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J.D. Parran
Parran spent his college years in the St. Louis, Missouri area, where he attended Webster University and received an M.A. degree in music education from Washington University in St. Louis. While a university student, he joined the Black Artists' Group along with Hamiet Bluiett and others. He has lived in New York since 1971, and has served as chairman of the music department and the director of Jazz and African American Music Studies at The Harlem School of the Arts. He also teaches at the City University of New York and Greenwich House Music School.
Parran has recorded with Stevie Wonder and John Lennon. For fifteen years he was a member of the experimental woodwind trio New Winds (with Robert Dick and Ned Rothenberg, and is a longtime member of Anthony Davis's Episteme ensemble. He also performs and records with Anthony Braxton's ensembles and has collaborated with Leroy Jenkins, Hamiet Bluiett, Douglas Ewart, John Lindberg, Peter Brötzmann, and the free improvisation group Company, which included Derek Bailey, Jon Corbett, Hugh Davies, Jamie Muir, Evan Parker, Vinko Globokar, and Joëlle Léandre.
In addition to over 45 recordings as a sideman or collaborator, he has released one recording as leader: J. D. Parran & Spirit Stage (2002).
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Andrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by C. Michael Bailey
Dusk was only the beginning to this part of the story...I cannot listen to Andrew Hill’s new big band recording without thinking of him and his band as a relatively well-behaved Sam Rivers and the Rivbea Big Band. Of course, that horribly shortchanges the 65 year-old Chicago native who’s Palmetto debut, Dusk, was considered by many critics as the best jazz recording on the year. Add to that that Blue Note’s Alfred Lion considered Hill his last great ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by Jack Bowers
"There is plenty going on," designated cheerleader Stanley Crouch informs the reader, on composer / pianist Andrew Hill's latest album, A Beautiful Day, which showcases Hill's sixteen-piece big band in a concert performance last January at New York's famed Birdland nightclub. “With a vision given to great plasticity," Crouch writes, “[Hill] has found his own ways to reinterpret 4/4 swing, the blues, the romantic or meditative ballad, and the Afro-Hispanic rhythms that have almost invariably connected one generation of Jazz ...
Continue ReadingAndrew Hill: A Beautiful Day
by Jon Wagner
Sometimes a live recording captures the dynamism and vibe of a band that's really “on." In ideal situations, the musical energy is obvious right off the bat, continues throughout the set, and winds up on a disc. The listener thinks: “Man, I would love to have been at that gig." Andrew Hill's new release A Beautiful Day is one of those recordings. Hill is a pianist who's been around for a long time and played in many different ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Jack Bowers
Ken Peplowski, who has done some experimenting of late within the big-band and classical spheres, comes home to a straight-ahead quartet groove for Grenadilla, on which he plays only clarinet (grenadilla is the name of the wood from which the world's finest clarinets are made). This is clarinet all the way, with Peplowski's group augmented by guests Kenny Davern ("Farewell Blues"), Marty Ehrlich ("Copi," “The Reconsidered Blues," “Variations," “The Soul in the Wood"), J. D. Parran and Scott Robinson ("Variations"). ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Robert Spencer
Here clarinetist extraordinaire Ken Peplowski takes on some challenges: alongside his sidemen pianist Ben Aronov, bassist Greg Cohen, and drummer Chuck Redd, are guests Howard Alden on acoustic and electric guitars (on five tracks), Marty Ehrlich on clarinet and bass clarinet (four tracks), Kenny Davern on clarinet ("Farewell Blues"), and Scott Robinson on alto clarinet and J. D. Parran on contrabass clarinet ("Variations"). Ehrlich and Parran have played in recent years with Anthony Braxton, and are not quite the guests ...
Continue ReadingKen Peplowski: Grenadilla
by Jim Santella
Ken Peplowski shares his clarinet artistry on Grenadilla, his 15th album as leader for Concord Records; the title comes from the particular type of wood used in making most clarinets. Working with the mainstream piano trio of Ben Aronov, bassist Greg Cohen and drummer Chuck Redd, Peplowski presents an eclectic session. Guitarist Howard Alden guests on five songs and several clarinet virtuosos appear elsewhere. Peplowski works with Scott Robinson, Marty Ehrlich, and J.D. Parran on Greg Cohen's composed piece “Variations" ...
Continue ReadingJazz this week: J.D. Parran & George Sams, "New World Harmonica Jazz," Chapter:SOUL, Chick Corea Trio, and more
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
This week's calendar of jazz and creative music in St. Louis offers some early summer eclecticism, including a homecoming performance by one of our city's exemplars of the avant-garde; a couple of free, multi-venue festivals featuring a variety of local talent; sold-out shows featuring two touring pianists, and, as the saying goes, much, much more. Let's go the the highlights... Wednesday, June 15 Saxophonist Doug Lawrence leads a quartet in a free show at Saxquest; Cabaret Project St. Louis presents ...
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Jazz This Week: The Wee Trio, Take 6, J.D. Parran and George Sams, Scott Kirby, Charlie Hunter and Scott Amendola, and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
With spring appearing finally to have sprung here in St. Louis, it should be a fine weekend to get out and hear some live jazz and creative music, and fortunately, our local stages will be filled with intriguing possibilities. Let's go to the highlights... Tonight, Good 4 The Soul plays their monthly gig at BB's Jazz, Blues & Soups; Washington University's jazz studies students will perform a free concert to wrap up this semester's Jazz at Holmes series; the Lemp ...
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Jazz This Week: Joey Defrancesco, Peter Martin and Jeremy Davenport, J.D. Parran, Craig Hultgren, and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Warmer weather is in the forecast for St. Louis, but before you make plans to spend the whole weekend outdoors, you also may want to check out what's coming coming up in jazz and creative music over the next few days.Tonight, organist Joey DeFrancesco begins a four-night engagement at Jazz at the Bistro. There's always been an enthusiastic audience for bluesy, organ-driven jazz in St. Louis, and in the past DeFrancesco has proven to be a good draw ...
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Notes from the Net: On the Corner Reexamined; Osby, Harrold on Tour; Parran Live in NYC; Plus News, Interviews and More
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St. Louis Jazz Notes by Dean Minderman
Here's the latest compilation of assorted news briefs and links related to jazz, improvisation, and creative music in St. Louis, including news of musicians originally from the Gateway City, recent visitors, and coming attractions, plus assorted other items of interes* On the Miles Davis beat, Howard Mandel had a couple of pertinent posts recently on his Jazz Beyond Jazz blog - one covering an NYC performance of music from the recent concept album Miles From India at Iridium ...
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New CD from JD Parran and Mark Deutsch Coming November 7th
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Improvised Communications
Y'All of New York, Inc. is proud to announce the November 7th release of Omegathorp: Living City (Y'All 008), a new CD documenting a September 2002 Merkin Hall performance co-led by multi-reedist/composer JD Parran and string player/composer Mark Deutsch. Thomas Buckner (voice), David Darling (cello, electronics, electro-vocals), Joseph Kubera (piano) and Kevin Norton (percussion) round out the ensemble on Omegathorp: Living City, which features Parran's four-part title composition (a setting of poetry by the late Glenn Spearman), as well as ...
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