British saxophonist Evan Parker, who plays a free concert with reedist Ned Rothenberg on Sunday at the Chicago Cultural Center, is one of the most instantly recognizable improvisers in the world. He’s developed an idiosyncratic vocabulary distinguished by mastery of circular breathing and polyphonics, and throughout a career spanning more than four decades he’s stayed open to new ideas. A committed sonic explorer, he’s had a dizzying variety of collaborators—he’s made pioneering music with the likes of Derek Bailey and Peter Brötzmann and he’s played in a swing band with Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts.
This Sunday’s concert is part of a short U.S. tour with Rothenberg, after which Parker will head to New York for a two-week residency at the Stone. I called him to discuss The Moment’s Energy and the use of electronics in improvised music.
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How do you see this project in relation to your entire body of work?Listening to [The Moment’s Energy] recently on an iPod in a car, it came across as a cousin of Music Improvisation Company. That’s an interesting fact, because ECM also encouraged that group and released its first record. It’s a process of maturation, development, and evolution, but based on the original organism that that group represented—different voices with Hugh Davies, Derek Bailey, Jamie Muir, Christine Jeffrey—each of those people brought a specific voice to the music, and the total outcome was a certain kind of restless, energized music, which I hear The Moment’s Energy as having some relationship to. . . . The climate for listening to computer-derived music, that’s a new thing—but nevertheless there’s a kind of continuity, which pleases me enormously.
How did the project with John Wiese come about? Because he seems like he’s a bit outside your circle.That came about from a much bigger group we did, which I think was called “Free Noise,” put together by a promoter and an arts administrator. We had the chance to work among ourselves to arrive at a program, which wasn’t imposed by the promoter and the arts administrator. They just facilitated the people coming together. John Wiese was one of the people, as was John Edwards. There was Yellow Swans—many different people coming from slightly different backgrounds. Carbon [of Metalux] was another. People who come from an area of music that I don’t know too much about. The idea with John was that he would come back [to England] and we would do some duo things.
Do see yourself using postproduction more actively in future projects?Yeah, it’s there. It’s affordable and it’s a fact of life. It would sort of be crazy not to work with what’s available. I’m thinking of using it more for its creative possibilities. The creative and the technological always have a constant kind of interaction, or a feedback relationship with one another. Your notion of what is achievable affects your intentions.
