WILLIAM PARKER & HAMID DRAKE
Volume 1: Piercing the Veil
AUM Fidelity
AUM017


William Parker and Hamid Drake have been cutting trails into the jazz landscape since their first meeting under the guidance of Peter Brotzmann. They are known for taking both conventional and unconventional approaches to their instruments to assert that anything is possible in music. They are members of a diverse club, perhaps most easily identified with methods similar to those of multi-instrumentalist Sam Rivers: their playing is more often melodic than fueled by circular abandon. But they are also comfortable in freer settings. Listening to a random selection of records with Parker and Drake is an experience that is likely to be both pleasurable and demonstrative. Most importantly, for all that they have done and continue to do, Parker and Drake answer a question that plagues jazz artists and fans alike, one that contains the implications and the agony of a Zen koan. You can create and inspire with conventional rhythms in a world as controversial and ridden with detractors as the one we call "free jazz."

On their new, anxiously awaited duo record, Parker and Drake pursue a different avenue, one that can only be explored by brothers of the same spiritual seed. Piercing the Veil is not a date that revolves around any theoretical or compositional axis. It is more a sharing of varied ideas--perhaps pedagogy--both influential and philosophical. Their appreciation for and connection with other cultures comes to us in full force, and without hazard.

On one level, contradictory to the mystique suggested in the title, Parker and Drake deliver simplicity on Piercing the Veil. However, simplicity is wittingly complemented by the unexpected.

A small number of the selections are contagious drum-bass rhythms, colored by innovation and the offbeat. The record's first cut, "Black Cherry," is a fade-out teaser that seems to continue where the duo left off following their recent work with Roy Campbell's Pyramid Trio, where Drake is a new member. "Chatima" finds Parker with the bow, combing high on the strings with double-stops and dissonant chords. Drake interjects sporadically underneath and follows with a melange of patterns that stroll through several time measures, 6/8, 4/4 and 2/4. Although the tune starts off strong, the duo's intentions are never fully revealed during "Chatima." The strongest of the drum-bass tracks is "Loom Song," an improvised walking composition that features Parker's heavy pizzicato technique. The bassist spends much of the tune exploring single notes by alternating octaves and plucking style. This rudimentary experiment is nicely augmented by returns to scales that are broken and subsequently built upon. Drake is in fine form here, and the duo clearly exhibits their almost telepathic communication skills.

The remaining majority of the numbers features Parker and Drake characteristically stretching out with obscure instrumentation-by far the most enjoyable aspect of the date. They are masterful in these abstract settings, such as with "Japeru," a slow, spiritual progression. The song pays tribute to African influences with Parker on the Japanese shakahachi flute and Drake on tablas and frame drum. It is a pensive piece, trance-like in ¾ time, which has the tablas tuned around the tonal center of the flute. "Nur al Anwar," has a militaristic, Middle Eastern beat, driven by Drake on percussion-the title alludes to an homage for fallen Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat. Reverence is heard in Parker's bombard (think of a wooden oboe in the alto register); there is no unfolding theme, rather there is a captivating presence that could only be conveyed with sincerity. "Bodies Die/Spirits Live" also features bombard and gravitates more toward jazz tradition. "Chaung Tzu's Dream," a composition for percussion, is an eight-plus minute blend of African and Eastern rhythms, this time with Drake on tablas and Parker wielding the slit drum. The percussion resonates, at times resembling marimbas, and wood blocks at others. The duo is connected in all of the music, both in tempo and in transmission.

While the drum-bass numbers are enjoyable, the supplementary music is the unquestionable core of Piercing the Veil. Regardless of the sometimes-abrupt transitions that reside between attitudes of the tracks, there is a discernible cohesiveness in the whole of the music. Piercing the Veil is an intriguing journey along foreign interests, piloted by two of the more prolific minds in creative music.


Alan Jones


Track Listing: 1. Black Cherry; 2. Chatima; 3. Heavenly Walk; 4. Japeru; 5. Nur al Anwar; 6. Piercing the Veil; 7. Loom Song; 8. Chaung Tzu's Dream; 9. Bodies Die/Spirits Live


Personnel: Hamid Drake, drums, bells, tablas, frame drum; William Parker, bass, balafone, slit drum, shakahachi, bombard, dumbek