ZapTown

Rating: 3.5 out of 5
For someone with this much talent, he has every right to show off.

With This That, the whole premise of this album flirts with the idea of what is considered improv and what is actual composed material. Fields performs flawlessly in the attempt that you cannot tell the difference between the two states of musicianship. But even with the blurred lines, you get a sense of structure within these pieces as the sonic architecture is very tight knit and space is given a sense of correlation within the songs.

The charm of Birdland is that it gets back to basics and proves that a re-energized band could still perform as an influential jazz powerhouse in the midst of a new scene developing; Miles Davis, Charles Mingus, and John Coltrane were pushing the Big Band style out of the way to make room for Be-Bop.

Even though William Parker has had some well-acclaimed releases in the jazz field (Piercing The Veil, Mayor of Punkville, and Peach Orchard), the Thirsty Ear label is highly responsible for shoving the jazz bassist out into the mainstream as much as allowing him free range to continue expanding his thoughts into sound. Joining the label as part of the Blue Series, which still exists as an entity to this day, William Parker brought his sometimes moody and often times eclectic jazz compositions to the forefront of the series with two prominent releases (Painter’s Spring was the other).

William Parker/Hamid Drake
Piercing The Veil
2001 – AUM Fidelity
Origin: New York City
Style: Free Jazz

Louisiana born and Chicago based percussionist Hamid Drake may not have hit the prime of his life just yet, but he may have found his niche with New York bassist William Parker.
This introduction to the pairing of Drake and New York jazz bassist [...]