Dave McMurray: The musician’s musician goes fan to fan

Lend him your ear and you might quickly find yourself saying, "Here, just take it."

For weeks, we've been itching to share our enthusiasm about Dave McMurray's latest album, I Know About Love (2011), which we've been playing on pretty heavy rotation.  We had the privilege to speak with the supremely talented saxophonist and Detroit native late last month, and we discussed his influences, the diverse constellation of incredible artists he's worked with, and how he plans to win a spot in your album rotation.  Read on!

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  "First Night in Africa" – I Know about Love (2011)

JazzTonic: Can you talk a bit about what you set out to accomplish with this album?

Dave McMurray: When I set out to do the record, I wanted to make it a darker album with a groove to it that was hypnotic, and I wanted to make an album you could listen to from the first song to the last. A lot of records have a stray song or two that throws the whole concept out the window. I wanted this album to be a tight package from front to back.

JT: Do you write all your music?

DM: Most of the songs on I Know About Love I cowrote with Herschel Boone – I've been writing with him for years.  I usually come up with the concept melody-wise and subject-wise, and then we take it from there.

JT: Who have you worked with during your career?

DM: I've asked Marcus Miller to play with me on my last three albums, and he graciously did it. He definitely hooked it up.

I've been playing with Bob James for about 10 years. When I was signed to my first deal at Warner Brothers, I produced a couple songs on his records.  I grew up listening to his music, so I'd write stuff I thought he'd like to play on.  

Kem, I've known him since he was about 18, and he was always super talented. You know years ago, he sounded sort of like Prince – that was one of his main influences at that time. I lost touch with him for a few years, and I actually saw him again when he was working at a restaurant. On my last album I covered Roy Ayers' "Searching", and Kem did the vocals. 

George Duke is just one of my favorites. He's a person I really didn't know, that I just reached out to cold. It took a few months for him to get back to me, but once he did, we got together and recorded not too long after. He's one of those people I knew and followed before he got a big following. I followed him back when he was playing with Frank Zappa, then all of a sudden he made a hit, and everybody knew his name. (laughs) It's always cool to be of the first to know about a great musician like that.

JT: What production work have you done for other artists?

DM: I used to play with Was (Not Was), and we had a song out called "Walk the Dinosaur". I did production work for that group, and through that association I started working with a lot of different people.  I did some work on an Elton John song for a Disney album. I did a great song for Bob James that was nominated for a Grammy – I think David Sanborn won that year.  McMurray was a producer on James' Grammy-nominated 1999 album Joy Ride. Sanborn won the Best Contemporary Jazz Album award for Inside that year.

JT: Can you talk a little bit about your career to date? How did you start playing music, and how did your professional career unfold?

DM: There were no musicians in my immediate family, but there was definitely lot of music around the house. My older brother wanted to play sax. At one point he came home with a little song flute he had to learn to play. Of course since I was his little brother, I wanted to do what he did, so I picked it up and just had a knack for playing. A couple years later in school, when they asked whether anyone could play an instrument, I spoke up. I went from the clarinet to the sax to the flute, so I knew i was going do something in the arts.

I went to Wayne State and got a degree in psychology and Urban Studies, then became a substitute teacher for a while. But because I come from a family of educators, I knew becoming a full-time teacher was a serious commitment – I knew it was nothing to play with. So I decided to pursue music. 

JT: Where can we see you live? Are you on tour?

I did a show recently in Detroit, and at the beginning of February, I'm going to Japan to do a show.  I've been over there a lot, but never playing my own music. After that I'm going to do a record release in Chicago – I'm just trying to get my music in front of as many people as I can.

For the last four years I've been playing with Kid Rock – you know we're both from Detroit. I did a solo on this record named "Roll On."  While we were recording, he told me to imagine what it would be like to play the solo on stage, with the spotlight shining on me. He called me up after that to do David Letterman with him, and after that, I started touring with him.  

JT: What was it like growing up in Detroit?

DM: I still live in Detroit, and I pretty much know everybody. What's cool about Detroit is that we had this big melting pot of music. We have a big jazz tradition, a big R&B and soul connection, a big rock connection, so I'd get to play R&B gigs and rock gigs. Musically, it was definitely great being here.

JT: What's next for you musically?

DM: I'm going to be back in the studio sometime soon.  Lately I've been going over songs I didn't finish, and listening to finished songs I didn't use for this last record. I recorded a lot of music for this last album, but it was already an hour-long record with 16 songs, so I guess I had to cut it off somewhere. (laughs)

JT: You've worked with so many other artists. How do you continue to find your own audience?

DM: That's actually a work in progress. It's weird – most of my success with my projects has been overseas. The UK has been great. The first couple records I did were with a company based in London, so I would go twice a year to play, and that's been my big audience. In the States, I've played a lot with Bob James. He always puts my name on the marquee, so that's been a great way to establish a presence as a musician even when we play together.  With Kid Rock, the music and fans were a totally different world.

This year i'm jumping back into doing my own music, and now I'm going fan by fan.  - ART, February 2012