Jeff Parker is greatest identified to rock followers as a key member of the Chicago post-rock ensemble Tortoise, somebody who provides a rigour, virtuosity and high-gloss to their proggy instrumentals. However he’s additionally spent greater than three a long time exploring many various kinds of music. The Chicago scene from which Parker emerged within the Nineteen Nineties was characterised by uncommon collaborations between musicians from totally different genres, all taking part in collectively in odd combos. In addition to working with Tortoise, Parker would discover himself taking part in common classes with the minimalist gumbri participant Joshua Abrams, digital explorers Isotope 217 and numerous free jazz musicians, together with the likes of trumpeters Rob Mazurek and Jaimie Department, saxophonist Matana Roberts and drummers Hamid Drake, Chad Taylor and Makaya McCraven.
Parker relocated to Los Angeles round a decade in the past, the place he has discovered himself on the nexus of a burgeoning scene which is, in its personal method, as various as Chicago’s, the place members of bands like Brilliant Eyes, Grizzly Bear and Shabazz Palaces would possibly rub shoulders with genre-transcending musicians akin to Carlos Nino, Miguel Atwood Ferguson, Nate Mercereau and Laaraji.
In 2018 Parker began a weekly Monday-night residency at a small venue in LA’s Highland Park suburb known as the Enfield Tennis Academy with three like-minded associates – Australian bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Jay Bellerose and alto saxophonist Josh Johnson. Till the venue closed in late 2023, the quartet would play every Monday evening in entrance of round 50-100 individuals, first taking part in jazz requirements and bebop tunes, and ultimately taking part in prolonged improvisations that would final something from 10 minutes to an hour in size.
This complete album was recorded at a kind of classes in January 2023, in entrance of an viewers. Solely the primary monitor right here was pre-written: Parker’s 24-minute opener “Freakadelic” begins with him and alto saxophonist Josh Johnson taking part in an angular melody in unison, one which dimly resembles the Brecker Brothers’ “Some Skunk Funk”, over a rock-solid funk bassline by Butterss, earlier than spinning out into a chunk of psychedelic free improvisation. The opposite three tracks are collective improvisations.
Parker isn’t a flashy, freak-out guitarist. There are touches of Metheny-style virtuosity in every thing he does, however he normally performs to a ruthless harmonic logic, one which comes from listening carefully to what his bandmates are doing. Quite a lot of his work has been about utilizing repetition creatively, and that is very a lot how this ensemble engages as a unit. Parker, Butterss or Johnson will begin each bit with a easy riff which is repeated, imitated and tweaked till it gives the spark for ruminative improvisations, the temper normally dictated by Bellerose, who usually begins songs taking part in in a textural and delicate method earlier than slowly shifting into extra insistent beats, just like the brushed post-rock drums on “Late Autumn” or the creepy bossa nova beat that pulses by means of “Simple Manner Out”.
What’s generally tough to consider is that that is a completely reside album, recorded by engineer Bryce Gonzales, who arrange 4 microphones and fed them right into a two-track mixer, mixing the band in actual time. All 4 musicians use results items, however none had been utilized in post-production or within the combine – all are being deployed in actual time. Saxophonist Josh Johnson usually performs by means of a digital harmoniser, which generally makes him play in fourths (on the primary monitor), in thirds (on “Late Autumn”) and in octaves (on “Simple Manner Out”). Typically the harmoniser makes his instrument sound like some eerie cyborg, half human musician, half digital assemble. Parker’s guitar is usually put by means of loop pedals, or digital delay: on the opening monitor his mild arpeggios begin to sound like a Javan gamelan; elsewhere he seems like an organ drone.
On “Chrome Dome”, what begins as an unaccompanied sax solo quickly develops right into a full-on piece of dub reggae, with Butterss’s double bass digging deep into sub-bass territory and Jay Bellerose’s drum equipment slowly turning into shrouded in reverb, as if recreating Lee “Scratch” Perry’s Black Ark in actual time, all flaring snare drums and echo-drenched hi-hats.
It’s attainable that this quartet may not play collectively once more for a very long time, particularly with no common residency. Anna Butterss just lately launched an acclaimed solo album and excursions with the likes of Jason Isbell and Phoebe Bridgers; Jay Bellerose’s many common engagements consists of being a member of Robert Plant and Alison Krauss’s touring band, whereas Jay Johnson works with the likes of Leon Bridges, Meshell Ndegeocello, Harry Kinds and the Pink Sizzling Chilli Peppers. It implies that this LP may function a doc of an improvising four-piece at its greatest.
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