(Avant-Garde Jazz, Free Improvisation, Mutable Music) [CD] JD Parran - Window Spirits - 2010, FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

"This recorded solo performance, Window Spirits, manifests memories, dreams and feelings expressed in my life through music. Here, on this plain called life, we can experience existence on level ground with the ancestors." -JD Parran
J.D. represents the ideal performer of my music. He combines a profound understanding of the composer's intention with an expressive individual voice that is both nuanced and dramatic. - Anthony Davis
This truly wonderful new release by JD Parran, performing solo, was recorded live at the Kampo Cultural Center. The event was a celebration of Parran's 50 years of music making. For a composer and performer who has played for so long and with so many people this solo CD -- luminous, lyrical, and difficult -- is long-overdue. Playing a variety of instruments, Parran focuses on improvisations of the moment: visions of his solo compositions developed during his years of creative music work. He also takes the opportunity to perform works by Anthony Davis and James Jabbo Ware, composers who have written for Parran and featured his instrumental voice in their music.
JD Parran is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, who has mastered a wide variety of woodwind instruments (from the familiar tenor saxophone to the rarely heard alto clarinet, E-flat contrabass clarinet, bass saxophone and bamboo flute). He has appeared on more than 50 recordings over the last three decades, including collaborations with The Band, Anthony Braxton, Don Byron, Anthony Davis, Julius Hemphill, New Winds, Yoko Ono, Bill Dixon, Andrew Hill and Stevie Wonder among many others. His previous releases are, Kokopilau (duo CD with poet Michael Castro on Freedonia Music), and also JD Parran & Spirit Stage featuring the poetry of Shirley LeFlore and Omegathorp: Living City (co-led with Mark Deutsch) both available on the Y'All label. He is also a veteran educator who lectures at City University of New York (CUNY) and teaches clarinet and saxophone at Harlem School for the Arts. In addition to his teaching and performing careers, he has been commissioned as a composer by organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Jerome Foundation and the Helen W. Buckner Foundation. - Mutable Music
With JD Parran, we're moving out of Europe and into the US, and the difference can be heard: we move from free improv to free jazz. Parran has been playing for several decades with musicians such as Bill Dixon, Anthony Braxton, but also Stevie Wonder and The Band. "Window Spirits" starts with flute-playing, like an incantation for the "window spirits", whatever those are, with a rhythmic pulse and soaring sounds.
His first bass sax sounds on the second track start deep and low from the core of the body, like a growl out of which all the other notes will follow. And it is not only the difference between soprano and the deep tones of the bass sax that mark the difference with the previous albums, it's all about soul and heart, with recognizable little phrases arising once in a while, containing elements from gospel and blues.
The release celebrates Parran's 50th anniversary of playing music. As Parran describes it himself : "This recorded solo performance, Window Spirits, manifests memories, dreams and feelings expressed in my life through music. Here, on this plain called life, we can experience existence on level ground with the ancestors."
The album is also quite varied in tone and instrumentation, switching to clarinet and flutes once in a while, ending with a tribute to Glenn Spearman and especially his uncle Ohara who taught JD Parran.
Great and spiritual. - freejazzblog.org

Chimes, Wooden Flute, Alto Flute, Bass Saxophone, Clarinet, Mbira, Voice – JD Parran
Recorded live on 27 March 2009 at Balal Gallery, Kampo Cultural Center, NYC