1997 · Album
Homework
Recorded May 1994, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania · Super Secret Sound · Produced by Not credited
Three Musicians Finding Their Groove in Real Time
Murray is no less relentless, and his signature musicality shines when drums blend with Dickie's bass clarinet.
Homework puts you in a room with three players who are listening hard to each other. Sunny Murray's drums are sharp and conversational, not overpowering — he's laying down texture and shape rather than just keeping time. Bob Dickie's bass clarinet has a woody, warm voice that sits in the middle register, and it trades phrases with the drums like they're having an argument that both sides are enjoying. Robert Andreano's guitar is attentive and responsive, filling spaces without crowding the sound. The session has a live energy that feels unrushed; these are three people working out what happens when they play together, and you're hearing their actual problem-solving.
Murray came into this recording with decades of free jazz behind him — work with Cecil Taylor, Albert Ayler, and others who pushed against conventional form. But on Homework, he's tailoring his playing to fit with Dickie and Andreano rather than dominating the space. He's still restless and full of small eruptions, but he's listening. The DownBeat reviewer Herb Boyd caught something important: Valerie Wilmer once noted that Murray had the gift of making whoever he played with rise to the occasion, and that's exactly what happens here. Andreano steps up. Dickie meets him halfway. The three of them build something that feels earned, not arrived at.
This is a live document from May 1994 in Philadelphia, released three years later on a small label. It's not a masterpiece that changed jazz history, but it's a strong, honest snapshot of three musicians who knew how to listen and who weren't afraid of silence or awkwardness. If you want to hear Murray in his later years still engaged and curious, this is the place.
