I first heard David Murray back in the late 80s or early 90s when his quartet was playing behind Amiri Baraka's poetry reading. He's amazingly Birdlike in his ability to form dizzying flights of improv and yet land on his feet on the beat. I believe he's in the first rank of currently active players, up there with James Carter, say. And he even did a record of Grateful Dead tunes (not his best, I'm afraid, but a noble try).