Sacred Ground is an album by David Murray

David Murray (jazz musician)

David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...

 released on the Justin Time label. Recorded in 2006 and released in 2007 the album features performances by Murray, Lafayette Gilchist, Ray Drummond

Ray Drummond

Ray Drummond is a jazz bassist and teacher. He also has an MBA from Stanford University, hence his linkage to the Stanford Jazz Workshop...

, and Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Cyrille

Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...

 which were composed for the soundtrack for Marco Williams

Marco Williams

Marco Williams is a documentary filmmaker and professor of film production at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. His films have received several awards, including the Gotham Documentary Achievement Award for and he has been nominated three times for the Sundance Film Festival grand...

' film Banished

Banished (film)

Banished is a 2007 documentary film about four U.S. cities, which were part of many communities that violently forced African American families to flee in post-reconstruction America. In incidents which took place in Texas, Missouri, Georgia and Indiana between 1886 and 1923...

(2007) on American counties in the South and Midwest that expelled blacks between Reconstruction and the Great Depression. The album features Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson

Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...

 on two tracks singing lyrics composed by Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Reed

Ishmael Scott Reed is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. A prominent African-American literary figure, Reed is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture, and highlighting political and cultural oppression.Reed has been described as one of the most controversial...

.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Thom Jurek awarded the album 4 stars stating "Sacred Ground is a journey in time, space, and sound, one rooted in all the lineages, and yet it is a further benchmark of Murray's own decidedly marked place within it, even as it points both forward and back -- just like Reed's writing and Wilson's singing.".

Track listing

1. "Sacred Ground" (Murray, Reed
   Ishmael Reed
   Ishmael Scott Reed is an American poet, essayist, and novelist. A prominent African-American literary figure, Reed is known for his satirical works challenging American political culture, and highlighting political and cultural oppression.Reed has been described as one of the most controversial...
   
   ) - 8:52
2. "Transitions" - 12:04
3. "Pierce City" - 9:05
4. "Banished" - 5:46
5. "Believe in Love" - 10:41
6. "Family Reunion" - 7:17
7. "The Prophet of Doom" (Murray, Reed) - 11:20

All compositions by David Murray except as indicated

• Recorded October 20–21, 1997

Personnel

• David Murray
  David Murray (jazz musician)
  David Murray is an American jazz musician. Murray plays mainly tenor saxophone and sometimes bass clarinet. He has recorded prolifically for many record labels since the mid-1970s.-Biography:...
  
   - tenor saxophone, bass clarinet
• Lafayette Gilchist - piano
• Ray Drummond
  Ray Drummond
  Ray Drummond is a jazz bassist and teacher. He also has an MBA from Stanford University, hence his linkage to the Stanford Jazz Workshop...
  
   - bass
• Andrew Cyrille
  Andrew Cyrille
  Andrew Charles Cyrille is an avant-garde jazz drummer.Cyrille was born in Brooklyn, New York into a family with a mother from Haiti. He began studying science at St...
  
   - drums
• Cassandra Wilson
  Cassandra Wilson
  Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...
  
  - vocals (track 1 & 7)