Cadence Magazine
February 1999
ELLERY ESKELIN/ANDREA PARKlNS/JIM BLACK
KULAK 29 & 30, HATOLOGY 521.
Departure Lounge/Fifty Nine/Rhyme or Reason/Organum/Visionary of the Week/Expubidence.
62:26
Eskelin, ts; Parkins, acc., sampler; Black, perc.
Oct. 29, 30, 1997. Kulak, Switzerland.
These three CDs have soemthing in common. Each makes arresting music out of a fresh
synthesis of bop elements, electronics andf free jazz. Eskelin is an elemental tenor
player, a musician who has increasingly fused his Rollins and Coltrane influences
with earlier players like Gene Ammons, adding potent R & B elements to an essentially free
Jazz style. In the trio with Parkins and Black he redefines interactivity, often
using Parkins' sampled materials as a springboard for his solos. That's not completely
new, but what is remarkable is the way Parkins is able to fully integrate her sampled
materials into the free give-and-take of a band's music, including some remarkable
bass parts. The result is a trio in which traditional values are both reinforced
and reinvented. In the extended blowing tunes here, Eskelin demonstrates with vigor and confidence
that there is scarcely a tenor player on either side of Jazz's great divide with
his force or his invention.
Stuart Broomer
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