Tortoise‘s Jeff Parker will release a new album, Suite For Max Brown, on January 24 through International Anthem/Nonesuch Records. The album contains the newly shared single, “Go Away.”
Parker previously announced the album alongside the release of the track “Max Bown” and its accompanying Mikel Patrick Avery-directed film. While Parker recorded the majority of the instruments on the album, it is credited to Jeff Parker and the New Breed which consists of bassist/mixer/co-producer Paul Bryan, pianist-saxophonist Josh Johnson, piccolo trumpet player Rob Mazurek, cellist Katinka Kleijn, trumpeter Nate Walcott, and drummers Jamire Williams, Makaya McCraven and Jay Bellerose. Parker’s daughter, Ruby Parker, added vocals to the track “Build A Nest.”
The album presents nine originals alongside “Gnarciss,” an interpretation of John Coltrane’s “After the Rain” and Joe Henderson’s “Black Narcissus.” Parker named the album after his mother and shared the following statement:
[Parker’s 2016 album The New Breed] became a kind of tribute to my father who he passed away while I was making the album. It’s named for a clothing store he owned when I was a kid. I thought it would be nice this time to dedicate something to my mom while she’s still here to see it. Maxine Brown is her maiden name and everybody calls her Max. The picture on the cover is her when she was 19 …
I used to deejay a lot when I lived in Chicago. I was spinning records one night and for about 10 minutes I was able to perfectly synch up a Nobukazu Takemura record with the first movement of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and it had this free jazz, abstract jazz thing going on with a sequenced beat underneath. It sounded so good. That’s what I’m trying to do with Suite For Max Brown. It’s got a sequenced beat and there are musicians improvising on top or beneath the sequenced drum pattern. That’s what I was going for. Man vs. machine.
It’s a lot of experimenting, a lot of trial and error. I like to pursue situations that take me outside myself, where the things I come up with are things I didn’t really know I could do. I always look at this process as patchwork quilting. You take this stuff and stitch it together until a tapestry forms.
Parker will tour in March in support of Suite For Max Brown. Stream “Go Away” below:
Suite For Max Brown Tracklist
- Build a Nest
- C’mon Now
- Fusion Swirl
- After the Rain
- Metamorphoses
- Gnarciss
- Lydian
- Del Rio
- 3 for L
- Go Away
- Max Brown
