It was not long after William Parker's masterpiece “Migration of Silence Into and Out of The Tone World: Volumes 1-10” (Centering Records), and his first biography, written by Cisco Bradley: «Universal Tonality: The Life and Music of William Parker » (Duke University Press), that the composer, multi-instrumentalist, poet, griote and conceptualist William Parker was out with a couple of new trio albums that further explain his musical vision. William Parker is one of the most iconic and creative jazz musicians to have emerged over the past half century. And these two new records continue to expand the seemingly unlimited spectrum of his artistic expression. The first, "Painters Winter" (AUM FIDELITY) is a great record with his old friends, multi-instrumentalist Daniel Carter and drummer and percussionist Hamid Drake.
At "Mayan Space Station" we get a set of electric guitar, bass and drums, which can easily be seen as a hefty dose of "psychedelic rock" with clear references to jazz guitar heroes, such as the Norwegian Terje Rypdal. Here we meet Parker together with guitarist Ava Mendoza and drummer Gerald Cleaver, in six compositions by Parker, and the recordings were made at Park West Studios in Brooklyn in February 2020. Ava Mendoza has collaborated earlier with Parker in the project "Thunder and Flowers" for his residency project on the Stone in New York in July 2019. She has previously made a strong mark on the American jazz scene, including cooperations with Matana Roberts, Nels Cline, Jon Irabagon, William Hooker, Fred Frith, The Violent Femmes, Jamaladeen Tacuma, Rova Saxophone Quartet, Moppa Elliot and more. And she has made several albums in her own name since her debut "Shodow Stories" on Resipiscent in 2010. Drummer Gerald Cleaver is a chameleon in the jazz world. He is one of the most used drummers in qualitative American jazz in the recent years, and he has been heard with, among others, Joe Morris, Mat Maneri, Roscoe Mitchell, Miroslav Vitous, Michael Formanek, Tomasz Stanko and many, many more.
The record company calls the music "cosmic multicolored blues", and all the way through, Mendoza, almost in the Rypal landscape, can soar over a fantastic bass and drum accompaniment, where it must be almost impossible to "step wrong" for the guitarist . For Parker and Cleaver's playing, Mendoza lifts off the ground and lets her soar somewhere up there, delivering brilliant guitar music, not very far from Rypdal's recording "Chaser", with bassist Bjørn Kjellemyr and drummer Audun Kleive from 1985. We get six compositions, where I really only recognize the title track from before, from the recording "Sunrise In The Tone World" with Parkers The Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. And even this song is done in a very special way on this recording. And all the way, Parker's bass playing is brilliant and a bit "related" to Charles Mingus, that is, rhythmically perfect, heavy and delicious. And in this context, Cleaver is the perfect drummer. I do not know how it would have worked with Parker's old friend, Hamid Drake, but there will be a slightly different "touch" in the plot with Cleaver, who is a more "active" and ongoing drummer than the extremely friendly Drake.
A brilliant album!
