William Parker/In Order to Survive - ShapeShifter Live

The Guardian 80

(AUM Fidelity)
The distinguished bassist steers his talented band through a dynamic fusion of classic and contemporary in this live set

The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD once described the Bronx-born bassist and composer William Parker as “the most influential bassist/leader since Mingus”. It was a big shout, Parker being a more austere artist than Charles Mingus (a charismatic weaver of gospel, blues, and elegant Ellingtonian harmony) but he has been a three-decade inspiration to musical adventurers. Influenced by unique pianist Cecil Taylor (his former boss), Sun Ra and “conduction” innovator Butch Morris, Parker has drawn on deep resources from the jazz tradition, from the cultural roots of Africa and the Americas, and from European free-jazz.

Parker began his small-band project, In Order to Survive, in 1993 with postbop-to-free pianist Cooper-Moore, and this live set from Brooklyn’s ShapeShifter Lab in 2017 joins the pair with the Ornette Coleman-esque alto saxist Rob Brown and the rumblingly dynamic drummer Hamid Drake. A five-part suite, Eternal Is the Voice of Love, opens as a caustically toned free-jazz sway, but the group’s ruggedly intuitive harmoniousness is always present. A long-postponed Parker bass hook sets off a bumping groove, the leader plays a quavering flute passage that borders on a spiritual, Drum & Bass Interlude pitches and rattles like an old train, and the title track launches a tramping rock backbeat for Brown to wail and circle around Parker’s lurching, hoarsely hollering repetition of the title words. This is music straight out of the rebellious sensibility of the 60s African-American jazz avant garde – but it’s pithily inviting, contemporary and always welcome.