In 1965, Burrell moved to New York City, where he worked and recorded with Grachan Moncur III, Marion Brown, and Pharoah Sanders.[2] He also started the Untraditional Jazz Improvisational Team with saxophonist Byard Lancaster, bassist Sirone, and drummer Bobby Kapp.[1] In 1968, Burrell co-founded The 360 Degree Music Experience with Grachan Moncur III and Beaver Harris[1] and recorded two albums with the group. The following year, Burrell began an association with Archie Shepp,[1] with whom he would play the 1969 Pan-African Festival in Algiers,[4] and with whom he would go on to record nearly twenty albums.
In 1978 he composed a jazz opera entitled Windward Passages, in collaboration with Swedish poet and lyricist Monika Larsson, with an album of the same name, based on the opera, released in 1979 on Hathut in Switzerland. Their touring and recording collaborations resulted in Daybreak (1989), Brother to Brother (1992), In Concert (1992), and Windward Passages (1993). Burrell appears on Murray's DIW albums Lovers, Deep River, Ballads, Spirituals, Tenors, Remembrances, and Picasso, recorded between 1988 and 1993.
Burrell tours and performs as a soloist and as a leader of a duo, trio, and larger ensembles. He recorded for the High Two label from Philadelphia. His 2004 album Expansion (with bassist William Parker and drummer Andrew Cyrille) was acclaimed by NPR, Down Beat, Village Voice, JazzTimes, The Wire, and others. Splasc Records (Italy) released a studio solo piano recording, Margy Pargy in 2005. In 2006, Burrell released Consequences, a live duet set with Medeski, Martin & Wood drummer Billy Martin, and Momentum, featuring bassist Michael Formanek and drummer Guillermo E. Brown. RAI Trade (Italy) recorded a concert of Burrell and Larsson's collaborations, Dave Burrell Plays His Songs, featuring singer Leena Conquest, which was released in 2010.
In 2022, it was announced that Burrell had donated his archive to the Center for American Music in the University of Pittsburgh Library System.[5]
With Bertrand Gauthier (drums), Michel Gladieux (double bass), Ron Miller (mandolin, double bass), Roscoe Mitchell (reeds), Don Moye (drums), Alan Silva (violin, cello, electric cello)
^ abcdefgFeather, Leonard; Gitler, Ira (1999). "Burrell, Dave (Herman Davis II)". The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 96.
