Rempis/Parker/Flaten/Cunningham: Stringers And Struts
Author: Daniel Spicer
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Dave Rempis (as, ts, bar s) |
Label: |
Aerophonic |
Magazine Review Date: |
February/2021 |
Media Format: |
CD |
Catalogue Number: |
029 |
RecordDate: |
29 August 2019 |
Jeff Parker is probably still best known for contributing guitar to the intricate, genre-hopping compositions of Chicagoan post-rock group Tortoise – and his excellent 2020 solo album Suite for Max Brown certainly emphasised what a keen compositional imagination he possesses. But it's worth remembering that he's also a member of the AACM and is entirely at home in freely improvised musical contexts, as is made abundantly clear on this date coordinated by Chicago-based saxophonist and label boss Dave Rempis. There are plenty of moments of all-out free-jazz blowing in the two long tracks that dominate the album – with Rempis pushing his alto into stratospheric regions while the rhythm section boil and burn – during which Parker deals out choppy little chords. But it's in some of the more unexpected moments that he really steps up. When the rest of the band drop out, he builds a solo construction of volume pedal stutters and swells and weird, muffled swerves and spurts. A chunky funk break down in the second set elicits some crisply clipped playing from Parker that slots into the groove with a clockwork precision. He's clearly having a ball.

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