''Proverbs and Songs'' is a

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track or cassette), or digital. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th centur ...

by the English saxophonist

John Surman John Douglas Surman (born 30 August 1944) is an English jazz saxophone, Clarinet family, clarinet, and synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, often using themes from folk music. He has composed and performed music for danc ...

recorded at

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Church of England, Anglican cathedral in the city of Salisbury, England. The cathedral is regarded as one of the leading examples of Early English architecture, ...

on June 1, 1996 with organist

John Taylor John Taylor, Johnny Taylor or similar is the name of: Academics *John Taylor (Oxford), Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, 1486–1487 * John Taylor (classical scholar) (1704–1766), English classical scholar *John Taylor (English publisher) ...

and the 75-strong Salisbury Festival Chorus and released on

ECM ECM may refer to the following: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Lenstra's Elliptic curve method for factor ...

the following year, consisting a suite of choral settings of Old Testament texts.

Background

It was nominated for the

Mercury Music Prize The Mercury Prize, formerly called the Mercury Music Prize, is an annual Music award, music prize awarded for the best album released by a musical act from the Music of the United Kingdom, United Kingdom or Music of Ireland, Ireland. It was cre ...

in 1998. Surman performed the suite several times after the 1996 performance.

Reception

The ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

'' review awarded the album 2.5 stars." John Surman ''Proverbs and Songs''"
''Allmusic''. Retrieved November 7, 2011

Alyn Shipton Alyn Shipton (born 24 November 1953) is an English jazz author, presenter, critic, and jazz bassist. Early life Shipton became interested in jazz in his youth and formally studied cello, but also played double bass in a school jazz band. He pl ...

wrote that Surman's "unaccompanied choral writing was rich and unusual and elsewhere the sense of jazz rhythm and forward motion came almost exclusively from his saxophone, creating rich ostinatos, or swirling aggressively among the choral parts."

Track listing

:''All music by John Surman; all lyrics from the Old Testament'' # "Prelude" - 3:11 # "The Sons" - 4:55 # "The Kings" - 6:41 # "Wisdom" - 7:39 # "Job" - 4:50 # "No Twilight" - 7:42 # "Pride" - 5:00 # "The Proverbs" - 4:06 # "Abraham Arise!" - 5:24

Personnel

– soprano and baritone saxophones, bass clarinet *

– organ *Howard Moody – conductor ** Salisbury Festival Chorus

References

{{Authority control ECM Records live albums John Surman albums 1997 albums