the music—he's not filling space but responding to Ware's declarations, sometimes like counterpoint, sometimes like an echo chamber. Parker and Edwards hold the weight without pushing.
The Penguin Guide to Jazz caught what matters: these are prayerful meditations, soaring and intentional. It's not a peak album, but it marks something—a moment when this specific configuration of four musicians found something together before it dissolved. Edwards would leave soon after, and the Ware Quartet would become something else. For listeners who know Ware's output, this one deserves attention for what it is: a quartet's last statement in its original form.
Who's playing
Where next?
More by David S. Ware
Live in Sant’Anna Arresi, 2004 2016
Go See the World 1998
Organica (solo saxophones, volume 2)
Surrendered 2000
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
