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Rocket Science: Rocket Science
ByEvans also regularly performs solo. His extended technique brings new sounds and a 'beyond-category' approach to his instrument. Just the man for saxophonist Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble, which can swell to over two dozen players. Evans pares down Parker's ensemble to just four players, adding pianist Craig Tabornwho played on Parker's Transatlantic Art Ensemble recording Boustrophedon (ECM, 2008)and Sam Pluta a composer, laptop improviser, and sound artist. Evans has recorded several discs with Pluta, their finest release being Ghosts (More Is More, 2011).
With a unit like Rocket Science, Evan Parker (who is approaching 70) can finally realize his improvising conception of real time electronic processing, improvisation, and extended technique.
This, their inaugural release, was recorded in 2012 at the Vortex Jazz Club in London. The sound is presented with no overdubs or edits, and the quartet falls into a comfortable, yet restless sound. The agitation works to the ensemble's advantage throughout. Parker's fluttered notes graze, abrade, and seduce the intimate and intricate piano playing Taborn, the same sound the like of which he revealed on his solo disc Avenging Angel (ECM, 2011).
Next to Parker sits Evans, who is perhaps the trumpet equivalent to Parker's saxophone. Both have developed (Parker over forty years, Evan just ten) a distinctive signature sound that is beyond the jazz idiom. The wildcard here is Pluta, who stealthily (in real time) manipulates sound, adds some buzz, vibrations, and the whirl of a hard drive. The quartet engages in a variety of sound, emotion, and tension release.
A fine debut for a very promising ensemble.
Track Listing
Track Fluid Dynamics; Life Support Systems; Flutter; Noise Control.
Personnel
Evan Parker: tenor saxophone; soprano saxophone; Craig Taborn: piano; Sam Pluta: laptop; Peter Evans: trumpet, piccolo trumpet.
Album information
Title: Rocket Science | Year Released: 2013 | Record Label: More Is More Records
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