# William Parker Quartets: Meditation/Resurrection

- Link: https://jazzblues.eu/2017/08/25/william-parker-quartets-meditationresurrection/
- Published: 2017-08-25T19:33:00+01:00
- Author: https://JazzBlues.EU

**It’s hard to pick a favorite William Parker outfit. Everything he touches is magic,
from his giant orchestras to his solo outings. But his quartets might be his ideal
venues: **

There’s enough structure that the music can’t be called free jazz, and there’s enough
leeway to let democracy command the performance. Last October, Parker took two quartets
into the studio on the same day, and the result—recorded all in one day—is the blissful
two-disc set _Meditation/Resurrection_.

No one else sounds like William Parker. That statement refers not just to his bass
playing but also to his bands’ entire aesthetic—the compositions, the way the musicians
interact. This is especially true of his smaller groups, and yet the two quartets
here sound entirely distinct from each other. Both include drummer Hamid Drake and
alto saxophonist Rob Brown.

The first quartet features trumpeter Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson. Swing, soul, folk and
avant-garde intermingle, much the way they do in Parker’s Raining on the Moon ensemble.
It’s all deeply rooted in the African-American tradition, going back to blues, spirituals
and work songs. Songs like “Leaves/Rain” and “Handsome Lake” are almost funky, Parker
laying down a vamp and the horn players improvising over it. Drake, as he does, 
brings in elements of bop and rock and everything else, never repeating a phrase.

The second quartet, Parker’s superb group In Order to Survive, features the pianist
Cooper-Moore. It is far more languorous, in both tempo (mostly leisurely) and length(
the shortest of the five tunes runs over 11 minutes). There’s less writing too and
more freedom—“Sunrise in East Harlem” is based on just two chords. Parker does more
freeform rummaging, Brown blows with less restraint or regard for harmony, Drake
switches rhythms relentlessly and Cooper-Moore splashes all over the keys, everything
hitting a communal apex on the 18-minute “Things Falling Apart.” With _Meditation/
Resurrection_, jazz master Parker has given us another essential recording.

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