William Parker Quartet

I had the pleasure of seeing the William Parker Quartet last night at the Empty Bottle here in Chicago. I've seen Mr. Parker on several occasions, but never with his Quartet, which is by far my favorite group of his, having released two excellent recordings, 2000's fantastic O'Neal's Porch and the followup, 2004's Sound Unity.

The band consists of: Lewis 'Flip' Barnes on trumpet, Rob Brown on alto sax, William Parker on bass and shehnai (thx Jason), and Hamid Drake on drums.

Parker and Drake have become an indispensable rhythm team in recent years after their first encounter in one of Peter Brotzmann's groups, and with good reason. Their dynamic and empathetic interplay is second to few, if any.

I've always enjoyed the Quartet's music because of the impeccable balance Mr. Parker has struck between composition, improvisation, inside and outside playing. Last night showcased all of these elements in a set that had seamless segues between most of the songs - if I recall correctly there was only two breaks in the set, one in the middle, and one at the end before the encore, and there were several songs played during each of those stretches.

There's also an interesting mix of timbres from the players - Flip Barnes has a very clear trumpet tone, with nothing in the realm of extended technique - at times, Rob Brown has a very reedy, brash tone on the alto, but he also slips into some very smooth and fluid bebop lines - and Parker and Drake utilize all of their respective instruments, dynamically and harmonically. I've heard Parker state that one aspect of his study of the bass has been to view it as a drum set, with each string representing a different aspect of the set. It comes across in his strong rhythmic playing that lays a foundation for Drake's explorations in swing and polyrythms.

Fred Anderson was in the crowd enjoying the show, as William Parker alluded to when he mentioned there were musical luminaries in the audience. The band tipped their hat to the Chicago scene by playing a tribute to John Gilmore called "Gilmore's Hat" and a tribute to Malachi Favors Maghostut called "Malachi's Mode."

Unfortunately they only played one short set and an encore, it was an early show at the Empty Bottle to make way for the real money makers, a rock set with an audience that likes to drink. After the show I picked up the new William Parker/Hamid Drake duo disc from Aum Fidelity, Summer Snow, and I look forward to the new William Parker Quartet and Sextet recordings due out this spring on the same label.

Also, Rob Brown mentioned to me that hopefully he'll be back in town with his trio, with William Parker and Gerald Cleaver, at the Velvet Lounge, but that he was still working out the details.

Pictures later....