Re-released on May 5, 2023
[AUM104/105]
2CD – deluxe 2023 reprint/repress [ltd. edition of 500] in 8-panel digipak printed on heavyweight stock w/ extensive liner notes & poetry by William Parker.
* Note too, special-price bundle option with Live/Shapeshifter.
William Parker: bass; tarota on track 6
Hamid Drake: drums; gongs on track 6
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson: trumpet [tracks 1–7]; kalimba on track 6
Cooper-Moore: piano [tracks 8–12]
Meditation / Resurrection is a double-album presenting a bounty of beautiful new William Parker compositions performed by two of his flagship ensembles, the Quartet [tracks 1–7] -&- In Order To Survive [tracks 8–12]. It was recorded & mixed live during a one-day studio session in late 2016. With the tone of the pieces & performances reflecting our current moment, this is Parker & the groups’ follow-up to 2013’s monumental Wood Flute Songs box set.
"A new William Parker album on AUM Fidelity is always a major event, and Meditation/Resurrection is the motherlode, boasting two hours of stunning new music from two of the master bassist’s greatest bands. Steeped in melody and groove, this is some of Parker’s most accessible music, with the musicians improvising around open structures with telepathic acuity. It’s no stretch to call Parker the greatest bassist-composer since Mingus, and Meditation/Resurrection finds him on inspired form, aided and abetted by his supreme collaborators."
–Stewart Smith, The Quietus
At the core of both groups is Parker’s foundational bass together with his rhythm twin, the incomparable Hamid Drake. Their partnership – two decades deep now – is one of the great rhythm sections in recorded history. Alto saxophonist Rob Brown is likewise featured throughout. Brown is one of the all-time great improvisers on the alto, and the springboard of Parker’s bands in which he has been perennially featured always brings out his best.
Pianist Cooper-Moore features on album 2. He has been a very significant catalyst in the world of creative music for over 40 years. As William writes in the album notes, “Cooper-Moore is one of the special people who speaks and plays from the heart all the time with power and grace.” Cooper-Moore was the Lifetime Achievement Honoree at the 2017 edition of the Vision Festival, NYC.
Trumpeter Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson appears on album 1. Hailing from Oklahoma City, and a resident of Switzerland since 1994, he is a major figure in his own right as a composer of modern classical and world music, and is well-versed in the language of blues, jazz and improvisation. From the liner notes, “Jalalu is always able to transform any music situation into a magical experience.”
William Parker’s exceptional gift as a composer of beautiful melodies and infectious rhythms have long been intrinsic to his art, and it has always been on full display in the work of the quartets featured here. Being that these groups are among the highest caliber jazz bands of our time, Parker’s luminous compositions are brought to vibrant, ever-giving blossom.
CD 1 - William Parker Quartet
1. Criminals in the White House - 05:28
2. Leaves / Rain - 07:00
3. Horace Silver part 2 - 07:14
4. Handsome Lake - 10:03
5. Rodney's Resurrection - 10:06
6. Horace Silver part 1 - 04:44
7. Give Me Back My Drum - 11:28
CD 2 - In Order To Survive
8. Sunrise in East Harlem - 11:26
9. Some Lake Oliver - 11:48
10. Things Falling Apart 1- 8:01
11. Urban Disruption - 12:05
12. Orange Winter Flower - 12:50
All compositions by William Parker, © Centering Music (BMI)
Produced by William Parker & Steven Joerg
Recorded & mixed live by Michael Marciano
at Systems Two Studio, Brooklyn, NYC on October 14, 2016
Liner notes & poetry by William Parker
Cover artwork/s by Lois Eby
Design by Ming@AUM