Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Evan Parker / September Winds: Short Stories

Evan Parker / September Winds: Short Stories

By Kurt Gottschalk
March 5, 2006
View read count

Evan Parker / September Winds: Short Stories

For British saxophonist Evan Parker, as well as for the horn quintet September Winds, Short Stories is an unexpected record. Parker has excelled in long-form explorations for decades and with September Winds he has focused on site-specific journeys. The band plays in museums, industrial buildings, exposition halls and even a thermal bath in Switzerland. Their first release, Alder Brook (Leo, 2003), was recorded in a water cistern and a chapel.

Here, however, they retire to the confines of a Swiss studio for this set of 23 pieces, few more than three minutes long. The group focuses more on structure than soloing, and the small vignettes are—like a collection of short fiction—concise and varied: some bluesy, some abstract, some pointed, some smooth. This comes not just from egoless playing. The compositions were built in a variety of ways: by the suggestion of a word or phrase; by deliberate combinations of instruments or players; or by setting dynamic parameters. The surprising part of it is that the brief pieces never seem incomplete. Rather, they're like little windows into possible musics—like short stories that are good enough to be novels but still stand on their own.

Track Listing

Tracks 1-23.

Personnel

Evan Parker

saxophone, soprano

Peter A. Schmid, Evan Parker, Jurg Solothurnmann, Reto Senn: reeds.

Album information

Title: Short Stories | Year Released: 2006 | Record Label: Leo Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Persistencia
< Previous

Kresten Osgood: Violet Violets & Whe...
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.