Jazz
Out Of Your Head Records · 28 August 2026
According to Marty Ehrlich, Julius Hemphill (1939–1995) left forty known pieces for saxophone quartet, written between 1978 and 1989 for the World Saxophone Quartet. The quartet recorded two thirds of them; Ehrlich found the rest after the composer’s death, going through the scores held by Hemphill’s publisher, Subito Music. “Open Air: The Complete Saxophone Quartet Compositions Of Julius Hemphill” brings all forty together. Ehrlich, who also produced it, recorded them in 2025 with four different line-ups, featuring Rob DeBellis, Lisa Parrott, Jeff Lederer, Andy Laster, Brian Landrus, Allan Chase and Jason Robinson.
It came out on 28 August on Out Of Your Head Records (OOYH 047), digitally and as a double CD limited to 500 copies, and runs to forty-two tracks, from “Open Air (for Tommy)” to “Void”. “What I Know Now” comes from the 1997 recording by Hemphill’s sextet, “At Dr. King’s Table”, courtesy of New World Records. Ehrlich adds that once Hemphill’s archive had been established at New York University, around 2020, he set out to produce complete editions of the music. Only five tracks are streaming on his Bandcamp, where the previous release is “Cartographies of Flight: Lines Set Afloat Towards Hope” (24 April 2026). The cover is a 1978 painting by Oliver Lee Jackson.
Text by Aina Torrents