Artist Profile,
Evan Parker at 80
Last week, Evan Parker, the towering figure of avant-garde improvisation, turned 80. Known for his fiercely confrontational and uncompromising style of performing, he has revolutionised the realms of musical experimentation since the dawning of his career in the late sixties.
A jazz fanatic from an early age, Parker’s fascination with the genre emerged with the passing of another great saxophone player to share his last name. Having moved on to the stronger stuff (in the form of John Coltrane), it was on a trip to New York that the then botany student witnessed the Cecil Taylor trio in a life-changing experience. Originally emulating the direction of free expression that American musicians were heading in at the time, in 1966 he moved from Birmingham to London and found work within the improvisation movement that was growing in popularity at the time. Thanks to his iconoclastic voice, he would quickly establish himself as a key player in the world of left-field music.
As a solo performer, Parker was one of the first jazz artists to develop his own unique philosophy of playing – a meditative precept he has firmly kept to for over fifty years. His inimitable methodology incorporates such extended techniques as circular breathing, split tonguing, overblowing, multiphonics and cross-pattern fingering. This uncanny combination creates a musical frisson like no other, giving way to an experience most commonly described along the lines of being a relentless vortex of sound.
With a vast back catalogue of groundbreaking recordings to his name, what better way to join in the festivities than by offering up some of our own highlights from over the years.
The fifth imprint on Manfred Eicher's then free jazz label, it was Parker (along with Bailey and co.) who helped birth the iconic ECM into what it has come to be known as today. Tapping into the unbridled creativity of the past few years they'd spent together, here the ensemble's fluent capacity for dialogue really shines.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
This double package brings together two intimate recordings, each made 17 years apart. For these two ex-Spontaneous Music Ensemble members, it's business as usual. Concentrate on the sporadic sense of rhythm, the clattering tonal vocabulary and the complete and utter disregard for convention.
Available Format: 2 CDs
Recorded at the midst of the fabled first tour of North America, we really enjoyed picking up on this archival bootleg release when it dropped last year. As his solo performances become more rare nowadays, it's always a refreshing opportunity to listen back to the shrill beauty of Parker in his early prime.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
Parker had already featured as a sideman on several ECM recordings by the turn of the century, but it was only when this lineup assembled for 1995's Time Will Tell that his name would appear on the cover artwork in large type once more. By now a free jazz veteran, on this album of variations we find the players in a more melodious spirit but emancipated as ever as they perform live in an Austrian monastery.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
Putting on this album is akin to falling down a rabbit hole of glitchy earworms and technical intransigences... and then having a piano dropped on your head. The longer you spend with it, the closer you manage to catch up with the entropy of Parker's internal combustion engine.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC, Hi-Res FLAC
You wouldn't guess that these old acquaintainces had recorded just the once together prior to this live meeting. What lies in store is a remarkable pas de deux, one where either partner is prepared to run rings around his teammate in a bid to encourage a similar kind of response. Prepare for some classic synergy from these two elder statesmen of the avant-garde.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
On occasion, Parker has been known to sit in with young and upcoming musicians. With the ascendancy of this pair of London's brightest sparks over the last decade (in both an individual and collective capacity), it made perfect sense for the two upstarts to call on the master's aid. Hear his contribution on 'The Valley of the Ultra Blacks' as he underlays the track with a matchless sonic texture.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Their first encounter must've proved fruitful enough for this second outing to occur (here captured amidst the live setting of London's Total Refreshment Centre in 2017). Met in energy by an equally receptive audience, the propulsive force of this rambunctious album where old meets new is almost startling.
Available Formats: CD, MP3, FLAC
Having relaunched Cadillac and Ogun Records several years ago, label head Mike Gavin now takes care of the premises Parker once called home. This really is a return to form; perhaps a reminder of the good ol' days? Along with a spritely formation of informed players, the existence of this well-oiled lineup has been recognised as one of his most compatible in years.
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC
As mentioned, a major component of Parker's career has been work with electronics, having first dabbled in the medium as far back as 1970's The Music Improvisation Company. Conspiring with sound artist Henry Dagg (who is perhaps most famous for performing a televised mashup of 'Over The Rainbow / The Dam Busters March' on his makeshift organ of squeaky toy cats), together the pair unleash an astonishing sound world of cavernous proportions.
Available Format: CD
Barney Whittaker
