US4: My Scandinavian Blues (A Tribute to Horace Parlan)
Author: Brian Priestley
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
Tomas Franck (ts) |
Label: |
Stunt |
Magazine Review Date: |
November/2016 |
Catalogue Number: |
STUCD16012 CD+DVD |
RecordDate: |
5-6 November 2014 |
This international venture, recorded in Denmark and filmed by a German company, celebrates the music of Horace Parlan. The colleague of Mingus, Dexter Gordon and Archie Shepp, among others, had a truly distinctive piano sound, while his tunes such as ‘Us Three’ and ‘Arrival’ span the distance from 1960s soul-blues to post-bop-modal. Twelve of them are covered by a dynamic quartet of two Danes (Clausen and Pedersen), Swedish tenorman Franck (well-remembered from Roy Haynes's album My Shining Hour) and the ‘impossible’ Nussbaum, with vocalist Eeg singing two Parlan tunes enhanced by UK lyricist Susie Scraigg. Six of the same takes are on the DVD interpreted by movie director Volker Schöwerling as separate videos, some of them arty interpretations of the music, some focusing on the musicians in the studio and some on interview material by Clausen and the 85-year-old composer.
No longer performing himself but wheelchair-bound, paralysed and blind, Parlan's participation has in effect created a premature memorial which, while it doesn't replace the original recordings, is a compelling and moving experience in itself.
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