[AUM093]
> Also available as part of the 3CD Box Set & Digital Album:
"For Those Who Are, Still" [AUM092/93/94]
aumfidelity.bandcamp.com/album/for-those-who-are-still
"Red Giraffe With Dreadlocks" made available independent from the 3CD Box in January 2023 because it is another exquisite example of Parker's =Universal Tonality= concept in blossoming action.
The =Universal Tonality= album of the same name, created in NYC, December 2002 & released in September 2022:
williamparker.bandcamp.com/album/universal-tonality
was the first time that Parker presented this concept for large ensemble.
This "Red Giraffe" concert took place 9 years & 1 month later in Paris.
Performed by:
Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay: voice, electronic shruti box
Mola Sylla: voice, m’bira, ngoni
Bill Cole: double-reed instruments
Rob Brown: alto saxophone
Klaas Hekman: bass saxophone, flute
Cooper-Moore: piano
William Parker: bass
Hamid Drake: drums
Red Giraffe With Dreadlocks is a long-form composition in six sections written by William Parker specifically for this particular group of musicians. The staging of this work, comprised of musicians hailing from around the globe, was made possible by the central location of Paris, France. Joining Parker (bass) and his esteemed, long-time compatriots Cooper-Moore (piano), Hamid Drake (drums), Rob Brown (alto sax) are Senegalese griot Mola Sylla, classically-trained Indian singer Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay, Dutch bass saxophonist Klaas Hekman, and double-reed master Bill Cole.
Red Giraffe.. is another wholly realized manifestation of a concept to which Parker has often returned. Universal Tonality, as he wrote in the sleeve notes accompanying the album, Double Sunrise Over Neptune [
williamparker.bandcamp.com/album/double-sunrise-over-neptune ], “is based off of the idea that all sounds like human beings come from the same place. All sound has a heartbeat and breathes, the same as each human being. Some sounds are born in Africa; others are born in Asia, Europe, Australia or America. These sounds pass through certain human beings. We don’t invent sounds, we are allowed to encounter them; we don’t own them, they existed before we were born and will be here after we are gone.”