Evan Parker

The manifesto of Parker's art was The Topography of the Lungs (july 1970), notably the 20-minute Titan Moon and the twelve-minute Dogmeat, for a trio with guitarist Derek Bailey and percussionist Han Bennink.

For the next few years a duo with drummer Paul Lytton became Parker's main vehicle for experimenting with noise and home-made instruments. That duo was best documented in the 13-minute each Shaker and Lytton Perdu, off Collective Calls (april 1972), in the 28-minute The Theatre of the World and Photic Diversions (june 1973) and the 29-minute The Night the Ariel Left Harwich and Other Synchronicities (july 1974), off Three Other Stories (Parker on soprano and tenor saxophones, lyttonophone, dopplerphone, khene, ocarina and voice, Lytton on percussion and live electronics), then in the 42-minute Two Horn'd Reasoning Cloven Fiction (november 1975), off Two Octobers (Parker on soprano and tenor saxophones, Lytton on percussion and live electronics), and finally in the 38-minute live Ra 1+2 (june 1976).

But Parker soon became, first and foremost, the British master of the soprano saxophone solo: the barbaric Saxophone Solos (september 1975), the virtuoso Monoceros (april 1978), the live At the Finger Palace (november 1978) and the almost supernatural Six of One (june 1980) implemented the view of the improviser as a unity of body and mind. He himself described it as a circus-like art of juggling and acrobatics in order to fill the acoustic space. He achieved that goal by employing both circular breathing (a` la Roland Kirk) in order to extend duration and tongue techniques that enabled rapid successions of notes of very short durations. He could thus mix sustained overtones and the saxophone equivalent of polyrhythms, and create an extremely versatile language that mirrored the way people speak more than the way musicians usually play music.

The Parker-Lytton duo became a trio with the addition of bassist Barry Guy and, while losing some of its irreverent, dadaistic, provocative overtones, heralded an austere form of trio improvisation as both Guy and Lytton kept expanding the range of their instruments by using amplification and live electronics. Tracks (january 1983), with the 19-minute Sidetrack, and Hook Drift and Shuffle (february 1983), a collaboration with American trombonist George Lewis that included the 34-minute Drift, led to Atlanta (december 1986), containing four lengthy improvisations Atlanta (25 minutes), The Snake as Road Sign (17 minutes) and Geometry (20 minutes). The trio became a staple of the improvising community thanks to yearly recordings: Imaginary Values (march 1993), the twelve Breaths and Heartbeats (december 1994), the live The Redwood Session (june 1995), Natives and Aliens (may 1996), a collaboration with pianist Marilyn Crispell, the live At The Vortex (june 1996), the live At Les Instants Chavires (december 1997), with the 38-minute Three-legged Chicken, the double-CD After Appleby (june 1999), a second collaboration With pianist Marilyn Crispell, highlighted by the 20-minute Blue Star Kachina, the 25-minute Where Heart Revive and the 51-minute live jam Capnomantic Vortex.

Parker's solo work continued to pursue a more intense form of music (although a bit more introverted) via The Snake Decides (january 1986), the monumental Conic Sections (june 1989), the sixteen short pieces of Process and Reality (may 1991), that first used overdubs, Chicago Solo (november 1995), his first solo tenor album, and Lines Burnt in Light (october 2001). His duos included Obliquities (december 1994) with Barry Guy, Tempranillo (november 1995) with Spanish pianist Agusti Fernandez, Most Materiall (february 1997) with percussionist Eddie Prevost, Here Now (january 1998) with cellist and trombonist Guenter Christmann.

In the 1990s Parker got intrigued by the electronic sounds that he experimented on Hall of Mirrors (february 1990), a collaboration with Walter Prati, and Dividuality (february 1997) and Solar Wind (january 1997), two collaborations With Lawrence Casserley. The Parker-Lytton-Guy trio became an Electro-acoustic Ensemble with the addition of Philipp Wachsmann (violin, viola, live electronics, and sound processing of Guy's and his own playing), Walter Prati (live electronics, and sound processing of Parker's playing) and Marco Vecchi (live electronics and sound processing of Lytton's playing) on the groundbreaking Toward the Margins (may 1996), the elegantly alien Drawn Inward (december 1998), that also featured Lawrence Casserley (also on live electronics and sound processing), the live Memory/Vision (october 2002), with Agusti Fernandez on prepared piano and Joel Ryan on computer besides Wachsmann, Prati, Vecchi and Casserley, and The Eleventh Hour (november 2004), that added sampling keyboards (operated by Richard Barrett and Paul Obermayer) to the acoustic, electronic and digital arsenal of Memory/Vision. Parker was moving towards a music for soundsculptors, not just post-jazz improvisers, but, after all, he had always been a soundsculptor himself.

Parker added the ethnic element to his electro-acoustic experiments on the live Synergetics: Phonomanie III (september 1993), that mixed Vecchi and Prati with George Lewis, Korean vocalist Sainkho Namchylak, bassist Motoharu Yoshizawa, African percussionist Thebe Lipere, Vietnamese komungo harpist Jin Hi Kim and Carlos Mariani on "luaaneddas" (sort of electronic bagpipes).

Foxes Fox (july 1999) debuted a quartet with Steve Beresford on piano, John Edwards on bass and Louis Moholo on drums, that returned after a five-year hiatus with Naan Tso (october 2004).

At the turn of the century Parker also collaborated with the drum'n'bass duo Spring Heel Jack, and recorded the two Dark Rags (january 2000) with Keith Rowe.

The double-CD Needles (april 2001) debuted a trio with violinist Philipp Wachsmann and bassist Teppo Hauta-aho.

The double-CD America 2003 (may 2003) was a collaboration with Alex Schlippenbach and Paul Lytton. The idea was expanded on Bishop's Move (march 2003) to include Peter Broetzmann, bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake.

Parker collaborated with Spring Heel Jack and percussionist Mark Sanders on Trio With Interludes (2004).

Boustrophedon (september 2004) documents a live performance by the Transatlantic Art Ensemble (Parker, Roscoe Mitchell on saxophones, Anders Svanoe on alto saxophone, Corey Wilkes on trumpet, John Rangecroft on clarinet, Neil Metcalfe on flute, Nils Bultmann on viola, Philipp Wachsmann on violin, Marcio Mattos on cello, Craig Taborn on piano, Jaribu Shahid on double bass, Barry Guy on double bass, Tani Tabbal on percussion, Paul Lytton on drums).

Time Lapse (2007) collects solo recordings from 1996-2001.

Evan Parker/Ned Rothenberg (october 2006) collects live improvisations with reed player Ned Rothenberg.

A Glancing Blow (august 2006) with John Edwards on double bass and Chris Corsano on percussion included A Glancing Blow (28.31) and Out of the Pocket (47.53).

Topos (march 2006) is a collaboration between pianist Agusti Fernandez, Parker, bassist Barry Guy and percussionist Paul Lytton.

Parallelisms (february 2007), featuring the 18-minute Spore Attic Basement, was recorded by a trio with trumpeter Herb Robertson and pianist Agusti Fernandez.

A Life Saved By A Spider And Two Doves (september 2007) documents collaborations with Max Eastley on "electro-acoustic monochord", Graham Halliwell on computer and electronics, Mark Wastell on percussion: A Carp Gives a Lesson in Perseverance (15.53), Human Fireflies (14.27), The Chessboard Cherry Tree (16.51).

Free Zone Appleby (july 2006) is a collaboration with Italian guitarist Paolo Angeli and Ned Rothenberg.

Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble featured a large line-up, with Peter Evans (trumpet), Ko Ishikawa (sho), Ned Rothenberg (clarinet), Philipp Wachsmann (violin, live electronics), Agustí Fernandez (prepared piano), Barry Guy (double-bass), Paul Lytton (percussion, live electronics), and others on their The Moment's Energy (november 2007).

Set (composed in 2003) features Barry Guy (bass), Paul Lytton (tympani, percussion, live electronics), the Furt-duo Richard Barrett/Paul Obermayer (on electronics), Lawrence Casserley (signal processing instrument), Walter Prati (live processing) and Marco Vecchi (sound projection).

Twine (february 2007) was a collaboration with saxophonist Urs Leimgruber.

C-Section (Second Layer, 2009) was a collaboration with noise-maker John Wiese.

House Full Of Floors (june 2009) features John Edwards on bass, John Russell on guitar and Aleks Kolkowski on viola.

Parker founded the Townhouse Orchestra with pianist Sten Sandell, bassist Håker Flaten and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love. They debuted with the double-disc Belle Ville (february 2007).

Whitstable Solo (july 2008) collected soprano saxophone solos.

Psalms (september 2009) was a duet between Evan Parker on tenor sax and Sten Sandell on church organ.

Nightwork (january 2010) documents two live jams by Evan Parker (on soprano and tenor saxes), Barry Guy (on double bass) and Paul Lytton (drums and percussion:. Cohobation (39 minutes) and Cupellation (22 minutes).

Scenes In the House Of Music (september 2009) was recorded by a quartet with Evan Parker (tenor and soprano saxes), Peter Evans (trumpet), Barry Guy (bass) and Paul Lytton (drums).

The live Brot & Honig (october 1999) documents a collaboration between Evan Parker and the Ton Art Ensemble, including the 36-minute Brot & Honig the 37-minute Syrah & Papidoux (composed by Nicola Kruse).

Full Bloom (june 2008) documents a collaboration with pianist Uwe Oberg.

It Won't Be Called Broken Chair (recorded in 2006) documents a collaboration between Misha Mengelberg and Evan Parker. At Somewhere There (february 2009) collects 40 minutes of improvisation by Parker, drummer Joe Sorbara and bassist Wes Neal. Trance Map (october 2008 to february 2011) documents collaborations between Parker and Matthew Wright (live sampling, turntables and sound design.

Near Nadir (august 2010) documents a live collaboration between percussionist Mark Nauseef, Ikue Mori (on electronics), Evan Parker (on soprano sax), and bassist and composer Bill Laswell.

Together In Zero Space (2009) was a live collaboration between Parker and Grutronic, a project that features Stephen Grew (keyboards, processing), Richard Scott (wigi, buchla lightning, blippoo box), Nick Grew (transduction), and David Ross (drosscillator).

The Bleeding Edge (may 2010) documents sessions with Okkyung Lee (cello) and Peter Evans (trumpets).

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