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The deep groovy bass line which opens "Double Sunrise Over Neptune", surprisingly doesn't belong to William Parker - who is one among a few still active jazz bassists that is a living legend who made his name in the 90s playing accessible but very creative avant-garde jazz. Here on "Double Sunrise...", Parker conducts a multinational (East-West) orchestra and plays different reeds and the African stringed instrument doussn'gouni.
His 15-piece band contains some of the best musicians from both worlds, including drummers Gerald Cleaver and Hamid Drake, guitarist Joe Morris (who plays banjo as well), sax players Sabir Mateen, Rob Brown and Dave Sewelson, viola player Jessica Pavone plus a Chinese American violinist Jason Kao Hwang, Morrocan Brahim Frigbane and classic Indian Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay among others.
The album contains just four songs, three - long (between 15 and 27 minutes) and one- very short (little longer then half-a-minute). Musically one can hear usual Parker's tuneful groovy compositions framed and pushed ahead by repetitive rhythmic constructions. Still, characteristic William's storytelling-like form is significantly modified by a lot of Indian classical vocals and oud soling.
Predominantly mid-tempo very rhythmic music has enough freedom and space for each artist and group of instruments soloing on the front, interchanging with each other. Elements of different traditions fit together surprisingly organically, musical pictures seamlessly change one with the other, and longer-then-hour album didn't seem long at all.
Everyone familiar with Parker's music will recognize his music quite easily, but the addition of Eastern instruments and vocals brings a lot of new colorful nuances to it. One among best master's work for sure.
P.S. Joe Morris guitar solo on final album's composition, "Neptune's Mirror ", is really impressive.