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Evan Parker


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6 hours ago, mjazzg said:

Yep.  Wilson, Van and EP.  All artists whose music I hold in very high regard, all apparently have swivel-eyed tendencies.  I'll continue to play their music but they'll be a bad taste. 

I was all set to buy the upcoming EP this morning but actually held back after listening to the Son d'Hiver clip (of which I thought the musical element was great) as I'm not sure I want to put money his way right at the moment.  I'll probably weaken.

I also thought this EP soprano solo was quite good as far as these things go (all his circular breathing soprano solos of the last 30 years or so sound the same to me), and the interview snippets are unnecessary, although their content (if you reign your imagination so that you do not "hear" what actually is not there) I find quite innocent. I have not bought any EP music for a long time, and don't have much interest in it (well, I like his tenor playing) - regardless of his views. At the least, I am grateful to him for the Psi imprint - I remember him mentioning that his motivation for starting the label was that he really wanted to put Gerd Dudek's (excellent) "Smatter" album out when nobody else was interested.       

Edited by Д.Д.
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On jollier Parker "news", I hadn't realised he plays on 90s British comedian Vic Reeves' album I Will Cure You.

R-828043-1162930826.jpeg.jpg

He has a long solo on "Oh, Mr Songwriter", half way through which Reeves, supposedly out of hearing, shouts "PACK IT IN, PARKER!".

Edit: Ha! Han Bennink's on it too. They're on a couple of tracks. The whole thing was produced by Steve Beresford.

Here it is: at 1:55. https://youtu.be/wjkyrI2NukM

Edited by Rabshakeh
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9 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

On jollier Parker "news", I hadn't realised he plays on 90s British comedian Vic Reeves' album I Will Cure You.

R-828043-1162930826.jpeg.jpg

He has a long solo on "Oh, Mr Songwriter", half way through which Reeves, supposedly out of hearing, shouts "PACK IT IN, PARKER!".

Edit: Ha! Han Bennink's on it too. They're on a couple of tracks. The whole thing was produced by Steve Beresford.

Here it is: at 1:55. https://youtu.be/wjkyrI2NukM

Parker and Reeves (Jim Moir) both live around here which partly explains the association. 

 

McCartney has a place round here too, come to that, but I’ve never figured out where. And he’s not on the Vic Reeves record. Probably. 

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I’ve never talked to him about politics but in this interview he identifies as a left-Brexiteer (like Corbyn or before him Tony Benn).

 

I didn’t listen to the words in the link but I sampled it for the playing which I thought was a cut above. If he’s been saying anything about immigration I haven’t yet seen it. I don’t really read the jazz press. 

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"what's left of the neo-left" ~ collective calls (urban) 1972

 

Very much looking forward to this. Kevin Gray cut, RTI press. 

 

Natural Information Society with Evan Parker
Descension (Out of Our Constrictions)
eremite mte-74/75
x2 LP
release date 2021-04-16
LP pre-orders eremite.com
digital pre-orders bandcamp
video by Lisa Alvarado & JA
 
Joshua Abrams guimbri
Lisa Alvarado harmonium & effects
Mikel Patrick Avery drums
Evan Parker soprano saxophone
Jason Stein bass clarinet 
Rich in musical associations yet utterly singular in its voice, joyous with an inner tranquility, the music of Natural Information Society is unlike any other being made today. Their sixth album in eleven years for eremite records, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the first to be recorded live, featuring a set from London’s Cafe OTO with veteran English free-improv great Evan Parker, & the first to feature just one extended composition. The 75-minute performance, inspired by the galvanizing presence of Parker, is a sustained bacchanalia of collective ecstasy. You could call it their party album.
This was the second time Parker played with NIS. Joshua Abrams: “Both times we played compositions with Evan in mind. I don’t tell Evan anything. He’s a free agent.” 
The music is focused & malleable, energized & even-keeled, drawing on concepts of ensemble playing common to musics from many locations & eras without any one specific aesthetic realization completely defining it. 
“The rhythms that Mikel plays are not an exact reference to Chicago house, but that’s in there,” Abrams says. “I like to take a cyclic view of music history, can we take that four-on-the-floor, & consider how it connects to swing-era music? Can we articulate a through line? I dee-jayed for years in Chicago & lessons I learned from playing records for dancing inform how I think about the group’s music. The listener can make connections to aspects of soul music, electronic music, minimalism, traditional folk musics, & other musics of the diaspora as well. It’s about these aspects coming together. I don’t need to mimic something, I need to embody it to get to the spirit, to get to the living thing.”
For jazz fans, the sound of Parker’s soprano & Jason Stein’s bass clarinet might evoke Coltrane & Dolphy, even though they didn’t necessarily set out to do that & they play with complete individuality. Abrams sees a bridge to the historical precedent, too. “Since we first met in the 1990s, one of the things that Evan and I connected on was Coltrane’s music,” he says. “I hoped that we would tap into that sound world intuitively. In this case, I think that level of evocation adds another layer of depth, versus a layer of reference.” 
Indeed, this is a performance in which the connections among the ensemble & the creative tension between improvisation and composition build into a complex mesh of associations & interactions. While the band confines itself to the territory mapped out by Abrams’ composition, they are remarkably attentive & responsive, making adjustments to Parker’s improvisations. When Parker’s intricate patterns of notes interweave with the band, the parts reinforce one another & the music rockets upward. Sometimes, Parker’s lines are cradled by the group’s gentle pulse & an unearthly lyrical balance is struck. 
Drummer Mikel Patrick Avery is locked-in, playing with hellacious long-form discipline, feel & responsiveness. Jason Stein’s animated, vocalized bass clarinet weaves in & out with Lisa Alvarado’s harmonium to state the piece’s thematic material; the pulsing tremolo on the harmonium brings a Spacemen 3 vibe to the party. Abrams ties together melody & rhythm on guimbri, a presence that leads without seeming to. Like his bandmates, he shifts modes of playing frequently, improvising & then returning to the composed structure.
“As specific as the composition is, the goal is to internalize it & mix it up,” Abrams says. “The idea is to get so comfortable that we can make spontaneous changes, find new routes of activity, stasis & byways every gig. It’s like a web we’re spinning. If someone makes a move, we all aim to be aware of it, make room for it. Experiencing & listening is what it’s about, & Evan supercharges that.”
& “supercharged” is the word for this album. With Parker further opening up their music, descension (Out of Our Constrictions) is the sound of Natural Information Society growing both more disciplined and freer, one of the great bands of its time on a deep run. 
x2LP, mte-74/75, pressed on premium audiophile-quality vinyl at RTI from Kevin Gray / Cohearent Audio lacquers. Mastered by Helge Sten, Audio Virus, Oslo. Liner Notes by Theaster Gates. First eremite LP edition 1200 copies. CD edition & EU x2LP edition available thru our new EU new partner, Aguirre records (Belgium).

 

 

4 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Wolter Wierbos!

FTFY:g

Edited by Paradiddle
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1 hour ago, David Ayers said:

I didn’t listen to the words in the link but I sampled it for the playing which I thought was a cut above. If he’s been saying anything about immigration I haven’t yet seen it. I don’t really read the jazz press. 

he doesn't say it in print, that's all I can mention here.

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  • 4 weeks later...
4 minutes ago, David Ayers said:

Which month’s issue is this? The latest on the website has the Lee Morgan cover...

Issue 261, April 2021. Gretchen Parlato cover.

8 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

I don't know why Daniel Spicer, who seems like a decent chap, even took this bit of click bait garbage on. Really makes me want to revise my opinion of him as well.

Presumably he sought it out, on the back of last month's release.

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  • 2 months later...

And Abbey Lincoln thought that The Beatles were an orchestrated conspiracy to kill jazz.

She was right about the "orchestrated conspiracy" part (for what is a mega-successful publicity/mega-marketing scheme if not exactly that?), but to kill jazz...probably not. Although I doubt anybody involved was shedding any tears as the audiences dried up. People are generally not that thoughtful, they just want their money wherever they can get it.

Oddly enough tho...I read an interview where Barry Harris alleges that one time Bird pissed off/insulted some millionaire who told him hey, fuck you Charlie Parker, you wait and see, I am going to spend the rest of my life killing jazz, you just wait and see, and then per Barry Harris, hey, it worked, because jazz died.

You hear all kinds of shit from all kinds of people, and how they get from Point A to Point D....sometimes Point B is kinda wobbly, and point C is moreso, if it exists at all.

 

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15 minutes ago, David Ayers said:

I guess EP has always had this side. His label is named after “Psi phenomena”. Discourses of hate and/or violence are one thing (Shepp? Gayle?); paranoid conspiracy theories without those things are a bit less harmful. 

Have you read the Wired article? Less harmful?

"The Nazi Roots Of The Brussels EU was co-written by a German (or possibly Dutch) doctor, Matthias Rath, and published by his Dr Rath Health Foundation, a large multinational organisation which manufactures and promotes vitamin pills which, it claims, can cure AIDS, cancer, heart disease and other illnesses. The foundation is known for launching aggressive media campaigns against the use of conventional medicines in the countries it operates."

"... which exposed the foundation’s activities in South Africa, where it campaigned against the distribution of anti-retroviral drugs to AIDS and HIV sufferers in the townships and ran illegal trials of its own supplements."

Edited by erwbol
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