WILLIAM PARKER QUARTET
Sound Unity
AUM
Sound Unity is the recording that
fans of the William Parker Quartet (and there are many)
have been awaiting ever since 2000’s O’Neal's
Porch, an album that listeners and critics fell over
themselves in praising upon its release. There’s good
reason for the excitement. Parker’s quartet (featuring
Parker, stalwart Parker collaborator, drummer Hamid Drake,
alto saxophonist Rob Brown, and trumpeter Lewis Barnes)
combines the folksy, elastic free jazz chemistry of Ornette
Coleman’s 1960 band with the muscular, drum riot-fueled
Blue Note hard bop era that immediately preceded Coleman’s
arrival on the scene. That sound is both notable for its
fusing of influences once thought at odds into a seamless
whole that sheds new light on jazz’s post-1960 history.
The long pieces that form this recording were
recorded live during performances in Vancouver and Montreal.
Done directly from the sound board, these are studio-quality
recordings, so there is no need to shy away from them for
fear of inferior sound quality. “Hawaii” is
written in honor of tenor saxophonist Frank Lowe, who died
of lung cancer. Lowe exemplified the ‘missing link’
between jazz/soul and hard bop, the sounds of Gene Ammons
and the avant-garde playing of Albert Ayler or late Coltrane.
The greatest players can play well both inside and outside
the tune. For example, Von Freeman is one tenor player who
comes instantly to mind. “Hawaii” pays homage
to this quality offering both Ornette ‘outside’
work and more bluesy, driving hard bop style playing as
well. “Wood Flute Song,” written for trumpeter
Don Cherry, is more searing and frenetic. Here the group
moves further outside, though Brown’s initial solo,
on which his alto sax takes on a purely vocal quality, helps
the listener keep his bearings.
Parker and his cronies possess the musical
telepathy, honed over years of working together and with
various other musicians, to make this music stick with conviction.
They are not deliberately opaque or abstract, they reserve
these as elements in their bag of musical tricks, but they
are only elements. It makes it impossible to embrace the
music on Sound Unity as being traditional and also impossible
to dismiss it as being completely ‘outside’
and too thickly textured. The title track, a twenty-one
minute piece is a call “to unite—unite, but
do not give up your individuality.” Parker and Drake
define a free, light, deep African dance rhythm groove,
over which Brown and Barnes tumble, bounce, and generally
perform with the grace and energy of gymnasts.
The tune “Harlem” really demonstrates
the abilities of this band to underscore and comment on
what other members are playing as well as of Parker’s
importance as a composer. The piece lies somewhere between
Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, and the Art Ensemble of
Chicago. Barnes plays a really well done solo, but Brown
really takes things to another dimension with his keening,
human-voiced alto work. Brown’s playing is so raw
and elemental, yet so elegant a statement, that one cannot
but marvel at his playing. Parker’s final number,
“Groove,” has a reggae/dub feel to it, and Brown
and Barnes rise to the occasions with their Island horn-section
interjections. Brown again takes an incredible solo, and
the concluding minutes highlight the very close musical
relationship between Parker and Drake.
Sound Unity marks a very solid return
for the William Parker Quartet. Now let’s hope that
it’s not another five years until their next release.
