In Order to Survive – Live/Shapeshifter – [TrackList follows] – AUM Fidelity 110/111 (2-CDs), 52:07, 58:04 [7/5/19] ****:
(William Parker – bass, compositions; Rob Brown – alto saxophone; Cooper-Moore – piano; Hamid Drake – drums)
Bassist William Parker is a textbook example of making a music career on the jazz edge, where avant-garde, experimental, free improvisation and uninhibited music thrives. He’s put out 50+ records as a leader since the early ‘80s; and has recorded with saxophonists Davis S. Ware, Ivo Perelman and Peter Brötzmann, as well as pianists Cecil Taylor and Matthew Shipp. In 1995, Parker formed an ongoing band dubbed In Order to Survive, which has had a fluctuating membership. The ensemble issued a self-titled debut on Black Saint in 1995; Compassion Seizes Bed-Stuy came out on Homestead a year later; and AUM Fidelity brought out The Peach Orchard in 1998. In Order to Survive reunited in 2012 at NYC’s Vision Festival (which was created by Parker’s wife) and later taped a new album (2017’s Meditation/Resurrection on AUM Fidelity). Two evenings were booked at Brooklyn’s ShapeShifter Lab to celebrate and the 2-CD Live/Shapeshifter presents the two sets from night two. This version of In Order to Survive includes Parker; alto saxophonist Rob Brown (extensive credits with Parker, drummer Whit Dickey and two ventures with Shipp); pianist Cooper-Moore (who also worked with Ware; is featured on several previous Parker releases; and has lots of solo projects); and drummer Hamid Drake (also a long-time Parker collaborator; his résumé also involves Adam Rudolph, saxophonist Fred Anderson and Herbie Hancock). Live/Shapeshifter came out in July 2019 as a limited edition, 2-CD package in a deluxe eight-panel digipak, printed on heavyweight stock; with group portraits from the live gigs; and brief William Parker liner notes.
CD one consists of a 52-minute, five-part suite entitled “Eternal Is the Voice of Love,” which is structured to encompass Parker’s myriad influences, including inspirations from Native American Indian culture, Asian music (Chinese and Japanese folk) and jazz; all filtered into Parker’s idiosyncratic, modernist avant jazz. The epic 20-minute opener, “Part I: Entrance to the Tone World,” covers a spectrum of sounds, moods and solo inventiveness. Cooper-Moore provides abstract, rhythmic phrases and inflections akin to Taylor and likeminded free jazz keyboardists. Brown alternates between thrusting note clusters and numerous outward-bound segments reminiscent of late-period John Coltrane or Pharoah Sanders. Drake is all over his drum kit, from high-speed cymbal runs to crashing toms to snapping snares. During “Entrance to the Tone World” it is not easy to know where composition and improvisation start and stop. The 7:30 “Part II: Color Against Autumn Sky” incorporates blues-hued slices, loose and open rhythmic elements, and a flow of imaginative ideas amid a barely held-together performance. Cooper-Moore combines a steadfast drone and double-digit keyboard fingering; Parker adds a foundational bass; and Drake follows suit with a revolving drum pattern. During the nearly 12-minute “Part IV: A Situation” Cooper-Moore showcases a style parallel to modern classical but also committed to avant-garde; Brown layers atonal dissonance against traditional expressive characteristics; meanwhile Parker and Drake trade pizzicato-slanted rhythm precision. Drake also contributes a lengthy, outside-the-box percussion/drum improvisation. The extended suite finishes with the almost six-minute “Part V: Birth of the Sunset,” which has a delicately humming timbre where Parker switches to bowed arco, Brown offers a lyrical harmonic softness and Drake concentrates on ticking cymbals. It’s an interesting and quiet way to close a concert which often has volatile and fiery interchanges between the quartet members.
The second disc comprises nearly an hour of individual compositions which display the foursome’s communication and ability to go wherever the musical muse decides to go. In Order to Survive commences with the marathon, 23-minute “Demons Lining the Halls of Justice,” where Drake plays in an arrhythmic, irregular approach which goes suddenly rapid or quickly slows, an asymmetrical configuration shared by Cooper-Moore, whose piano is forceful and jagged. Parker’s bass is equally precipitous as he moves up and down the bass fingerboard. Parker and Drake then duet on a not-quite five-minute “Drum & Bass Interlude,” which acts as a spacious prologue to the 11:22 “Newark,” a tribute to trombonist Grachan Moncur III, who was in a preceding incarnation of In Order to Survive. While “Newark” is no less avant than any other piece, there is a continuity and defined organization which supplies a metered and measured authority. Brown presents notable solo moments; while the piano, drums and bass deliver an ever-changing compendium of percussive and rhythmic shapes. The longest tune is the almost 15-minute, soulful “In Order to Survive,” where someone (Parker?) intones over and over, “In order to survive, you’ve gotta keep hope alive!” It’s an optimistic observation in a world which has seen more than its percentage of conflict, confrontation and cruelty. The group concludes with the 4:21, spiritual “Eternity,” an intimate portrayal of the universe’s beauty and immensity. It’s a blossoming number which brings the live performance to an outstanding culmination.
TrackList:
CD 1 – First Set
Eternal Is the Voice of Love – I: Entrance to the Tone World
Eternal Is the Voice of Love – II: Color Against Autumn Sky
Eternal Is the Voice of Love – III: Is There a Chance
Eternal Is the Voice of Love – IV: A Situation
Eternal Is the Voice of Love – V: Birth of the Sunset
CD 2 – Second Set
Demons Lining the Halls of Justice
Drum & Bass Interlude
Newark (for Grachan Moncur III)
In Order to Survive
Eternity
—Doug Simpson
