William Parker and Hamid Drake residency cooks up a storm at Cafe OTO
Daniel Spicer
Friday, August 2, 2019
There’s always a buzz in the air when bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake hit Café OTO. In the decades they’ve been working together, these American maestros have cemented a reputation as one of the pre-eminent rhythm sections in jazz.
Sure enough, this two-day residency in late July delivers with a powerful punch. On Saturday night, they give a specially commissioned performance of pianist/composer Horace Tapscott’s 1969 debut album, The Giant Is Awakened, joined by a UK crew of alto saxophonist Seymour Wright, pianist Alexander Hawkins and John Edwards on second double-bass.
Parker’s no stranger to interpreting the work of others, having recorded music by Curtis Mayfield and Duke Ellington, for which he employs the notion of the ‘inside song’ – an attempt to transcend the cover version and find new depths of freedom within compositional frameworks. Tonight, Tapscott’s urgent heads are springboards to unruly, exploded improvisations. Wright stays in the shadows, carefully stating the themes and providing bursts of nagging skronk while largely avoiding solos, and the twin basses sometimes seem to struggle for common ground – but Drake’s unflagging energy and sheer muscle push the energy into thrilling excess. For the Sunday afternoon matinee, Parker and Drake are joined by Evan Parker on tenor, providing a rare master class in uncluttered precision from a heavyweight trio that has never recorded.
Across five improvisations, bass and drums suggest a soulful, subliminal swing while maintaining absolute freedom. Drake – barefoot and lithe – is fearless in invention while Evan Parker slots in neatly with familiar flutters, swoons and bursts of circular breathing. It’s a meeting of elders that absolutely deserves to be revisited. Later, for the Sunday night show, Parker and Drake are joined by UK vocalist Elaine Mitchener and Black Top: Pat Thomas on piano and electronics, and Orphy Robinson on marimba and electronics. Great waves of sumptuous energy roll off the stage. Mitchener channels Jeanne Lee, sobbing out choked epiglottals and blues-drenched moans. Black Top are inspired, turning up the heat with diamond-bright solos and dubwise effects. The music darts from intense, boiling free-fall to chunky, infectious reggae.
Parker puts down the bass and takes up the guimbri, initiating a hurtling gnawa trance-groove with Drake switching to hand drum. Finally, the quintet arrives in an exultant sunburst of cosmic soul-jazz, guiding the performance home in a blaze of soul-soothing joy. It doesn’t get any better.
(Photo by Theodore Konkouris)