WILLIAM PARKER
Raining On the Moon
Thirsty Ear
THI 57119.2


Maybe this album should be subtitled: The Soul of William Parker.
For if commercial R&B music was as concerned about dealing with real urban problems and solutions rather than blow, bling bling and booty this CD would be a best seller. Instead it's just an exceptional session in the jazz ghetto.

But what a "just" that is. To put it in perspective, imagine if a sophisticated singer with the clear diction and blusiness of Dinah Washington had recorded with bassist Charles Mingus' 1960 combo featuring saxist Eric Dolphy, pocket trumpeter Ted Curson and drummer Dannie Richmond. Also assume that the quartet was working with the sort of sound Ray Charles' small groups of the time excelled in, with Charles' arranger, alto saxophonist Hank Crawford, sometimes spelling Dolphy in the band.

That may sound fanciful, but it approximates the lineage of these eight tunes with music and often lyrics by bassist Parker. His associates here are fellow New Yorkers Lewis "Flip" Barnes on trumpet, Rob Brown on alto saxophone and flute, Chicagoan Hamid Drake on drums, plus vocalist Leena Conquest, a dancer and singer who has also worked with Parker associate pianist Cooper-Moore.

Centrepiece here is the more-than-14 minute title track, which Parker calls a "folk tale song laced in dream and vision". Calling on Drake's accompanist talents this freebop line features Brown creating his best R&B-inflected smears while Barnes produces half-valve explosions. With lyrics enlivened by a surrealistic take on utopian social protest, it's as if someone had soldered together the visions contained in Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited" and Gil Scott Heron's "We Almost Lost Detroit". Additionally Conquest's crystalline delivery suggests that someone such as her is a real soul diva, not ersatz emotionalists like Mary J. Blige or Whitney Houston.

Another standout is "James Baldwin To the Rescue", which was recorded with a different vocalist in 1999 by Parker's Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra. Here, though, the Dadaist lyrics should probably be appreciated more as sound than content, though Conquests still gives them her all. Throughout she gets keen support from Parker's steady slap bass, plus skin-tight, phrase-echoing obbligatos from the saxophonist who sometimes dips into tenor sax range. Then there's the whimsical "Watermelon Song", whose lyrics riff on alternative realities. The song is short enough and the vibe so party-hearty that it could be a single -- that is if jazz singles still existed.

A couple of other numbers find Parker improvising on the donso ngoni, a six-stringed African hunter's harp. Related to his interest in folk and world musics that also find expression in his membership in Bill Cole's Untempered Ensemble, it was trumpeter Don Cherry who introduced him to the instrument in 1974. On "Donso Ngoni" he plays the African instrument like a folk guitar, while Conquest channels her inner Judy Collins, meanwhile Drake's African percussion and Brown flute confirm the sound's shared African heritage on "Music Song".

Not that Parker's bass playing is neglected however. Subtle and smooth when he wants to be, he has such a command of his chosen axe that the velocity and vibrations from his more directed pizzicato work can sometimes sound as if he's yanking a string the width of a dock side cable.

Along with its other attributes, RAINING ON THE MOON proves that Parker could put together the world's heaviest acoustic funk band if he wished. Besides that accomplishment here, we can only hope that this session becomes as popular as 1961's NANCY WILSON & CANNONBALL ADDERLEY, which introduced that singer to hard-core jazz fans. It's high time Conquest, another ingenious vocalist, got a proper showcase.


-- Ken Waxman


Track Listing: 1. Hunk Pappa Blues 2. Song Of Hope+ 3. Old Tears 4. Raining On the Moon+ 5. Music Song*+^ 6. The Watermelon Song+ 7. James Baldwin To The Rescue+ 8. Donso Ngoni*+


Personnel: Lewis "Flip" Barnes (trumpet); Rob Brown (alto saxophone, flute^); William Parker (bass, donso ngoni*); Hamid Drake (drums); Leena Conquest (vocals+)