Details
Track Listing
1. Body Movement I
2. Bemsha Swing
3. You Don't Know What Love Is
4. All My Life
5. Above & Below
6. Celebration
7. Caravan
8. Epistrophy
9. B.B.B.B.
10. Evy
11. It's Only a Paper Moon
12. Body Movement II
Album Notes
Personnel: Leon Parker (vocals, drums, percussion); Jay McGovern (vocals); David Sanchez (soprano & tenor saxophones); Mark Turner, Joshua Redman (tenor saxophone); Lisa Parker (flute, bamboo flute); Jacky Terrasson (piano); Ugonna Okegwo (bass); Adam Cruz, Natalie Cushman (percussion).
Recorded at The Hit Factory, New York. Includes liner notes by Ira Gitler.
The term "innovator" is so overused that one grasps for other terms to describe the way Leon Parker revolutionized both jazz drumming and the relationship and the relationship of melody to harmony in a jazz context. Parker embraces minimalism whole-heartedly--his drum set is stripped down to snare, bass, and a single cymbal. His compositions and his arrangements of jazz standards remove the middle ground usually occupied by harmony instruments like piano and guitar, leaving sax or flute to state the melody over a simple but undulating groove.
Parker's spare drumming places added emphasis on each individual beat, and his arrangements place both melody and rhythm in sharp relief--his version of "Caravan" finds a lone sax floating over a bed of percussion. Funk and Latin rhythms play a large part on ABOVE & BELOW as well, as Parker's compositions focus on the groove that lies at the heart of all music.
Industry Reviews
...Parker's elemental hamboning...is a funky metaphor for ABOVE & BELOW's spare canvas of voices, flutes and reeds, signaling his return to a more elemental, tribal collective....His concoction of dance...and swing beats brings a fresh Afro-Cuban perspective to these themes...
Musician (03/01/1995)
4.5 Stars - Very Good Plus - ...his speed is impressive, but so is his touch and versatility....That intuitive grasp of knowing where tempo and texture converge, his knack of playing in the moment, is a special Parker attribute...
Down Beat (05/01/1995)
...The first real innovator to hit jazz drumming in the '90s... - Rating: A-
Entertainment Weekly (12/09/1994)
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