(Free Jazz, Free Improvisation) Evan Parker - House Full Of Floors (Tzadik 7632) - 2009, MP3 (tracks), 320 kbps

On an inside panel of the booklet for House Full of Floors, Evan Parker’s second release for John Zorn’s Tzadik imprint (and his third album of 2009), he writes simply of the session as if framing a poem: “The plan was to / record the trio. / Aleks Kolkowski / came to make some / wax cylinder recordings / and he stayed / to play some / quartet pieces.” The truth of the matter is, this is hardly disingenuous. The recording actually sounds exactly like its description. Parker, guitarist John Russell, and bassist John Edwards are featured on the majority of this beautiful set in a series of trios and duets that are knotty, subtle, and deeply intuitive improvisational pieces. Kolkowski joins them on a Stroh viola, the saw, and wax cylinder recorder on two tracks as well. Parker’s signature as an improviser is immediate. Whether it’s a series of single-note lines and phrases or tonal clusters rushing out of his tenor or soprano, the control is total. A prime example is “Ca-la-ba-son,” an 11-minute trio piece where we first hear Russell’s acoustic guitar before some breathy elongated tones on Parker’s tenor. Edwards is hammering ever so lightly on the strings of his bass as an empathic rhythmic force. Parker’s sense of “melody” quickly asserts itself and Russell is then coloring the spaces between. It’s a very fast shift, but one that is so precise and intuitive that it could have been scripted. Of course, exchanges happen here, and Parker doesn’t need to control the language of his partners. Players take turns bleeding out the edge with unique techniques in order to follow the sound in the very moment it’s being created. ...
Catalog #
2009 CD Tzadik Records TZ7632
John Edwards Bass
Caroline Forbes Photography
Evan Parker Sax (Soprano), Sax (Tenor), Producer
John Russell Guitar
Kazunori Sugiyama Associate Producer
John Zorn Executive Producer