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William Parker - Matthew Shipp: Re-Union
by Karl Ackermann
Matthew Shipp and William Parker are in a space which they arrived at more or less together. The pair first recorded together with the quartet on David S. Ware's Great Bliss, Vol. 1 (Silkheart, 1991). Not long afterwards, in 1994, they released Zo, the first of their duo projects, on the now-defunct Rise label; it was reissued on Thirsty Ear in 2016 during Shipp's tenure as the label's artistic director. In a compact setting, that early effort allowed listeners a ...
Continue ReadingWilliam Parker: Mayan Space Station & Painters Winter
by Eric Gudas
"Ungentrified funk": that's how William Parker characterized the music of his Mayan Space Station ensemble after a Zoom-transmitted performance—plus Q&A session— in the summer of 2020. Like Duke Ellington and Cecil Taylor—the latter whose group he played with in the 1980s—the protean Parker has become a genre unto himself. Parker's brand of funk has deep musical and cultural roots in the 1970s loft jazz scene, which thrived in the (then) as-yet-ungentrified neighborhoods of Soho and the Lower East Side. For ...
Continue ReadingTwo William Parker Trios
by Jerome Wilson
The prolific bassist and composer William Parker has been making music with groups of all sizes and configurations for decades, Here are two new releases featuring him in wildly divergent trios. William Parker Painters Winter AUM Fidelity 2021 On this CD Parker teams up with two long-time associates, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter and drummer Hamid Drake. Parker has been working with Carter since the '80s in the group Other Dimensions in Music ...
Continue ReadingWilliam Parker: Mayan Space Station
by Mark Corroto
The immediate impact of the recording Mayan Space Station is that of a sheer out-and-out physicality presented by this music. While it is obvious the musicians—guitarist Ava Mendoza, bassist William Parker and drummer Gerald Cleaver—are engaged in the nonautomatic operation of their respective musical instruments, their Herculean efforts are conspicuous. While rarely recognized, credit must be given to engineer Jim Clouse who recorded, mixed and mastered this session to center the listening experience on the band's energy. ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis: Jesup Wagon
by Mark Corroto
Most listeners have long since moved saxophonist James Brandon Lewis from the rising star category to one labeled virtuoso. But then, pianist Matthew Shipp signaled this status when he mentored Lewis early on and certainly bassist William Parker ordained his arrival by recording with the saxophonist on his major label debut, Divine Travels (Okeh, 2014). Parker returns for this latest release, as does drummer Chad Taylor who can be heard on the quartet recording Molecular (Intakt Records, 2020) and two ...
Continue ReadingJames Brandon Lewis & Red Lily Quintet: Jesup Wagon
by Vic Albani
Erano anni che il jazz attendeva un lavoro come questo. Splendido nella totale sua interezza, capace di riportare “il jazz nel jazz" dopo tanti anni e tante nuove incisioni che i critici hanno valutato con attenzione e spesso incensate come lo sforzo creativo del guardare avanti, pur “rimanendo nobilmente avvinghiati alla tradizione" e via di conserva. Potremmo analizzare a lungo il jazz contemporaneo ma davanti a dischi come questo è ovvio riflettere e considerare ciò che in ...
Continue ReadingSteve Swell: Astonishments
by John Pietaro
Among the trombonists of New York's downtown scene, or uptown for that matter, no one even comes close to Steve Swell. His level of artistry, ability to create within any sonic cloud, compositional strengths and sheer fortitude set a new standard decades ago. Deemed a veteran of the new music that tore up the 1970s and '80s, Swell has, too, been a tireless voice within new millennial jazz and free circles. The music industry has never acknowledged the music of ...
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