by Peter Thelen One can’t accuse Parker of flooding the market with product; this live set is only her second album, the first in nine years, but after even a single listen, one can conclude it was clearly worth the wait. First things first, this eight song instrumental set sounds amazing, and if it weren’t for occasional bits of applause during solos and at the end of each piece, you might think it was a studio recording, though it was […]
The opener Affinity Minus One is smack in the middle of Latin territory with no evident concession to Indian music, although the intrinsic affinities between the styles – for example the preponderance of minor harmony, syncopation and modalism – seem clear. Then there’s instrumentation: perhaps the clearest common ground, tabla aside, is in McCandless’ “worldy” reeds and Montfort’s guitar, the latter emphatically designated in the notes as a “scalloped fretboard guitar,” in which wood is removed from between the frets […]
Short Cuts / New Releases: Blending East Indian rhythms with latin syncopations, Californian pianist Mariah Parker’s band includes reedsman Paul McCandless and takes an easy-listening route to nirvana while performing live at Yoshi’s.
The mix of live recording sounds with the vibrant energy is superb on this January 2017 album; Mariah’s piano leads a stellar crew on this high-energy live recording, including reedmaster Paul McCandless, guitarist Matthew Montfort, Ian Dogole on percussion, as well as bassists Fred Randolph and Kash Killion, percussionist Brian Rice, tabla maestro Debopriyo Sarkar and conga player Duru Demetrius in a glorious celebration of Latin music unequaled by any others! As you listen to the soul-stirring sounds on the […]
Get your body moving to the delightful uptempo rhythms of this excellent compilation of live performances at Yoshi’s Oakland, Freight & Salvage, Berkeley, and Throckmorton Theatre, Mill Valley and TRI Studios, San Rafael. Composer/band leader Mariah Parker on piano and santur and 8 exceptional band members keep the groove coming with Latin, Spanish, Afro-Cuban, Indian, global percussion and trad jazz elements. Parker’s original compositions have various inspirations and her organic, improvisational melodies signify conservation (“For the Waters” was inspired by […]
If you think paring down rock and prog into apposite sub-genres-within-genres is a mare’s nest, try subdividing World and New Age, especially the latter. Let me know when you give it a go, I still have lots of Prozac and Xanax from the vacation I had in a sanitarium after Donald Dukktrumpe was elected Head White House Corruption Officer. I’m willing to share – the drugs, that is, not The Donald…you can have him whole cloth. I say this because […]
With songs recorded live during her tours, pianist and composer and arranger Mariah Parker presents us with Indo Latin Jazz Live In Concert, her second recording. Parker, whose debut album dates back to 2009, offers us a musical journey that establishes a connection between the music of India and the Latin Jazz. With beautiful arrangements and instrumentalists who know their way around, this album is more suitable to listening than for the dance floor. Con brani registrati dal […]
I hate to admit, I’m a sucker for Latin jazz. It’s happy music that goes straight to your hips and, as we all know, hips don’t lie. But I accept that it can sometimes have a whiff of Manchego cheese about it as it descends into easy listening, so it’s pleasing to find artists who are prepared to pull in other influences to refresh and update it. Pianist Mariah Parker’s Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble attempts to combine the joyous, anarchic, […]
Traditional Indian music, various Latin styles and contemporary jazz have negotiated an unlikely but productive friendship in the Indo Latin Jazz Ensemble, a periodically convened combo of top Northern California jazz and world music players led by pianist Mariah Parker. She reunites the unit for Live in Concert (Ancient Future.com Records, 2017), a collection of smartly imagined original tunes that touch on range of cultural influences but never push connections. You’d expect nothing less from a cast a master musicians […]
Marin may be known as a rock ’n’ roll county, but it’s also home to some of the foremost musicians in global fusion — a form of acoustic jazz that requires melodic invention, masterful musicianship and fearless improvisation. Eight of the best players on the planet are featured on pianist Mariah Parker’s new album, “Indo Latin Jazz Live in Concert,” recorded at Yoshi’s in Oakland, Berkeley’s Freight & Salvage, the 142 Throckmorton Theater in Mill Valley and Bob Weir’s TRI […]