Evan Parker
Encyclopedia
Evan Shaw Parker is a British
free-improvising
saxophone
player from the European free jazz
scene.
Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz
and free improvisation
, and has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques. Critic Ron Wynn
describes Parker as "[a]mong Europe's most innovative and intriguing saxophonists ... his solo sax work isn't for the squeamish."
, and in recent years the influence of cool jazz
saxophone players has again become apparent in his music — there are tributes to Warne Marsh
and Lee Konitz
on Time Will Tell (ECM, 1993) and Chicago Solo (Okkadisk, 1997).
, Pharoah Sanders
, Albert Ayler
and others — and forged his own, instantly identifiable style. His music of the 1960s and 1970s is harsh, raw and unsettling, involving fluttering, swirling lines that have shape rather than tangible melodic content; sometimes he makes use of pure sound in a manner that recalls Steve Lacy
's more radical 1970s recordings or the work of some AACM members. He began to develop methods of rapidly layering harmonics and false notes to create dense contrapuntal
weaves; these involved experiments with plastic reeds, circular breathing
and rapid tonguing which initially were so intense that he would find blood dripping onto the floor from the saxophone. He also became a member of the important big band, The Brotherhood of Breath
.
Later recordings are equally impressive but rather less thorny, and more consistent in style, as Parker's style became less open to change; but an Evan Parker recording is still always something to contend with, and some of his recent discs, such as America 2003, are as gripping and satisfying as any of his earlier recordings.
Parker has also increasingly become interested in electronics
, usually through inviting collaborators such as Phil Wachsmann
, Walter Prati, Joel Ryan or Lawrence Casserley
to electronically process his playing in real time, creating a musical feedback
loop or constantly shifting soundscape
.
Parker has recorded a large number of albums both solo or as a group leader, and has recorded or performed with Peter Brötzmann
(including Brötzmann's epochal Machine Gun in 1968 and Michael Nyman
's "Waltz in F
" (1981)), John Stevens
, Derek Bailey, Keith Rowe
, Joe McPhee
, Anthony Braxton
, Cecil Taylor
, John Zorn
, Fred Frith
, Bill Laswell
, Ikue Mori
, Cyro Baptista
, Milford Graves
, George Lewis
, Tim Berne
, Mark Dresser
, Dave Holland
, Sylvie Courvoisier
, and many others. Two key associations have been pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach
's trio with Parker and drummer Paul Lovens
(documented on recordings such as Pakistani Pomade and Elf Bagatellen) and a trio with bassist Barry Guy
and drummer Paul Lytton
. On Parker's 50th birthday, these two bands played a set apiece at a London concert; the results were issued by Leo Records
as 50th Birthday Concert.
Parker is one of the few saxophone players for whom unaccompanied solo performance is a major part of his work.
Parker, Bailey and the drummer Tony Oxley
founded the Incus record label in 1970. The label continued under Bailey's sole control, after a falling-out between the two men in the early 1980s. Currently Parker curates the Psi record label, which is issued through Martin Davidson's Emanem records. He also performs monthly at London's Vortex Jazz Club
.
Though Parker's central focus is free improvisation, he has also occasionally appeared in more conventional jazz contexts, such as Charlie Watts
's big band and Kenny Wheeler
's ensembles, and participated in Gavin Bryars
's recording After the Requiem, performing the composition "Alaric I or II" as part of a saxophone quartet.
Parker has recently contributed to David Sylvian
's release Manafon
.
He also has appeared in pop-music contexts: on Scott Walker
's Climate of Hunter, and on dubesque
albums with Jah Wobble
, the adventurous drum n bass duo Spring Heel Jack
and rock
group Spiritualized
. He appeared on the b-side to Vic Reeves
and The Wonderstuff's UK 1991 number one hit "Dizzy", performing saxophone on "Oh, Mr Songwriter" (based around "Vic Reeves Big Night Out
" TV show end theme song). At one point during a sax solo, Vic can be heard shouting "Pack it in, Parker!".
Parker has also made notable appearances on record with Robert Wyatt
.
With Han Bennink
With Borah Bergman
With Paul Bley
With Anthony Braxton
With Peter Brötzmann
With Gavin Bryars
With Lawrence Casserley
With Marilyn Crispell
With Alvin Curran
With Pierre Favre
With Joe Gallivan
With the Globe Unity Orchestra
With Paul Haines
With Steve Lacy
With Chris McGregor
With Roscoe Mitchell
With Louis Moholo
With The Music Improvising Company
With Michael Nyman
With Tony Oxley
With Eddie Prévost
With Ned Rothenberg
With Manfred Schoof
With Alexander von Schlippenbach
With the Spontaneous Music Ensemble
With Spring Heel Jack
With John Stevens
With David Sylvian
with Cecil Taylor
With Stan Tracey
With Scott Walker
With Kenny Wheeler
With Robert Wyatt
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
free-improvising
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
saxophone
Saxophone
The saxophone is a conical-bore transposing musical instrument that is a member of the woodwind family. Saxophones are usually made of brass and played with a single-reed mouthpiece similar to that of the clarinet. The saxophone was invented by the Belgian instrument maker Adolphe Sax in 1846...
player from the European free jazz
European free jazz
European free jazz is a part of the global free jazz scene with its own development and characteristics. It is hard to establish who are the founders of European free jazz because of the different developments in different European countries...
scene.
Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz
Free jazz
Free jazz is an approach to jazz music that was first developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Though the music produced by free jazz pioneers varied widely, the common feature was a dissatisfaction with the limitations of bebop, hard bop, and modal jazz, which had developed in the 1940s and 1950s...
and free improvisation
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
, and has pioneered or substantially expanded an array of extended techniques. Critic Ron Wynn
Ron Wynn
Ron Wynn is a music critic, author, and allmusic editor. Wynn was the editor of the first edition of The All Music Guide to Jazz , and from 1993 to 1994 served as the jazz and rap editor of the All Music Guide. Wynn is the former editor of New Memphis Star and the former chief jazz and pop music...
describes Parker as "[a]mong Europe's most innovative and intriguing saxophonists ... his solo sax work isn't for the squeamish."
Early influences
His original inspiration was Paul DesmondPaul Desmond
Paul Desmond , born Paul Emil Breitenfeld, was a jazz alto saxophonist and composer born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five"...
, and in recent years the influence of cool jazz
Cool jazz
Cool is a style of modern jazz music that arose following the Second World War. It is characterized by its relaxed tempos and lighter tone, in contrast to the bebop style that preceded it...
saxophone players has again become apparent in his music — there are tributes to Warne Marsh
Warne Marsh
Warne Marion Marsh was an American tenor saxophonist born in Los Angeles.-Biography:Marsh came from an affluent background: his father was the cinematographer Oliver T. Marsh , and his mother Elizabeth was a violinist...
and Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz
Lee Konitz is an American jazz composer and alto saxophonist born in Chicago, Illinois.Generally considered one of the driving forces of Cool Jazz, Konitz has also performed successfully in bebop and avant-garde settings...
on Time Will Tell (ECM, 1993) and Chicago Solo (Okkadisk, 1997).
Later work
Parker is better known, however, for his later work, which rapidly assimilated the American avantgarde — John ColtraneJohn Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders
Pharoah Sanders is a Grammy Award–winning American jazz saxophonist.Saxophonist Ornette Coleman once described him as "probably the best tenor player in the world." Emerging from John Coltrane's groups of the mid-60s Sanders is known for his overblowing, harmonic, and multiphonic techniques on...
, Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler
Albert Ayler was an American avant-garde jazz saxophonist, singer and composer.Ayler was among the most primal of the free jazz musicians of the 1960s; critic John Litweiler wrote that "never before or since has there been such naked aggression in jazz" He possessed a deep blistering tone—achieved...
and others — and forged his own, instantly identifiable style. His music of the 1960s and 1970s is harsh, raw and unsettling, involving fluttering, swirling lines that have shape rather than tangible melodic content; sometimes he makes use of pure sound in a manner that recalls Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
's more radical 1970s recordings or the work of some AACM members. He began to develop methods of rapidly layering harmonics and false notes to create dense contrapuntal
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
weaves; these involved experiments with plastic reeds, circular breathing
Circular breathing
Circular breathing is a technique used by players of some wind instruments to produce a continuous tone without interruption. This is accomplished by breathing in through the nose while simultaneously pushing air out through the mouth using air stored in the cheeks.It is used extensively in playing...
and rapid tonguing which initially were so intense that he would find blood dripping onto the floor from the saxophone. He also became a member of the important big band, The Brotherhood of Breath
Brotherhood of Breath
The Brotherhood of Breath was a big-band created in the late 1960s by South African pianist/composer Chris McGregor , essentially an extension of McGregor's previous band The Blue Notes....
.
Later recordings are equally impressive but rather less thorny, and more consistent in style, as Parker's style became less open to change; but an Evan Parker recording is still always something to contend with, and some of his recent discs, such as America 2003, are as gripping and satisfying as any of his earlier recordings.
Parker has also increasingly become interested in electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...
, usually through inviting collaborators such as Phil Wachsmann
Phil Wachsmann
Phil Wachsmann is an African avant-garde jazz/jazz fusion violinist born in Kampala, Uganda, probably better known for having founded his own group Chamberpot. He has worked with many musicians in the free jazz idiom, including Tony Oxley, Fred van Hove, Barry Guy, Derek Bailey and Paul...
, Walter Prati, Joel Ryan or Lawrence Casserley
Lawrence Casserley
Lawrence Casserley is a composer, conductor and performer, to real time electro-acoustic music...
to electronically process his playing in real time, creating a musical feedback
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
loop or constantly shifting soundscape
Soundscape
A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology...
.
Recordings
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
(including Brötzmann's epochal Machine Gun in 1968 and Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
's "Waltz in F
Michael Nyman (1981 album)
Michael Nyman is the third album release by Michael Nyman and the second with the Michael Nyman Band, having previously contributed tracks to new music compilations...
" (1981)), John Stevens
John Stevens (drummer)
John William Stevens was an English drummer. He was one of the most significant figures in early free improvisation, and a founding member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble .-Biography:Stevens was born in Brentford, the son of a tap dancer...
, Derek Bailey, Keith Rowe
Keith Rowe
Keith Rowe is an English free improvisation tabletop guitarist and painter. Rowe is a founding member of both the hugely influential AMM in the mid-1960s and M.I.M.E.O. Having trained as a visual artist, Rowe's paintings have been featured on most of his own albums...
, Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee
Joe McPhee is an American jazz multi-instrumentalist born in Miami, Florida, a player of tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, the trumpet, flugelhorn and valve trombone...
, Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
, Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
, John Zorn
John Zorn
John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...
, Fred Frith
Fred Frith
Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
, Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell
Bill Laswell is an American bassist, producer and record label owner....
, Ikue Mori
Ikue Mori
, also known as Ikue Ile, is a drummer, composer, and graphic designer.-Biography:Ikue Mori was born and raised in Japan. She says she had little interest in music before hearing punk rock...
, Cyro Baptista
Cyro Baptista
Cyro Baptista is a Brazilian musician, teacher, and recording artist specializing in percussion in the genres of jazz and world music....
, Milford Graves
Milford Graves
Milford Graves is an American jazz drummer and percussionist, most noteworthy for his early avant-garde contributions in the early 1960s with Paul Bley and the New York Art Quartet...
, George Lewis
George Lewis (trombonist)
George E. Lewis is a trombone player, composer, and scholar in the fields of jazz and experimental music. He has been a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians since 1971, and is a pioneer of computer music.- Biography :Lewis graduated from Yale University with a...
, Tim Berne
Tim Berne
Tim Berne is an American jazz saxophone player and composer.Described by critic Thom Jurek as commanding "considerable power as a composer and ... frighteningly deft ability as a soloist," Berne has composed and performed prolifically since the 1980s...
, Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser is an American double bass player and composer.-Biography:He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne,...
, Dave Holland
Dave Holland
Dave Holland is an English jazz double bassist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States for 40 years....
, Sylvie Courvoisier
Sylvie Courvoisier
Sylvie Courvoisier is a Swiss composer and pianist.Courvoisier was born and raised in Switzerland. In 1998, she moved to Brooklyn, New York, where she currently resides. She co-leads the Sylvie Courvoisier/Mark Feldman Quartet and leads her own quintet, Lonelyville, and the Trio Abaton...
, and many others. Two key associations have been pianist Alexander von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach is a German jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...
's trio with Parker and drummer Paul Lovens
Paul Lovens
Paul Lovens is a musician. He plays drums, percussion, singing saw and various selected and unselected cymbals. He has also performed with the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra and Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra....
(documented on recordings such as Pakistani Pomade and Elf Bagatellen) and a trio with bassist Barry Guy
Barry Guy
Barry John Guy is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe...
and drummer Paul Lytton
Paul Lytton
Paul Lytton is an English free jazz percussionist.Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began experimenting with free improvisational music, working in a duo with saxophonist Evan Parker. After...
. On Parker's 50th birthday, these two bands played a set apiece at a London concert; the results were issued by Leo Records
Leo Records
Leo Records is an English jazz record label, which releases Russian jazz in addition to material from American and British musicians.Leo Records was founded in 1979 by Leo Feigin , a Russian immigrant to Britain...
as 50th Birthday Concert.
Parker is one of the few saxophone players for whom unaccompanied solo performance is a major part of his work.
Parker, Bailey and the drummer Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley is an English free-jazz drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.-Biography:Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by age eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music...
founded the Incus record label in 1970. The label continued under Bailey's sole control, after a falling-out between the two men in the early 1980s. Currently Parker curates the Psi record label, which is issued through Martin Davidson's Emanem records. He also performs monthly at London's Vortex Jazz Club
Vortex Jazz Club
The Vortex Jazz Club is a London venue that primarily features live contemporary jazz. The club's official website features book reviews and jazz CD reviews by critic Chris Parker....
.
Though Parker's central focus is free improvisation, he has also occasionally appeared in more conventional jazz contexts, such as Charlie Watts
Charlie Watts
Charles Robert "Charlie" Watts is an English drummer, best known as a member of The Rolling Stones. He is also the leader of a jazz band, a record producer, commercial artist, and horse breeder.-Early life:...
's big band and Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
's ensembles, and participated in Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...
's recording After the Requiem, performing the composition "Alaric I or II" as part of a saxophone quartet.
Parker has recently contributed to David Sylvian
David Sylvian
David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
's release Manafon
Manafon (album)
Manafon is a 2009 album by David Sylvian. It is an avant-garde work combining elements of free improvisation, experimental rock and chamber music. It reached rank #6 in the The Wires list of best 2009 albums.- Production :...
.
Pop music
Scott Walker (singer)
Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel on January 9, 1943 is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and the former lead singer of The Walker Brothers. Despite being American born, Walker's chart success has largely come in the United Kingdom, where his first four solo albums...
's Climate of Hunter, and on dubesque
Dub music
Dub is a genre of music which grew out of reggae music in the 1960s, and is commonly considered a subgenre, though it has developed to extend beyond the scope of reggae...
albums with Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble
Jah Wobble is an English bass guitarist, singer, poet and composer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but left the band after two albums...
, the adventurous drum n bass duo Spring Heel Jack
Spring Heel Jack
Spring Heel Jack is an English electronic music group consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales.Formed in 1993 in London, England, Spring Heel Jack began their career exploring drum and bass and jungle, but have since branched out into free improvisation and jazz, collaborating with many acclaimed...
and rock
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
group Spiritualized
Spiritualized
Spiritualized are an English space rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire by Jason Pierce after the demise of his previous outfit, space-rockers Spacemen 3...
. He appeared on the b-side to Vic Reeves
Vic Reeves
James Roderick Moir , better known by the stage name Vic Reeves, is an English comedian, best known for his double act with Bob Mortimer . He is known for his surreal and non sequitur sense of humour....
and The Wonderstuff's UK 1991 number one hit "Dizzy", performing saxophone on "Oh, Mr Songwriter" (based around "Vic Reeves Big Night Out
Vic Reeves Big Night Out
Vic Reeves Big Night Out was a cult British comedy stage show and later TV series which ran on Channel 4 for two series in 1990 and 1991, as well as a New Year special...
" TV show end theme song). At one point during a sax solo, Vic can be heard shouting "Pack it in, Parker!".
Parker has also made notable appearances on record with Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
.
As leader
- The Topography of the LungsThe Topography of the LungsThe Topography of the Lungs was the first release on Incus Records, the record label founded by Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and Tony Oxley. It is generally considered a milestone of the free improvisation genre...
(Incus, 1970) - At the Unity Theatre with Paul LyttonPaul LyttonPaul Lytton is an English free jazz percussionist.Lytton began on drums at age 16. He played jazz in London in the late 1960s while taking lessons on the tabla from P.R. Desai. In 1969 he began experimenting with free improvisational music, working in a duo with saxophonist Evan Parker. After...
(Incus, 1975) - Saxophone Solos (Incus, 1976)
- Monoceros (Incus, 1978)
- Six of One (Incus, 1980)
- Incision with Barry GuyBarry GuyBarry John Guy is a British composer and double bass player. His range of interests encompasses early music, contemporary composition, jazz and improvisation, and he has worked with a wide variety of orchestras in the UK and Europe...
(FMP, 1980) - Tracks (Incus, 1983)
- Hook, Drift & Shuffle (Incus, 1985)
- The Snake DecidesThe Snake DecidesThe Snake Decides is an album by British jazz saxophonist Evan Parker. It was released in 1988 on Evan Parker and Derek Bailey's Incus Records label and rereleased on the Psi label in 2003. The album features four saxophone solos, recorded by sound engineer Michael Gerzon...
(Incus, 1986) - Atlanta (Impetus, 1990)
- Process and Reality (FMP, 1991)
- Conic Sections (AhUm, 1993)
- Synergenics - Phonomanie III (Leo, 1993)
- Imaginary Values with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton (Maya, 1994)
- 50th Birthday Concert (FMP, 1994)
- Obliquities with Barry Guy (Maya, 1995)
- Breaths and Heartbeats with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton (Rastacan, 1995)
- Chicago Solo (Okka Disc, 1995)
- At the Vortex with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton (Emanem, 1996)
- Toward the MarginsToward the MarginsToward the Margins is an album by British saxophonist and improvisor Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded in 1996 and released on the ECM New Series label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 1996) - Drawn InwardDrawn InwardDrawn Inward is an album by British saxophonist and improvisor Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded in 1998 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 1999) - Lines Burnt in Light (Psi, 2001)
- Memory/VisionMemory/VisionMemory/Vision is an album by British saxophonist and improvisor Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded in 2002 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 2002) - Set (Psi, 2003)
- The Eleventh HourThe Eleventh Hour (Evan Parker album)The Eleventh Hour is an album by British saxophonist and improvisor Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded in 2004 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 2004) - BoustrophedonBoustrophedon (album)Boustrphedon is a live album by free jazz saxophonist and composer Evan Parker and the Transatlantic Art Ensemble featuring Roscoe Mitchell recorded in Germany in 2004 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 2004) - Crossing the River (Psi, 2005)
- Time Lapse (Tzadik, 2006)
- The Moment's EnergyThe Moment's EnergyThe Moment's Energy is an album by British saxophonist and improvisor Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble recorded at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in 2007 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 2007) - Whitstable Solo (Psi, 2008)
- House Full of Floors (Tzadik, 2009)
As sideman
With Derek BaileyDerek Bailey
Derek Bailey was an English avant-garde guitarist and leading figure in the free improvisation movement.-Career summary:...
- The London Concert (Incus, 1976)
- Compatibles (Incus, 1986)
With Han Bennink
Han Bennink
Han Bennink is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. On occasion his recordings have featured his playing on clarinet, violin, banjo and piano....
- The Grass is Greener (Psi, 2000)
With Borah Bergman
Borah Bergman
Borah Bergman is an American free jazz pianist.Bergman learned clarinet as a child, and did not commence studies on piano until adulthood. He developed his left hand playing to the point where he became essentially ambidextrous as a pianist, and can play equally fast in both hands...
- The Fire Tale (Soul Note, 1994)
With Paul Bley
Paul Bley
Paul Bley, CM is a pianist known for his contributions to the free jazz movement of the 1960s as well as his innovations and influence on trio playing.-Biography:...
- Time Will TellTime Will Tell (Paul Bley album)Time Will Tell is an album by pianist Paul Bley, bassist Barre Phillips, and saxophonist Evan Parker recorded in 1994 and released on the ECM label in 1995.-Reception:...
(ECM, 1994) - Sankt GeroldSankt Gerold (album)Sankt Gerold is an album by pianist Paul Bley, bassist Barre Phillips, and saxophonist Evan Parker recorded in 1996 and released on the ECM label in 2000.-Reception:...
(ECM, 2000)
With Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton
Anthony Braxton is an American composer, saxophonist, clarinettist, flautist, pianist, and philosopher. Braxton has released well over 100 albums since the 1960s...
- Ensemble (Victoriaville) (Victo, 1988)
- Duo (London) 1993 (Leo, 1993)
- Trio (London) 1993 (Leo, 1993)
With Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann
Peter Brötzmann is a German artist and free jazz saxophonist and clarinetist.Brötzmann is among the most important European free jazz musicians. His rough, lyrical timbre is easily recognized on his many recordings.-Early life:...
- Machine Gun (FMP, 1968)
- NipplesNipples (album)Nipples is a 1969 album by free jazz saxophonist Peter Brötzmann, originally released on the Calig record label. The title track is performed by a sextet comprising Brötzmann , Evan Parker , Derek Bailey , Fred Van Hove , Han Bennink , and Buschi Niebergall...
(Calig, 1969)
With Gavin Bryars
Gavin Bryars
Richard Gavin Bryars is an English composer and double bassist. He has been active in, or has produced works in, a variety of styles of music, including jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, experimental music, avant-garde and neoclassicism.-Early life and career:Born in Goole, East...
- After the Requiem (ECM, 1991)
With Lawrence Casserley
Lawrence Casserley
Lawrence Casserley is a composer, conductor and performer, to real time electro-acoustic music...
- Solar Wind (Touch, 1997)
- Dividuality (Maya, 1997)
With Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell
Marilyn Crispell is an American jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:Crispell studied classical piano and composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. She has been a resident of Woodstock, NY since 1977 when she came to study and teach at Karl Berger's Creative Music Studio...
- Natives and Aliens (Leo, 1997)
- After Appleby (Leo, 1999)
With Alvin Curran
Alvin Curran
Composer Alvin Curran , is the co-founder, with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum, of Musica Elettronica Viva, and a former student of Elliott Carter. Curran's music often makes use of electronics and environmental found sounds....
- Real Time (Ictus, 1978)
With Pierre Favre
Pierre Favre (musician)
Pierre Favre is a Swiss jazz drummer and percussionist born in Le Locle, Switzerland, perhaps most noteworthy for his work with Irene Schweizer....
- Pierre Favre Quartet (Wergo, 1970)
With Joe Gallivan
Joe Gallivan
Joe Gallivan is an American jazz and avant-garde musician. He plays drums, percussion and synthesizer....
- Innocence (Cadence, 1992)
With the Globe Unity Orchestra
Globe Unity Orchestra
The Globe Unity Orchestra is a free jazz ensemble.Globe Unity was formed in autumn 1966 with a commission received by Alexander von Schlippenbach from the Berlin Jazz Festival...
- Hamburg 1974 (FMP, 1974)
- Rumbling (FMP, 1976)
- Pearls (FMP, 1977)
- Jahrmarkt/Local Fair (Po Torch, 1977)
- Improvisations (JAPO, 1978)
- Compositions (JAPO 1979)
- Intergalactic Blow (JAPO, 1982)
- 20th Anniversary (FMP, 1986)
- Globe Unity 2002(Intakt, 2002)
With Paul Haines
Paul Haines
Paul Haines is an award-winning New Zealand-born horror and speculative fiction writer. He lives in Melbourne, Australia with this wife and daughter....
- Darn It! (American Clavé, 1993)
With Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy
Steve Lacy , born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York City, was a jazz saxophonist and composer recognized as one of the important players of soprano saxophone....
- Saxophone Special (Emanem, 1975)
- Chirps (FMP, 1985)
- Three Blokes with Lol Coxhill (FMP, 1994)
With Chris McGregor
Chris McGregor
Christopher McGregor , was a South African jazz pianist, bandleader and composer born in Somerset West, South Africa.- Early influences :...
- Chris McGregor's Brotherhood of Breath Live at Willisau (Ogun, 1974)
- Procession (Ogun, 1978)
With Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell
Roscoe Mitchell is an African American composer, jazz instrumentalist and educator, mostly known for being "a technically superb—if idiosyncratic—saxophonist." He has been called "one of the key figures" in avant-garde jazz who has been "at the forefront of modern music" for the past...
- Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3Composition/Improvisation Nos. 1, 2 & 3 is a live album by jazz saxophonist and composer Roscoe Mitchell recorded in Germany in 2004 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:...
(ECM, 2004)
With Louis Moholo
Louis Moholo
Louis Tebugo Moholo , is a South African jazz drummer.He formed The Blue Notes with Chris McGregor, Johnny Dyani, Nikele Moyake, Mongezi Feza and Dudu Pukwana, and emigrated to Europe with them in 1964, eventually settling in London, where he formed part of a South African exile community that made...
- Spirits Rejoice! (Ogun, 1978)
- Bush Fire (Ogun, 1995)
With The Music Improvising Company
- The Music Improvising Company (ECM, 1970)
- The Music Improvising Company 1968-1971 (Incus, 1976)
With Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
- Michael NymanMichael Nyman (1981 album)Michael Nyman is the third album release by Michael Nyman and the second with the Michael Nyman Band, having previously contributed tracks to new music compilations...
(Piano, 1981)
With Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley
Tony Oxley is an English free-jazz drummer and one of the founders of Incus Records.-Biography:Tony Oxley was born in Sheffield, England. A self-taught pianist by age eight, he first began playing the drums at seventeen. While in the Black Watch military band from 1957 to 1960 he studied music...
- The Baptised Traveller (CBS, 1969)
- Four Compositions for Sextet (CBS, 1970)
- Ichnos (RCA, 1970)
- Tony Oxley (Incus, 1975)
With Eddie Prévost
Eddie Prévost
Edwin Prévost is an English drummer and percussionist.Prévost began as a jazz drummer before branching out into entirely improvised music. He was a co-founder of the group AMM, and remains its only constant member...
- Most Materiall (Matchless, 1997)
With Ned Rothenberg
Ned Rothenberg
Ned Rothenberg is an American multi-instrumentalist and composer. He specializes in woodwind instruments, including the alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and shakuhachi...
- Monkey Puzzle (Leo, 1997)
With Manfred Schoof
Manfred Schoof
Manfred Schoof is a German jazz trumpet player.He studied music in Kassel and Cologne.He is a founder of European free jazz and collaborated with Albert Mangelsdorff, Peter Brötzmann, Mal Waldron, and Irène Schweizer...
- European Echoes (FMP, 1969)
With Alexander von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach
Alexander von Schlippenbach is a German jazz pianist and composer.-Biography:...
- Pakistani Pomade (FMP, 1973)
- Three Nails Left (FMP, 1975)
- The Hidden Peak (FMP, 1977)
- Detto fra de Noi (Po Torch, 1982)
- Anticlockwise (FMP, 1983)
- Das Hohe Lied (Po Torch, 1991)
- Elf Bagatellen (FMP, 1991)
- Physics (FMP, 1996)
- Compete Combustion (FMP, 1998)
- Swinging the Bim (FMP, 1998)
- Gold is Where You Find It (Intakt, 2007)
With the Spontaneous Music Ensemble
Spontaneous Music Ensemble
The Spontaneous Music Ensemble was a loose collection of free improvising musicians convened beginning in the mid-1960s by the late South London-based jazz drummer/trumpeter John Stevens and alto and soprano saxophonist Trevor Watts...
- Karyobin (Island, 1968)
- Quintessence (Emanem, 1986)
With Spring Heel Jack
Spring Heel Jack
Spring Heel Jack is an English electronic music group consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales.Formed in 1993 in London, England, Spring Heel Jack began their career exploring drum and bass and jungle, but have since branched out into free improvisation and jazz, collaborating with many acclaimed...
- Masses (Thirsty Ear, 2001)
- Amassed (Thirsty Ear, 2002)
- Live (Thirsty Ear, 2003)
- The Sweetness of the Water (Thirsty Ear, 2004)
With John Stevens
John Stevens (drummer)
John William Stevens was an English drummer. He was one of the most significant figures in early free improvisation, and a founding member of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble .-Biography:Stevens was born in Brentford, the son of a tap dancer...
- Corner to Corner (Ogun, 1993)
With David Sylvian
David Sylvian
David Sylvian is an English singer-songwriter and musician who came to prominence in the late 1970s as the lead vocalist and main songwriter in the group Japan...
- ManafonManafon (album)Manafon is a 2009 album by David Sylvian. It is an avant-garde work combining elements of free improvisation, experimental rock and chamber music. It reached rank #6 in the The Wires list of best 2009 albums.- Production :...
(Samadhi Sound, 2009)
with Cecil Taylor
Cecil Taylor
Cecil Percival Taylor is an American pianist and poet. Classically trained, Taylor is generally acknowledged as one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an extremely energetic, physical approach, producing complex improvised sounds, frequently involving tone clusters and...
- The HearthThe HearthThe Hearth is a live album featuring a performance by Cecil Taylor with Tristan Honsinger and Evan Parker recorded in Berlin on June 30, 1988 as part of month long series of concerts by Taylor and released on the FMP label....
(FMP, 1988) - Alms/Tiergarten (Spree)Alms/Tiergarten (Spree)Alms/Tiergarten is a live album by Cecil Taylor with the Cecil Taylor European Orchestra recorded in Berlin on July 2, 1988 as part of month long series of concerts by Taylor and released on the FMP label....
(FMP, 1988) - MelancholyMelancholy (album)Melancholy is a live album by Cecil Taylor's Workshop Ensemble featuring Evan Parker, Barry Guy and Tony Oxley recorded on September 30, 1990 at the Bechstein Concert Hall in Berlin and released on the FMP label....
(FMP, 1990) - Nailed (FMP, 1990)
With Stan Tracey
Stan Tracey
Stanley William Tracey CBE is a British jazz pianist and composer, most influenced by Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk.-Early career:...
- Suspensions and Anticipations (Psi, 2003)
With Scott Walker
Scott Walker (singer)
Scott Walker, born Noel Scott Engel on January 9, 1943 is an American singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, and the former lead singer of The Walker Brothers. Despite being American born, Walker's chart success has largely come in the United Kingdom, where his first four solo albums...
- Climate of HunterClimate of HunterClimate of Hunter is the eleventh studio album by the American solo artist Scott Walker. It was released in March 1984 and reached number 60 on the UK Albums Chart. It includes the single "Track Three". It was also to be his only album of the 1980s....
(Virgin, 1984)
With Kenny Wheeler
Kenny Wheeler
Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC is a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. since the 1950s....
- Song for Someone (Incus, 1974)
- Around 6Around 6Around 6 is an album by trumpeter Kenny Wheeler recorded in 1979 and released on the ECM label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 4 stars stating "the sextet performs six Wheeler originals that combine together advanced swinging with fairly free explorations...
(ECM, 1979) - Music for Large & Small EnsemblesMusic For Large & Small EnsemblesMusic For Large & Small Ensembles is an album by Canadian jazz trumpeter, Kenny Wheeler which was released in 1990 through ECM Records.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 4½ stars.-Track listing:DISC 1: THE SWEET TIME SUITE:...
(ECM, 1990)
With Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt
Robert Wyatt is an English musician, and founding member of the influential Canterbury scene band Soft Machine, with a long and distinguished solo career...
- ShleepShleepShleep is the eighth album by Canterbury scene and progressive rock veteran and musician Robert Wyatt, released in 1997.The album brings together a diverse range of musicians from a range of genres.-Track listing:...
(Hannibal, 1997)