Jazz trombonist Rick Parker’s current CD Finding Space represents an evolution from his first CD New York Gravity a project which he feels reflected a harder bop sound and unusual meters. At the beginning of his career he was heavily influenced by the sounds of Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, particularly their album Ugetsu (1963).
“When I was starting out I was living in Washington D.C., and it has always struck me as more of a hard bop town. My mentor (at that time) was a trumpet player named Thad Wilson. He is a fantastic trumpet player, who comes out of a Woody Shaw thing. There definitely is a traditional swing, with a groovy soulful feel, that I felt permeated throughout D.C.,” says Parker.
More traditional jazz styles were not the only musical flavours that caught Parker’s ear, early in his career. “I started getting into Frank Lacey’s music (trombone, flugelhorn, French horn and tuba), which had more of an avant-garde tinge to it,” recalls Parker. He says he now is trying to loosen his own music up, by introducing more avant-garde and freer concepts.
Some of those avant-garde concepts are no doubt a spill over from his turns as a sideman for the Ambient Assault ensemble, a group which primarily plays improvised music. As Parker says, “It is the antithesis of the collective, as it is not based on composition. It is really loose. Our music is inspired by dance music that you would hear in clubs, but we are trying to make it more interesting, than just thump, thump, thump. There are usually two drummer and Sam Barsh does all the keyboard stuff. He takes care of the bass and chord structure. Because the music relies on him, it can move wherever he wants it to go. We will usually play for an another during a set, without stopping. The intention is to build a completely different vibe, kind of like a jam band vibe. I think the stuff that happens is pretty interesting.”
Parker also more or less reinvents his trombone while playing with Ambient Assault. He refers to it as an electric trombone, “I just made that name up, because it is difficult enough being a trombonist. People will say, ‘Oh it’s a trombone led band, I’m not going to see that.’ They think it will be boring. There is such a stigma attached to the trombone. Really what I am doing, is running the trombone through a bunch of effects. A lot of the time, with Ambient Assault, it is not a trombone sound that you are hearing. Sometimes I sound like a string section, with altered trombone sounds. There are also loops. I don’t want the trombone to stand out front, I want it to blend it to everything else that is going on. I want it to come out warmly like the other sounds that are coming out.”
The meter that Parker uses for most of his compositions on Finding Space is vastly different than those found on the first CD. He widely uses a 4 / 4 time signature, with some parts written in 3 / 4, and one section in 5 / 8. “I wrote that section (5 / 8) for a pause, for an effect. There is another section that goes into a 7 / 4 thing, which is supposed to be a deconstruction of sorts. The next section which is a piano solo portion is supposed to be an introspective moment. The third section is about conquering New York. It is about figuring me out musically, and what I am going to do. The end piece is like a five chord melody but it is not really a melody, so things kind of loop around and there are some 3 / 4 bars interspersed,” says the composer.
The inspiration for the title track “Finding Space,” came from an apartment Parker once lived in. He says, “It was completely inspired by the apartment that I lived in when I first moved to New York City. I had this little studio in a six-floor walk-up. It wasn’t really a studio, but it (only) had two tiny, (and he adds for emphasis) tiny, rooms, a bedroom just big enough for a bed, and a really tiny kitchen.” As he talks you start to get the impression this might indeed have started off as a studio apartment that someone subdivided!
October 2007
