Alan Braufman announces 1975 live album (April 8, 2022 Valley of Search)

ALAN BRAUFMAN ANNOUNCES NEW LIVE ALBUM FROM 1975

Live in New York City, February 8, 1975

VINYL / CD / DIGITAL PRE-ORDER

HEAR "CHANT" NOW

Today, Alan Braufman announces a new live album due on April 8, 2022. Live in New York City, February 8, 1975 is the recently unearthed recording of Braufman with his five-piece band, Cooper-Moore (piano, ashimba, recitation), William Parker (bass), John Clark (French horn), Jim Schapperow (drums) and Ralph Williams (percussion), in an early 1975 live radio session. Coupled with the album's announcement, Braufman shares the live version of his song "Chant" from Live in New York City album.

The 94-minute performance is spread over 5 album sides on 3 LPs and 2 CDs. Newly mastered with new liner notes by the host Susan Mannheimer. Live in New York City, February 8, 1975 will be available on vinyl, CD and to stream on April 8th via Valley of Search.

Live in New York City, February 8, 1975 was recorded soon after the recording of Braufman's debut album Valley of Search for the India Navigation Label and marks the first meeting for William Parker and Cooper-Moore, whose musical partnership has flourished ever since. Live in New York City arrives after 2020's reissue of The Fire Still Burns, the second album released under Alan's own name following 1975's Valley of Search.

Alan Braufman is an instrumental figure in New York City downtown culture. Born in Brooklyn, after studying at Berklee College of Music he moved to a vacant building at 501 Canal Street in Manhattan alongside several other musicians. Monthly rent at the time was $140 for a floor, and the space was transformed into a practice space and venue. This gritty, improvised set up in downtown Manhattan would blaze a trail for generations of creatives and set a do-it-yourself tradition for young jazz acts in the city that is followed to this day. During this period Alan recorded Valley of Search at 501 Canal Street, and released it with the label India Navigation. The album is a perfect snapshot of the energy and creativity of its era, and would come to achieve cult status. It was highly sought after by vinyl collectors, and in 2018 Alan reissued Valley of Search.

Live in New York City, February 8, 1975 vinyl

Alan Braufman

Live in New York City, February 8, 1975

Valley of Search

April 8, 2022

About Alan Braufman:

What we know of Downtown New York comes from the countercultural and creative flowering that emerged in lower Manhattan in the 1960s, attributable to cheap live-work spaces called lofts. These were often abandoned and disused small manufacturing spaces and they became a nexus for artistic practice and life. From a jazz perspective, lofts were alternatives to the club scene, and they gained notoriety in the 1970s. Places like Studio We, Studio Rivbea, The Ladies' Fort, Ali's Alley, and Environ became central in the development of the new music. But even the underground had an underground, and the happenings at 501 Canal Street on the West Side were a point of activity in which a small but dedicated number of people took part. In 1973 a cadre of free improvising musicians relocated from Boston to lower Manhattan: pianist Gene Ashton (now known as Cooper-Moore), bassist Chris Amberger, and saxophonists David S. Ware and Alan Braufman.

All had studied at Berklee College of Music, though they stood apart from most collegiate musicians. Ashton secured the building at 501 and the rent for the each of the four usable floors was $140 a month. The first floor became a performance space, while Ware and Braufman took the front and back of the second floor, respectively. Ashton was on the third floor with his young family, and Amberger was on the fourth. Later, drummer Tom Bruno and his partner, vocalist Ellen Christi would take Amberger's spot. Along with bassist David Saphra and drummer Ralph Williams, the Braufman-Ashton unit became the house band, rehearsing regularly and performing in the storefront.

Braufman was born in 1951 in Brooklyn and raised on Long Island, moving to Boston to attend Berklee in 1968. In his own words, he "started playing clarinet at eight; my mom was deeply into the music, so she would play Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Coltrane. It grabbed me - there was something exciting about it that I didn't hear in other music, so no matter what I was going to be a musician. When I was thirteen I got my first saxophone. I had a teacher who could teach me how to play but not how to improvise (which is what I wanted to do) so I had to figure it out. I didn't know changes, but I could pick out the patterns that were happening in free music and I could figure out what to do. I would teach myself patterns and scales, figure out some harmonics - I was self-taught until I got to Berklee."

Braufman's sound - "Alan had a huge sound on alto and voice that was his, and that was rare in a town where you had lots of young players coming up" (Cooper-Moore) - was immediately appealing and rooted in such forebears as Jackie McLean. In Boston, he made other connections, including drummer David Lee Jr.'s wife-to-be who ran the coat check at the Jazz Workshop. The saxophonist parlayed that into working lights at the venue and, more importantly, a friendship with Lee that resulted in the percussionist's place on this album. Braufman also sat in at the Jazz Workshop, which is how he met future mentor and collaborator Cecil McBee, whose partner Lucia, an artist, was also living in Boston - in this case, on the bandstand when the bassist was coming through town with Pharoah Sanders. Braufman later played on McBee's debut Strata-East LP Mutima, recorded in New York in May of 1974 and a precursor to the bassist's role in Valley of Search.

As Cooper-Moore tells it, "when we moved to 501 Canal Street... that's when I got to really play with Alan. When we started putting on concerts, we used the same musicians but [depending on the day it] would be either his band or my band. It was around that time Cecil Taylor did a concert at Carnegie Hall with his orchestra, and Gary Giddins, who was writing for the Voice, wrote very badly about David S. Ware. Tom Bruno was living at Canal Street then, along with Ellen Christi. Philip Polumbo, a bass player and painter, was living on the top floor, and they were all working at the Village Voice. Tom said, you know, 'we gonna get back at this guy Gary Giddins,' so they mimeographed these posters, little sheets about how Gary was an idiot and he couldn't hear, he really didn't know the music and he should come down to Canal Street sometime and hear what's going on there. So one week when it was Alan's band, Giddins showed up and reviewed us, and we got good press. He thought that the space was loud but the headline read 'Taking Chances at 501 Canal' and then people started coming." The article, in the June 13, 1974 issue of the Voice, discusses the music as it relates to figures like Taylor and Don Cherry, and notes the programs' "kaleidoscopic densities" and that Ashton and Braufman's linkage is what pushes the music forward.

Valley of Search is a document of the music at 501 Canal, but it's also a document of relationships - people who lived or worked together and were humanly close. Braufman met Bob Cummins, the founder of India Navigation Company, at a party at McBee's apartment in Harlem. The label had just been conceived, and Braufman would be its second artist. McBee, Lee, and Williams were obvious foils for their place in the saxophonist's work and life, the latter providing a bevy of instruments that he would later apply to work with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith. In late 1974, Cummins set up microphones in the building's storefront, documenting two short sets by the band with no alternate takes or additional cuts.

Invoking with a dulcimer and bowed bass drone undergirded by flits of percussion, Ashton chants the Bahá'í prayer "God sufficeth all things above all things, and nothing in the heavens or in the earth but God sufficeth, verily he is in himself the knower, the sustainer, the omnipotent. God sufficeth all things above all things..." granting the music's higher search a stirring, declaratory shout amid mountain strings. Soon, liquid alto keen, harried screams, and rhapsodic piano chunks edge a dense fracas toward the sharp, sinewy groove and foamy crests of the following movement. One would imagine that the music on this recording reflects the overall feel at 501; the compositions are among those that were in their book at the time, fleshed out with a powerful array of percussion, whistles, and cries, McBee's bass steadily thrumming and in counterpoint to burred, throaty alto and briskly twined piano.

When Bruno and Christi moved from the fourth floor down to the first, that was the end of performances as they had been at 501 Canal; Ashton relocated to his home state of Virginia soon after, before returning to New York in 1985 as Cooper-Moore. Braufman would go on to work with drummer William Hooker and his own more commercially-leaning groups (as Alan Michael) before relocating to Salt Lake City, where he resides today. Valley of Search has enjoyed a cult status among followers of this music, and it captures a unique and very alive historical slice of New York's creative improvised underground.

1. Announcements

2. Rainbow Warriors

3. Ark of Salvation

4. Little Nabil's March

5. Destiny

6. Ashimba

7. Chant

8. Thankfulness

9. Love Is For Real

10. Forshadow

11. Announcements 2

12. Emancipation (Cooper-Moore)

13. Tree Of Life

14. Bright Evenings

15. The Muse

16. A Tear And A Smile

17. O Nosso Amour

18. Sunrise

Alan Braufman - Alto saxophone, Flute

Cooper-Moore - Piano, ashimba, recitation

William Parker - Bass

John Clark - French horn

Jim Schapperoew - Drums

Ralph Williams - Percussion

Susan Mannheimer - Host

Recorded live at WBAI Studio C, New York February 8, 1975

Mastered by Joe Lambert

Art by Mike Zimmerman

PRE-ORDER

Ivo Perelman Quartet - Magic Dust (February 18, 2022 Mahakala Music)

In his ongoing search for a cosmic sound to expand the boundaries of the tenor saxophone , Brazilian Sound Wizard Ivo Perelman dialogues with Master Sound Magicians Christopher Parker , Chad Anderson and William Parker in a unforgettable tour de force performance.

1. Impromptu

2. The Way Of The Magician

3. Cardician

4. Magic Dust

Ivo Perelman - tenor saxophone

William Parker - bass, shakuhachi

Christopher Parker - piano

Chad Anderson - drums

PRE-ORDER

Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves, William Parker - Historic Music Past Tense Future (January 31, 2022 Black Editions)

Black Editions presents “Historic Music Past Tense Future,” the first ever album to feature the meeting of Peter Brötzmann, Milford Graves and William Parker. Three of the towering figures in the history of Free Jazz forge an incredibly vital free music born from lifetimes of uncompromising, ceaseless artistry. “Historic Music Past Tense Future” is the inaugural release by Black Editions Archive and the first in a series of records that will present previously unreleased works featuring Milford Graves.

“In the end, the music expresses what it means to be alive, to act on behalf of life. It struts and rails, sings and screams. It confronts fear and anger and transcends them through beauty, sound, and honesty. It ́s not about false comfort, it ́s about truth—a knotty, complicated thing that calls for a knotty, complicated, and sometimes comfortless art..” —Ed Hazell, liner notes

“It ́s not easy, it ́s not a little Sunday ride. It ́s heavy.” 

— Peter Brötzmann

2002-03-29, in the front room of CBGBs, fourteen years after their last performance together, three of the defining musicians in Free Jazz history convened for a third & final time. Peter Brötzmann had once again successfully talked his way into the U.S. without a visa to play this concert (organized by Arts for Art) & concerts with a historic drummer of a different era, Walter Perkins (organized by eremite). On March 31 & April 1, Brötzmann & Perkins recorded their duo album -The Ink Is Gone-.

William Parker had just returned from concerts in Italy with the David S. Ware Quartet. On April 2 & 3 he debuted his “Curtis Mayfield Inside Songs” project in Boston & Amherst. & he still found time to sit-in for the entire March 30 Brötzmann/Perkins Amherst Meetinghouse gig.

Scarcely to be found on bandstands & an even rarer presence on record, Milford Graves was a different story, a state of affairs that in 1995 prompted Thurston Moore to proclaim Graves “a living myth.” Between 1999 & 2015, Graves appears on just six recordings, two of those solo; Brötzmann & Parker combined made half as many records the same week as this gig. It would be another sixteen years before Jake Meginsky’s documentary -Full Mantis- introduced the world outside to the Graves’ multiverse of music, natural science, herbal medicine & acupuncture, martial arts, & visionary cardiology.

The eremite Mobile Unit happened to be in the house March 29. The trio performed on a small riser facing the front door of CBGBs, with Graves’ hand-painted, Orisha-adorned double bass drum kit, captured in its full thunderous glory on this recording, occupying most of the available space.

Peter Brötzmann was steamrolling in the early 2000s. Decades into having earned his soldier-of-the-road title, he was indomitable everywhere with nearly everybody, yet the full expression of his musicality reached even higher planes in the company of equals. While his famous Mount Olympus power is in no way absent here, Brötzmann’s sensitivity & lyricism, attributes that appear throughout his work as a visual artist, were on this special occasion beautifully alive.

The case is just beginning to be sufficiently made for the magnitude of William Parker’s role in Free Jazz at the turn of the century. In 2002 he was already the prime mover of his New York community; as a bandleader & composer he was taking his music in newly expansive directions. As an instrumentalist & improvisor Parker had been playing in the Big Leagues since the 1970s. From the mid-sixties on Graves very rarely played with bassists, he had the low-end covered. From the time the two connected in the mid-1980s Parker was a near constant presence in Graves’ —albeit rather infrequent— ensemble concert appearances. That he found expressive spaces for himself in Graves’ avalanche of rhythm & sound is extraordinary testimony to Parker’s wide-open ears & skills. For this rather hastily set-up recording, Parker’s small amp was placed on a barstool behind Graves’ kit, yet you still clearly feel & hear Parker’s vivid contributions.

By 2002 Milford Graves was four decades into developing & refining his radical approach to drumming. Graves’ unique & unbounded creativity across multiple mediums is only recently entering the early stages of wider discovery & appreciation. -Historic Music Past Tense Future- is the first in a series of records on Black Editions Archive that will feature Milford Graves. Through previously unheard recordings & freshly engaged scholarship, Black Editions Archive aims to significantly enlarge Graves’ body of available recorded work & create new opportunities & contexts to experience his maverick genius.

The music here comes from a moment of relative high visibility for the Free Jazz continuum. Brötzmann & Parker, among others, were taking it to the people through relentless touring. DIY presenters & labels were endeavoring heroically to stand-in for the lack of support from more established entities. The post-CD era that would decimate this little environment was still some years away. Cheaper production methods & more accessible recording technology meant some musicians & bands of this time were rather heavily “documented”, as we used to say. This is no such band. This is a stand-alone recording of three of the greatest to ever do it, seen & heard together for the last time, until the end of time, on this night. — Michael Ehlers 

1. Side A

2. Side B

3. Side C

4. Side D

Peter Brötzmann - Reeds

Milford Graves - Drums, Vocals, Dancing

William Parker - Bass, Doussn'Gouni

All music by Brötzmann / Graves / Parker

Artwork - Broetzmann

Recorded 2002.03.29, CB's 313 Gallery, New York

by Eremite Mobile Unit

Mastering Engineer - Joe Lizzi

Lacquers - Kevin Gray

Design - Broetzmann / Untiet

Back Cover Photo - Andrey Henkin

Inside Photo - Matias Corral, The Su Bundu from Orani

Produced by Peter Kolovos & Michael Ehlers

PRE-ORDER

Andrew Cyrille / William Parker / Enrico Rava - 2 Blues for Cecil (January 21, 2022 TUM Records)

2 Blues For Cecil brings together three legends of modern improvised music, drummer Andrew Cyrille, bassist William Parker and flugelhornist Enrico Rava, in a tribute to the late, great pianist and bandleader Cecil Taylor (1929-2018). Although the three played together for the first time as members of this trio, they share a common bond through their separate time spent performing and recording with Taylor.

Enrico Rava and Andrew Cyrille are among the elders of improvised music with their careers going back to the 1960s. William Parker rose to prominence during New York’s loft jazz era of the 1970s. The three musicians share one major link in their respective careers. Namely, they all have at different times been members of Cecil Taylor Unit or other ensembles of the legendary late pianist and bandleader Cecil Taylor.

Rava, Parker and Cyrille first performed together as a trio in a tribute to Cecil Taylor, with Taylor himself present, at the Whitney Museum in April 2016 as part of an exhibit/program under the heading “Open Plan: Cecil Taylor.” 2 Blues For Cecil was recorded on February 1 and 2 at Studio Ferber in Paris following the trio’s concert on December 31, 2020 under the heading “Tribute to Cecil Taylor” as part of the Sons d’hiver festival in Paris.

While 2 Blues For Cecil features compositions by all three of its members and even a standard, the emphasis is on improvisation. Four of the ten tracks are extended collective improvisations, including two versions of “Blues for Cecil.” The trio does not seek to emulate Cecil Taylor’s approach to creating music but rather draws on all the experiences, separate and shared, of its members.

“Cecil was a spokesman for individuality, a musical warrior always operating on a high level,” says Parker. “He was not avant-garde, he was a human being who loves life as music. He would not be boxed in by the music world’s value system that asks artists to conform to their standards.”

Although Andrew Cyrille was already an accomplished young musician at the time, his international breakthrough came with his membership in the Cecil Taylor Unit, which lasted for over a decade (1964-75), during which he established his position as one of the leading drummers in freely improvised music and participated in some of Taylor’s most legendary recordings. More than five decades later, Cyrille is still considered to be one of the most creative and versatile percussionists in modern jazz, equally at home in a modern mainstream setting as with more avant-garde music.

Similarly, William Parker first recorded with Frank Lowe, Billy Bang and many others in the 1970s but became internationally recognized when performing with the Cecil Taylor Unit in 1980-91 and participating in more than ten recordings led by Taylor. Parker is now best known for the many groups he has led or co-led over the past four decades. As well as being an improviser, writer and poet, Parker is a prolific composer and has composed everything from operas, oratorios, ballets and film scores to soliloquies for solo instruments. To date, he has participated in approximately 500 recordings with well over 50 albums under his own leadership.

Enrico Rava began his career in his native Italy in the mid-1960s but his work with saxophonists Gato Barbieri and Steve Lacy led to years spent living in New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s and working with many of the musicians then active on the New York improvised music scene. Soon, Rava began recording under his own name. With more than 50 recordings as a leader or coleader, he is one of the most internationally known Italian jazz musicians and one of the best known in all of Europe. Although Rava met Cecil Taylor in the late 1960s in New York City, the two performed together for the first time almost two decades later, first in Taylor’s Orchestra Of Two Continents in 1984 and then in the Cecil Taylor European Orchestra in 1988.

Andrew Cyrille (b. 1939) was born in Brooklyn, New York, into a family with Haitian parents. He was mentored in the art of drumming by the great Philly Joe Jones circa 1958 and began recording and performing with the likes of Walt Dickerson, Coleman Hawkins, Roland Kirk and Mary Lou Williams when barely 20 years of age. However, Cyrille truly made his mark through his membership in the Cecil Taylor Unit, which lasted for over a decade (1964-75), during which time he established his position as one of the leading percussionists in the then emerging freely improvised music. Cyrille soon became one of the most respected drummers in modern jazz through both of his own recordings as a leader and through his collaborations with virtually every important name on the contemporary scene. Since the 1970s, Cyrille has led or co-led a number of ensembles, including Maono, The Group, the percussion quartet Pieces Of Time and Haitian Fascination that pays homage to his Haitian roots. In 1992, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman and Cyrille founded Trio 3, a cooperative group that has over time become one of the main performing vehicles for all three of its members, recording more than 10 albums with several of the later ones also featuring a visiting pianist. Altogether, Cyrille has released more than 30 recordings as a leader or co-leader and countless others as a sideman. His most recent recordings as a leader are The Declaration Of Musical Independence (with Richard Teitelbaum, guitarist Bill Frisell and bassist Ben Street) in 2014, Lebroba (with trumpeter Wadada Leo Smith and Bill Frisell) in 2017 and The News (with pianist David Virelles, Bill Frisell and Ben Street) in 2019. In 2020, Cyrille received the Doris Duke Artist Award.

Photos ©Luciano_Rossetti

William Parker (b. 1952) is a composer, improviser, multi-instrumentalist, writer and poet born in the Bronx in New York City. He entered the music scene during New York´s loft jazz era in the early 1970s and quickly became a much sought-after bassist playing primarily with fellow improvisers, such as Billy Bang, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, Khan Jamal, Frank Lowe, Jemeel Moondoc, Charles Tyler and Frank Wright, among many others. Parker became internationally recognized when playing in the Cecil Taylor Unit from 1980 through 1991. Parker´s key collaborators have also included his spouse, dancer Patricia Nicholson, as well as Roy Brown, Peter Brötzmann, Rob Campbell, Cooper-Moore, Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, Peter Kowald, Joe Morris, Matthew Shipp and David S. Ware. Since the early 1990s, Parker has increasingly led his own ensembles, including In Order To Survive, The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra and the William Parker Quartet. Parker’s special projects have featured the music of Duke Ellington, Curtis Mayfield and Fats Waller, among others, and he has released several solo bass recordings as well as several duo recordings with fellow bass players. To date, Parker has participated in approximately 500 recordings, including well over 50 albums under his own leadership. Parker is a prolific composer and has composed everything from operas, oratorios, ballets and film scores to oliloquies for solo instruments. He is also a theorist and the author of several books as well as volumes of poetry.

Enrico Rava (b. 1939) was born in Trieste, Italy. Rava began playing the trombone in Dixieland bands when he was 15 but switched to the trumpet at 18 after hearing Miles Davis perform in Turin. Soon Rava was participating in local jam sessions and, in 1963, the Argentine saxophonist Gato Barbieri, who was then living in Rome, convinced Rava to join him there. Rava’s first recordings were in the mid-1960s with Gato Barbieri, Giorgio Gaslini and Steve Lacy. After Barbieri moved to Paris, Rava joined Steve Lacy's quartet, which led to extended stays in London, South America and eventually New York City. After moving to New York City in 1967, Rava soon played with many of the local musicians then active on the improvised music scene, such as Carla Bley, Lee Konitz, Jeanne Lee, Paul Motian and Roswell Rudd. Rava traveled back and forth between the United States and Europe and began making records both in New York City and in Europe with increasing frequency.

Rava’s first albums as a leader were with the Enrico Rava Quartet in 1972 and 1973. His first album for ECM Records was The Pilgrim And The Stars in 1975 and thus began a relationship that still continues today and has resulted in a total of 15 albums with the most recent being Edizione Speciale in 2021. Rava has also continued to work with many other European improvisers, including concerts and recordings with a number of large ensembles, such as ICP Orchestra, Globe Unity Orchestra and Italian Instabile Orchestra. Altogether, Rava has participated in more than 200 recordings with more than 50 of those as a leader or co-leader.Although Rava met Cecil Taylor in the late 1960s in New York City, the two did not perform together until almost two decades later. Rava participated in the recording of Winged Serpent (Sliding Quadrants) in Milan in 1984 by Taylor’s Orchestra Of Two Continents as well as the European tour that followed. In 1988, Rava was a member of Cecil Taylor’s European Orchestra.

01 Improvisation No. 1 (Cyrille, Parker and Rava)

02 Ballerina (Enrico Rava)

03 Blues For Cecil No. 1 (Cyrille, Parker and Rava)

04 Improvisation No.2 (Cyrille, Parker and Rava)

05 Top, Bottom and What’s in the Middle (Andrew Cyrille)

06 Blues For Cecil No. 2 (Cyrille, Parker and Rava)

07 Enrava Melody (Andrew Cyrille)

08 Overboard (Enrico Rava)

09 Machu Picchu (William Parker)

10 My Funny Valentine (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart)

Enrico Rava flugelhorn

William Parker double bass

Andrew Cyrille drums

TUM Records

Cecil Taylor - Music From Two Continents (November 30, 2021 Fundacja Słuchaj)

In 1984 Cecil Taylor came to Poland for the second time. His first performance in Poland was in 1968 in Warsaw Philharmony where he presented a solo piano recital. After 16 years he returned to the Jazz Jamboree festival but that time with a large group of internationally acclaimed and most important improvisers on the free jazz scene. The lineup was incredible. Two great trumpeters one from Poland, Tomasz Stańko another from Italy, Enrico Rava. In the reed section, long time Cecil's collaborator, legendary altoist Jimmy Lyons with his wife bassoonist Karen, John Tchicai, Frank Wright Jr. on tenor saxophones, phenomenal trombonists Conrad Bauer, iconic vibraphone and bass clarinet player Gunter Hampel and finally a gorgeous rhythm section with Henry Martinez on drums and great William Parker.

Together they played for over one hour set of unbelievable, strong, and magnificent music in front of the hall lined to the brim. Here you have the whole Cecil Taylor concert with Music From Two Continents.

Includes unlimited streaming of Music From Two Continents via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

1. Music From Two Continents A 12:04

2. Music From Two Continents B 25:06

3. Music From Two Continents C 25:01

Full-length, legendary Cecil Taylor Orchestra concert from Jazz Jamboree 1984 feat. greatest names on American and European free jazz scene: Tomasz Stańko, Enrico Rava, Conrad Bauer - trombone, Jimmy Lyons - alto saxophone, Frank Wright Jr. - tenor saxophone, John Tchicai - tenor saxophone, Karen Lyons - bassoon, Günter Hampel - bass clarinet, vibraphone, William Parker - double bass, Henry Martinez - drums. Brilliantly recorded by Polish Radio.

1. Music From Two Continents 62.15 (on CD you received the whole set without any cuttings. On Bandcamp site for technical reasons music was divided to three parts)

Cecil Taylor – piano, leader

Tomasz Stańko - trumpet

Enrico Rava - trumpet

Conrad Bauer - trombone

Jimmy Lyons - alto saxophone

Frank Wright Jr. - tenor saxophone

John Tchicai - tenor saxophone

Karen Lyons - bassoon

Günter Hampel - bass clarinet, vibraphone

William Parker - double bass

Henry Martinez - drums

Recorded 26.10.1984 at Jazz Jamboree, Congress Hall PKiN, Warsaw, Poland by POLSKIE RADIO

Produced under the license of POLSKIE RADIO (Polish Radio) 2021

Mastered: 30.04.2021 by Grzegorz Piwkowski (Hi End Studio, Warsaw)

Photos: mirek makowski

Cover design. SEMAFOR

Executive Producer: Maciej Karłowski

PREORDER

William Parker & Patricia Nicholson - No Joke! (October 29, 2021 ESP - Disk')

“He stands now as one of the most adventurous and prolific bandleaders in jazz.”

— David French, DownBeat

“William Parker pursues spirituality through hard work. He plays bass as if reaching heaven is a matter of steadily, repeatedly knocking until someone opens the door; he's one of the avant-garde jazz players most dedicated to the pursuit of higher purpose and heightened awareness in music, and he approaches it with a heavy, elemental tone.”

— Chris Dahlen, Pitchfork

“Patricia Nicholson… is also an outstanding poet and dancer.”

— Chris Tart, DownBeat

“Parker's creative energies have made him the unofficial mayor of the New York improvisational scene.”

— Piotr Michalowski, Ann Arbor Observer

William Parker is a towering figure in 21st century avant-garde music, widely recognised as a crucial link to the heart of free jazz, and a true heavyweight of the double bass.”

— Daniel Spicer, BBC 

1. Flare Up

2. Little Black Kid with the Swollen Stomach

3. Struggle

4. Wilted Light as Flower

5. No Joke

2/4: William Parker, bass; James Brandon Lewis, tenor sax; Devin Brahja Waldman, alto sax; Francesco Mela, drums, vocal on 2

1/3/5: William Parker, bass; Patricia Nicholson, spoken word, James Brandon Lewis, tenor sax; Devin Brahja Waldman, alto sax; Melanie Dyer, viola; Gerald Cleaver, drums

All music by William Parker, centering music. All words by Patricia Nicholson except “Little Black Kid with the Swollen Stomach” by William Parker.

Recorded (2/4: July 30, 2020; 1/3/5: September 5, 2019) and mixed at Park West Studios by Jim Clouse.

Cover art and packaging layout by Bill Mazza Studio.

PREORDER

William Parker - Mayan Space Station (2021 Aum Fidelity)

Following on the monumental Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World box set earlier this year, composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, griot, improviser and community leader William Parker will release an astonishing Pair of brand new trio albums which further expound on his profound and limitless vision: Mayan Space Station -&- Painters Winter. One of the iconic and enduring music leaders to emerge in the world over the last half century, Parker continues to raise the bar higher. As ever, AUM Fidelity is deeply honored & incredibly stoked (!) to present this work to you.

= Noting Here Again that there are strictly limited one-time-press LP editions of both new albums that we have on hand now! Please go to the AUM Fidelity site direct to grip those =

Mayan Space Station is William's first electric guitar trio album. The unparalleled rhythmic firmament created by Parker & Cleaver is matched by Mendoza in full flight. This is cosmic multi-hued blues, perfect for space and time travel.

William Parker first worked with Ms. Mendoza on a project entitled Thunder and Flowers for his July 2019 residency at The Stone in NYC. Her prodigious talents have illuminated many projects and recordings as both leader and collaborator over the past decade. As is clear here, she is committed to bringing expressivity, energy and a wide sonic range to the music. Gerald Cleaver is an exceptionally gifted poet of drum sound who can play in the deepest of pockets and manifest all manner of sound to perfectly fit contours within the most open of forms. Cleaver & Parker have worked closely on numerous projects, notably within the nonpareil full-improvising trio, Farmers By Nature, together with Craig Taborn. William Parker is in vibrant grandmaster blossom here on double bass – in both pizzicato & bow-as-prism modes.

Regarding the album title, Parker offers: “Mayan Space Station is a conduit for peace and inspiration. It is an oasis where sound and silence navigators stop for sustenance to replenish their imaginations. It is a fictional reality that is important to the myth structure of the Tone World chronicle. In a way, musicians, and definitely these particular musicians, Ava Mendoza and Gerald Cleaver, belong to the blood line of sonic travelers who, as Sun Ra described it, ‘travel the space ways.’ Re-inventing the process, allowing music to flow through their instruments.” 

1. Tabasco 05:39

2. Rocas Rojas 06:43

3. Domingo 07:09

4. Mayan Space Station 14:42

5. Canyons of Light 10:05

6. The Wall Tumbles Down 13:50

William Parker: bass, compositions

Ava Mendoza: electric guitar

Gerald Cleaver: drums

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William Parker - Painters Winter (2021 Aum Fidelity)

Following on the monumental Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World box set earlier this year, composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, griot, improviser and community leader William Parker will release an astonishing Pair of brand new trio albums which further expound on his profound and limitless vision: Painters Winter -&- Mayan Space Station. One of the iconic and enduring music leaders to emerge in the world over the last half century, Parker continues to raise the bar higher. As ever, AUM Fidelity is deeply honored & incredibly stoked (!) to present this work to you.

= Noting Here Again that there are strictly limited one-time-press LP editions of both new albums that we have on hand now! Please go to the AUM Fidelity site direct to grip those =

Painters Winter features the reconvened trio communion of Daniel Carter, William Parker , and Hamid Drake. Carter & Parker have been perpetual space-ways traveling companions since first meeting & immediately beginning to channel music together in early 1970s NYC. Their work together in Other Dimensions In Music with Roy Campbell & Rashid Bakr for well over two decades manifest in bountiful music for the ages. They recently featured together in similar majestic open form on the album, Seraphic Light. Here, Carter again brings the full assembly of instruments he has for decades been a master of: trumpet, alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet and flute.

Likewise, Hamid Drake is a musician’s musician; one of the most in-demand drummers in the world. He is in command of a vast lexicon of drum languages, learned and absorbed directly. His frequent flyer miles could get him a ticket to Saturn and back. Drake & Parker launched their devoted “two-man big band” partnership in 2000 and haven’t stopped since. In trio with Daniel Carter, they’ve created one previous album together, Painters Spring, released that same year.

Drake has made mention of his awe that William could pick up any new instrument and make beautiful music with it from jump. The title track features Parker on trombonium, one of those many instruments that he plays beautifully on. The track “Painted Scarf” features Parker on shakuhachi, upon which he has clearly become a master as well.

Regarding this album’s title, Parker elucidates, “It speaks to those who paint with sound, in different landscapes, to celebrate the coming of the seasons: winter spring summer and autumn. Acknowledging the entire universe of world jazz music. Discovering the undiscovered.” And from his liner notes, “The music on this album is a tribute to the flow of rhythm as melody and pulsation. Laced with the joy and the bounce, the dance and the heartbeat. Giving a nod to all the music that has ever passed through us.." 

1. Groove 77 12:21

2. Painters Winter 08:25

3. Happiness 12:36

4. Painted Scarf 10:49

5. A Curley Russell 15:33

William Parker: bass, trombonium, shakuhachi, compositions

Daniel Carter: trumpet, alto & tenor saxophones, clarinet, flute

Hamid Drake: drums

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Tony Malaby - Turnpike Diaries Vol​.​3 Big Mammals (2021)

Two of my favorite sound designers, William Parker and Billy Mintz, came and propelled me into beautiful landscapes bringing out the soaring screech of raptors, the sea mammal and dancing bear in me.

1. The Dancing Bear (for Tatiana) and Birds of Pray

2. Big Mammals

Tony Malaby - Tenor and Soprano saxophones

William Parker - Bass and Tuba

Billy Mintz - Drums

Recorded by Randy Thaler

Mastered by Eivind Opsvik

Cover art by Tim Berne

Thank you Kevin Reilly

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Dopolarians - The Bond (April 2021 Mahakala Music)

Once upon a time, three musicians, who came of age together during the last century's thriving free jazz scene in Memphis, joined forces in far off Little Rock. And they were gifted, and it was good. Alto saxophonist Chad Fowler and pianist Christopher Parker were experimenters going back to the 1990s, hovering in the orbit of the famed University of Memphis jazz department, two Arkansas jammers sharing a house in the Bluff City. They did one-off sessions with the likes of Frank Lowe or George Cartwright, or in combos with local luminaries. Ultimately Fowler introduced Parker to a Memphis singer named Kelley Hurt. The years rolled on.

Cut ahead a quarter century, and the three were living in Arkansas again, with Parker and Hurt now married, and all of them still committed to finding something fresh in jazz. When the couple was commissioned to write music in honor of the Little Rock Nine, the students who marched into Central High School in defiance of local segregationists in 1957, they recruited Fowler and another comrade from their Memphis years, trumpeter Marc Franklin, now an arranger and side man extraordinaire for the likes of Grammy-nominee Don Bryant. Parker and Hurt's creation would become the No Tears Suite, premiered in 2017 with much acclaim on the grounds of Central High itself; and it was for that project that the beat stepped in. And the beat came in the form of Brian Blade.

Adding the magic of rhythm to the mix, the group coalesced into something great, something resembling Dopolarians. Blade left his native Shreveport at 18 to learn from the many jazz masters of New Orleans, then applied that experience to found the Fellowship Band. Along the way, he drummed for even more legends, from Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock to Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. Beyond his drumming, he distinguished himself as a composer and songwriter in his own right.

While Blade's participation in No Tears Suite galvanized the group, and led to a stellar album of the same name, they weren't yet the Dopolarians. That group identity came about when other players were added to the combo, as Blade went on to his many other commitments.

The experience of bringing Parker and Hurt's composition to life left the core trio hungry for more creation. Working with Blade led them to set their sights high, and by the spring of 2018 they'd recruited two stellar players, well versed in the intricacies of free jazz. Bassist William Parker, who first came to prominence in his native New York with Cecil Taylor, was a perfect addition to set their course for free horizons, having developed a deeply philosophical approach to music over the course of two books, even as he pursued his playing beyond conventional jazz bass, developing a refined bowing technique and impressive skills on the West African kora.

And with drummer Alvin Fielder, Jr., the newly formed group found a kind of shaman, a mentor to help set the tone for all that would follow. Having left his native Meridian, Mississippi to study phamacology, he nurtured his drumming with a passion, finally ending up in Chicago, where he played with Sun Ra, ca. 1960. From there, he became a charter member of the paradigm-shifting Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). This pillar of experimental jazz thus brought a wealth of experience to the group from Little Rock, and, as they prepared for their first recording session in New Orleans, adding the fabled saxophonist Kidd Jordan to the mix, they became Dopolarians.

Their debut album, aptly titled Garden Party, was redolent of all the intimacy, beauty and wildness of a soiree in a Crescent City courtyard. And yet, to the players' great sorrow, it served as Fielder's swan song. He passed away in January, 2019, but his fellow Dopolarians, inspired by his memory, lived on.

Which brings us to The Bond, the group's latest offering to the gods of free expression and lyrical beauty, once again under the Mahakala Music imprint. With Fielder, their most inspiring force, having moved on, it was only fitting that they return to the beat that unlocked their potential in the first place: Brian Blade. And in this free context, Blade reveals his creative depths as never before, applying his acuity in the fleeting moments of creation, composer indeed.

Also returning to the Dopolarians' fold is trumpeter Marc Franklin, filling Jordan's slot with brassier tones. In November of 2020, on the very day that the world breathed a collective sigh of relief over the defeat of a racist presidential incumbent, the group convened once again in Marigny Recording Studio, the very site of their initial sessions with Fielder. And what transpired was truly phenomenal, an achievement of musical telepathy and empathy equal to any in the free jazz tradition. In three extended pieces, “The Bond,” “The Emergence,” and “The Release,” the collective hive-mind of Brian Blade, Chad Fowler, Marc Franklin, Kelley Hurt, Christopher Parker, and William Parker conjures up a dream, an ineffable narrative, springing from the unconscious, and flying free in directions both gripping and glorious. 

1. The Bond 21:15

2. The Emergence 30:22

3. The Release 09:42

William Parker - bass

Brian Blade - drums

Kelley Hurt - vocals

Chad Fowler - alto sax

Christopher Parker - piano

Marc Franklin - trumpet

Rick Nelson / Marigny Studio - recording & mixing

Adam Keil - mastering

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April 10-11: William Parker & Melissa Aldana trios perform in Central Park as part of Walk With The Wind

Artist-focused non-profit Giant Step Arts partners with Jazz Generation's KEYED UP! for new edition of acclaimed concert series Walk With The Wind

April 10-11 free performances at NEW LOCATION in Central Park: Summit Rock in Seneca Village

Concerts honor legacy of congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis

Featuring William Parker Trio, James Brandon Lewis Freed Style Free Trio, Melissa Aldana Trio, Chris Potter Trio, Antonio Sanchez Trio, Marquis Hill Quartet, Michael Thomas Quartet, Nasheet Waits, Mark Turner, Marika Hughes, Johnathan Blake, Abraham Burton, Jason Palmer

"Sitting socially distanced on The Mall and listening to live jazz feels like an optimistic moment...Jimmy Katz and Giant Step Arts are plugging a gap with Walk With The Wind." - Dan Bergsagel, London Jazz News

Giant Step Arts in partnership with Jazz Generation’s KEYED UP! continues the acclaimed performance series Walk With The Wind honoring civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis. The concerts – curated by Jimmy Katz and Nasheet Waits – will take place at pop up locations in New York City’s Central Park. Shows will be rescheduled in case of inclement weather.

CONCERT SCHEDULE

• Saturday, April 10 at Summit Rock in Seneca Village

Noon – Robert Lotreck Quartet–  with Sarah Hanahan, Anthony Hervey, Phil Norris

1 p.m. – William Parker Trio with Cooper Moore and Hamid Drake 

• Sunday, April 11 at Summit Rock in Seneca Village

Noon – Robert Lotreck Quartet with Sarah Hanahan, Drew Anderson, Phil Norris

1 p.m. – Steve Slagle Trio with Marty Kenney, Jason Tiemann

2 p.m. – Melissa Aldana Trio with Pablo Menares and Kush Abadey

More concerts HERE

April 4 Kickoff for Giant Step Arts & KEYED UP!: Series of Jazz Concerts in Central Park

Artist-focused non-profit Giant Step Arts partners with Jazz Generation's KEYED UP! for new edition of acclaimed concert series Walk With The Wind

Free performances beginning April 4 in Central Park honor legacy of congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis

Featuring Wayne Escoffery/Jeremy Pelt Quartet, William Parker Trio, James Brandon Lewis Freed Style Free Trio, Melissa Aldana Trio, Chris Potter Trio, Antonio Sanchez Trio, Marquis Hill Quartet, Michael Thomas Quartet, Nasheet Waits, Mark Turner, Marika Hughes, and Immanuel Wilkins

"Sitting socially distanced on The Mall and listening to live jazz feels like an optimistic moment...Jimmy Katz and Giant Step Arts are plugging a gap with Walk With The Wind." - Dan Bergsagel, London Jazz News

Giant Step Arts in partnership with Jazz Generation’s KEYED UP! continues the acclaimed performance series Walk With The Wind honoring civil rights activist and congressman John Lewis. The concerts – curated by Jimmy Katz and Nasheet Waits – will take place at pop up locations in New York City’s Central Park.

Shows run from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. and feature at least two bands. They will be rescheduled in case of inclement weather.

CONCERT SCHEDULE

• Sunday, April 4 – Note new location at The South End of the Mall

11 a.m. – Alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan, trumpeter Giveton Gelin, bassist Phil Norris, and drummer Robert Lotreck   

1 p.m. – The Wayne Escoffery/Jeremy Pelt Quartet with Dezron Douglas and Johnathan Blake  

• Saturday, April 10

11 a.m. – Alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan, bassist Phil Norris, and drummer Robert Lotreck 

1 p.m. – William Parker Trio with Cooper Moore and Hamid Drake 

• Sunday, April 11 

11 a.m. – Alto saxophonist Sarah Hanahan, bassist Phil Norris, and drummer Robert Lotreck 

1 p.m. – Melissa Aldana Trio with Pablo Menares and Kush Abadey  

• Saturday, April 17 – Chris Potter Trio with Joe Martin and Nasheet Waits

• Sunday, April 18 – Antonio Sanchez Trio with Donny McCaslin and Matt Brewer

• Saturday, April 24 – Marquis Hill Quartet

• Sunday, April 25 – Michael Thomas Quartet with Michael Rodriguez, Edward Perez and Johnathan Blake

• Saturday, May 1 – James Brandon Lewis, Freed Style Free Trio with Rashaan Carter and Chad Taylor; Aaron Burnett Quartet with Peter Evans, Nick Jozwiak, and Tyshawn Sorey

• Saturday, May 8 – Marika Hughes: The New String Quartet with Hughes, Charlie Burnham, Marvin Sewell, and Rashaan Carter

Other upcoming dates will include bands led by Nasheet Waits, Mark Turner, and Immanuel Wilkins.

“The pandemic has been disastrous for musicians, many of whom normally earn a living through live performances and tours,” says Katz. “We wanted to find a way to continue supporting musicians, bring them together with audiences safely, and enable them to have a payday! Walk with the Wind, honoring the legacy of the great American John Lewis, is one way we are accomplishing this, and the response has been tremendous.”  

The well-received series, which began August 28, 2020 with Wayne Escoffery’s trio, has also featured The Marquis Hill Quartet, the Michael Thomas Trio, Marcus Strickland Trio, the Eric McPherson Trio, the Leap Day Trio and the Joel Ross Quartet. 

Founded by renowned photographers Jimmy and Dena Katz in January 2018, Giant Step Arts is an innovative, artist-focused non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and showcasing the work of innovative modern jazz artists. Giant Step Arts offers musicians the artistic and financial resources to create bold, adventurous new music free of commercial pressure. Giant Step Arts provides promotional material and publicity services, presents premiere performances and compensates artists, records performances for independent release, provides artists with CDs and digital downloads to sell directly, conveys complete ownership of masters to artists, and provides PR support for the recordings. “Giant Step Arts does not sell any music,” Katz says. “Our goals are to help musicians make bold artistic statements and to advance their careers.”

Jazz Generation was founded in 1999 to emphasize the importance of live jazz as an art form and the performing arts as a cultural asset. The Jazz Discovery Program (JDP) and The Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra (JSYO), and since 2014 KEYED UP!, an anti-poverty program, has offered services that support professional jazz artists in their performing careers, revitalize local businesses, and develop a new generation of audiences and performers. KEYED UP! Has quickly become a favorite NYC entity for musicians, audiences, and venues. Operating simultaneously in over 25 partner venues spanning from Jersey City to Boston, KeyedUP! Is proud to keep hundreds of musicians working and thousands of jazz listeners happy at no extra cost to partner venues.

James Brandon Lewis / Red Lily Quintet - Jesup Wagon (May 7, 2021 Tao Forms / Aum Fidelity)

TAO Forms is =very= excited to [soon!] present the entirety of this astonishing new work from the fertile creative mind of tenor saxophonist–composer James Brandon Lewis. Performed by the Red Lily Quintet, an exceptional & singular inter-generational ensemble, this album speaks to the forever-evolving continuum of the jazz tradition.

Voted Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist in the 2020 DownBeat Magazine International Critic’s Poll, James Brandon Lewis supercharges his remarkable evolution with Jesup Wagon, a brilliant and evocative appreciation of the life and legacy of turn-of-the-19th century African-American renaissance man George Washington Carver. The album – to be released on May 7, 2021 – consists of seven pieces that create a portrait of stunning clarity and depth.

There is so much special about this recording, James’ 9th, starting with [on the way in] the lavish artwork, including a reproduction on the cover of Carver’s own tantalizing drawing of the Jesup Agricultural Wagon, which is shown in a photograph on the back cover, rendering a dialogue of representation and abstraction that Lewis models in the music. And while liner notes are generally more relied upon than celebrated, Jesup Wagon’s are delivered by the great UCLA American historian Robin D.G. Kelley, who in 2009 released the definitive Thelonious Monk biography 'Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original'. His notes, printed lovingly on an ochre background, contain much historical detail about Carver, particularly as they relate to the tunes. The fact that Kelley was willing to write them tells you something about the power of the music on the album, which Kelley calls “a revelation.”

If “revelation” is a word commonly used to describe master saxophonists like John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders and Dewey Redman, then it fits easily in the horn of James Brandon Lewis, who is a keen student of those and many other elders. But while boundless energy characterizes his playing, it is also grounded by a deep sense of narrative, which is why he is attracted to histories, like Carver’s, or to theories like his own Molecular Systematic Music, used on his superb previous 2020 Intakt album, 'Molecular', or to artistic genres such as surrealism, modeled by Lewis on the stunning 'An UnRuly Manifesto' from 2019.

Helping James get it all out on Jesup Wagon is the Red Lily Quintet, anchored by the tectonic rhythm section of bassist William Parker and drummer Chad Taylor, and rounded out by cornetist Kirk Knuffke and cellist Chris Hoffman. Parker, who James says “has looked out for me ever since I arrived in New York City,” is a genius of the stand-up bass who performed with grand-master Cecil Taylor for 11 years straight. He is also a renaissance man in his own right. Chad Taylor, “one of the most melodic drummers I’ve ever played with,” James says, is a Chicagoan who has gifted to New York some of the energy and drama the windy city is known for. Kirk Knuffke is one of New York’s rare cornet players, using that instrument’s impish tone to explosive effect on dozens of records by New York jazz heavies. Chris Hoffman made his bones playing Henry Threadgill’s demanding music in a few of the great alto saxophonist’s bands, and has worked with artists as diverse as Yoko Ono, Marc Ribot and Marianne Faithful.

James grew up in Buffalo, which he calls a “groove town” of “hard workers” like Grover Washington Jr., Charles Gayle, Rick James, and Ani DiFranco, among them. Starting out on clarinet when he was 9, James moved to alto sax at 12 then tenor at 15. He attended Howard University in Washington, D.C. where he studied jazz fundamentals, then enrolled at Cal Arts in Southern California, working with greats like Wadada Leo Smith, Charlie Haden, and Joe LaBarbara. Notching his MFA there, he did a residency at the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music where he worked with trumpeter Dave Douglas, pianist Angelica Sanchez and saxophonist Tony Malaby, among others. It was in Banff where he dove into the world of free jazz, continuing in that vein at an Atlantic Center for the Arts residency led by iconic New York City pianist Matthew Shipp.

Shipp and a few others lured him to New York City in 2012, where he quickly fell in with the cutting-edge artists, including drummer Gerald Cleaver and William Parker, that populate the jazz scene there. His second album, 'Divine Travels', released in 2014, featured the latter two musicians. Two albums he made in duets with Chad Taylor – 'Radiant Imprints' (2018) and 'Live in Willisau' (2020) – demonstrated that James had no hesitation dancing on the same wild turf that John Coltrane entered with his latter-day records featuring Rashied Ali on drums, although James says the inspiration was more Dewey Redman and Ed Blackwell’s duet, 'Red and Black in Willisau', recorded live in 1980. “Chad and I bonded over that one,” James says. Either way, it’s heady company.

Lewis also has an affinity for the spoken word, demonstrated on Jesup Wagon by a few timely placed short recitations. “Music is enough. But the older I get it’s important for me to have the listener hear my speaking voice,” he says. “Makes it more organic. I like to tell a story with an album.”

Poetry is just one of Lewis’ many obsessions, which also include painting, hip-hop and philosophy. “All of the people I admire have that kind of depth,” Lewis says. “William Parker, Oliver Lake, Yusef Lateef, all these amazing artists. George Washington Carver was a musician, a painter, a prolific writer, in addition to what most people know about him. Having a broad range just makes the cast iron skillet more seasoned.”

And now, in our pandemic era, James soon delivers Jesup Wagon, essentially a collection of tone poems – or, as Duke Ellington might have called them, “tone parallels” – Duke being the instigator of this type of programmatic jazz.

Poetry in music is what we get in this new masterpiece from James Brandon Lewis, who may well be crowned a master himself in the not-too-far future.

1. Jesup Wagon

2. Lowlands of Sorrow

3. Arachis

4. Fallen Flowers

5. Experiment Station

6. Seer

7. Chemurgy 09:52

James Brandon Lewis: tenor saxophone, composition

Kirk Knuffke: cornet

William Parker: bass, gimbri (on tracks 2 & 7)

Chris Hoffman: cello

Chad Taylor: drums, mbira (on track 6)

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