Evan Parker

[Rabshakeh]

1 minute ago, clifford_thornton said:

he, Van Morrison, and Eric Crapton should form a trio. Eno can produce their album.

I hadn't realised Eno was in on it too. 

The one who gets most coverage over here in Britain is Ian Brown, a singer from an iconic Manchester group called the Stone Roses, who really has really flipped a fuse. I'm not sure how well known he is in the States, but the pandemic really has got to him. He makes Van Morrison look tame. 

6 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

oh god, yeah he is also a staunch Brexiter. It's no surprise. Blecch. I'll still enjoy his music, but try to steer clear of anything he says politically.

Didn't know that either, but I guess it squares with the rest of his political views. 

I wonder how he's finding the visa issues post Brexit. 

[colinmce]

As respectfully as I can put it, I have not found a way to understand what he’s trying to accomplish with his music (if anything) in quite a long time and have pretty much given up on following his work, so .... fine with me. Morally this is reprehensible but musically it sounds absolutely dreadful as well. 

[clifford_thornton]

Sad about Ian Brown, didn't know that -- dug the Stone Roses when I was a high schooler and find that the first records still holds up.

Re: EP, I find it bizarre that a former member of the Brotherhood of Breath would be anti-immigration but here we are. Gonna pass on the radio piece, don't need to hear it.

[Guy Berger]

Yuck

[Rabshakeh]

5 minutes ago, clifford_thornton said:

Re: EP, I find it bizarre that a former member of the Brotherhood of Breath would be anti-immigration but here we are. Gonna pass on the radio piece, don't need to hear it.

Is he? Again, didn't know that. 

[ejp626]

24 minutes ago, Jason Bivins said:

Jesus, that's disappointing.

Agreed.  No question a lot of mistakes have been made by "the authorities" and the science has continued to evolve (along with the virus, to our detriment).  I get that.  It's frustrating, and I don't agree with some particular restrictions.

But then there is just coming across as an arrogant guy who is so much smarter and in the know than the scientific community.  He may not personally be an anti-vaccer but he sounds just like one. 

And we all decide what is a line too far to support or even listen to for a particular artist, and this, for me, is going too far during a dangerous time.  So he is off my listening list forever.  

[Jason Bivins]

Bummed to hear about Eno too.

 

Hear you, ejp626. The discrediting of expertise over the last several decades has made much of this foreseeable. Any minor crack in what might otherwise be eternal ontological certitude is interpreted as "Fauci doesn't know everything."

[Dub Modal]

FWIW, the spoken pieces on that linked recording at Sons D'Hiver are from Kari Mullis, so it's not Parker explicitly speaking. Although it's likely he supports such statements and perspective, it should be noted that they're not snippets from a Parker interview. 

[Rabshakeh]

9 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

FWIW, the spoken pieces on that linked recording at Sons D'Hiver are from Kari Mullis, so it's not Parker explicitly speaking. Although it's likely he supports such statements and perspective, it should be noted that they're not snippets from a Parker interview. 

He does explain in the blurb that the Mullis pieces are  "very precisely applicable to the current Covid nonsense"...

[Д.Д.]

1 hour ago, clifford_thornton said:

Re: EP, I find it bizarre that a former member of the Brotherhood of Breath would be anti-immigration but here we are. Gonna pass on the radio piece, don't need to hear it.

Is he anti-immigration, really? I find it hard to believe. His Brexit support is of "EU democratic deficit" and "anti-neoliberal" line of thinking. I very much doubt it is of a xenophobic bent. Let's not paint all Brexiters with the same brush.

22 minutes ago, Dub Modal said:

FWIW, the spoken pieces on that linked recording at Sons D'Hiver are from Kari Mullis, so it's not Parker explicitly speaking. Although it's likely he supports such statements and perspective, it should be noted that they're not snippets from a Parker interview. 

And they are not specifically about COVID either, Mullis died in 2019.      

[Dub Modal]

13 minutes ago, Rabshakeh said:

He does explain in the blurb that the Mullis pieces are  "very precisely applicable to the current Covid nonsense"...

True. And if he believes in this denialism angle that this virus doesn't exist and isn't a problem then that's unfortunate. I don't really know what his exact point is however, but maybe he's said more elsewhere and I haven't seen it. 

 

5 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

And they are not specifically about COVID either, Mullis died in 2019. 

True as well. However as @Rabshakehpointed out, Parker's comments about them being applicable to COVID "nonsense" indicate he's adapting them for the current pandemic.  

[Rabshakeh]

13 minutes ago, Д.Д. said:

Is he anti-immigration, really? I find it hard to believe. His Brexit support is of "EU democratic deficit" and "anti-neoliberal" line of thinking. I very much doubt it is of a xenophobic bent. Let's not paint all Brexiters with the same brush.     

I agree. It's quite hard to see Parker as anti-immigration. There were and are all sorts of Brexit views floating around then and now, left, right and centrist. 

[mjazzg]

First they came for Van Morrison, then Evan Parker....two of my musical heroes.  I knew of EP's Brexiteer views, he'd expressed them quite widely and he'd skated around his Covid views in a recent Vortex piece. I wish it wasn't so but there we are

1 hour ago, Rabshakeh said:

I agree. It's quite hard to see Parker as anti-immigration. 

I sincerely hope so but these days I find nothing surprises me. 

[OliverM]

This is crazy (and disappointing to say the least)!

[JSngry]

Documentation on the Eno thing, please?

[Guy Berger]

6 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

I agree. It's quite hard to see Parker as anti-immigration. There were and are all sorts of Brexit views floating around then and now, left, right and centrist. 

There are strands of left wing thought that are anti-immigration (not necessarily anti-immigrant, though the line can get blurry quick).

[clifford_thornton]

4 hours ago, JSngry said:

Documentation on the Eno thing, please?

Eno seems to have walked some of this back, so my apologies -- he was initially positing a Brexit/Trump "they'll burn it all down/hard reset" mentality a few years ago which even then was not a great look.

From musicians I've talked to who know the situation up close, Parker is definitely on some anti-immigration Brexit trip and has been for a while. Now of course one can say they are anti-immigration but not anti-immigrant. However, I don't think one can really back up a stance where populations aren't welcome but "this individual over here is okay." And yeah, I know we're veering plenty close to full-on politics here, so I'll leave it at that. Parker's music is wonderful but I can do without his worldview. 

 

(oh, and apparently don't get EP started on 9/11, according to a friend of mine)

[ejp626]

Indeed, Eno did speak out from Brexit from the very beginning (https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jun/20/brian-eno-vote-remain-brexit-eu-referendum ), but then saw Trump/Brexit as a sort of wake up call for the left: https://pitchfork.com/news/71097-brian-eno-pleased-about-trump-and-brexit-because-it-gives-us-a-kick-up-the-arse/

But yeah, I think, all in all, we could have done without that particular "learning moment."

[ghost of miles]

10 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

The one who gets most coverage over here in Britain is Ian Brown, a singer from an iconic Manchester group called the Stone Roses, who really has really flipped a fuse. I'm not sure how well known he is in the States, but the pandemic really has got to him. He makes Van Morrison look tame.  

I've been a Roses fan since first hearing them in late 1989 (the Roses tribe on the U.S. side never grew that large and certainly never came anywhere near close to the mania the band enjoyed in the UK, though) and even got to see them in Manchester in 2016 (staying with board member BillF!).  Though the group's again gone dormant, I've checked in occasionally on a couple of online forums, and Ian's Twitter missives have been much discussed & not well-received.  Not that it matters, because they clearly had trouble gelling creatively in terms of new work when they were reunited, but his rants have pretty much put me off ever wanting the band to reincarnate again.  But Brown's statements don't color their past music for me at all.  At their peak they made some of the most transcendental pop music I've ever heard in my life.  

In the jazz Twitterverse, there was also a great deal of disappointment recently when Cassandra Wilson revealed herself to be a full-on Trumper (seemingly of the QAnon variety).    

[jcam_44]

34 minutes ago, ghost of miles said:

In the jazz Twitterverse, there was also a great deal of disappointment recently when Cassandra Wilson revealed herself to be a full-on Trumper (seemingly of the QAnon variety).    

 I haven’t been on Twitter but this is...disappointing...I guess is the best word to describe it, mostly about the QAnon aspect. 

[romualdo]

WTF!! this is hard to believe - Evan to me has had a very scientific/rational/empathetic approach to the world & music - he was originally going to study Botany at Birmingham Uni but a trip to NYC (to see Cecil Taylor) changed his whole outlook & veered toward free jazz/improv

[Rabshakeh]

3 hours ago, ghost of miles said:

In the jazz Twitterverse, there was also a great deal of disappointment recently when Cassandra Wilson revealed herself to be a full-on Trumper (seemingly of the QAnon variety).    

Hunh,

Did not see that coming either. Just checked Twitter and there’s no doubt about it though.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Rabshakeh

[mjazzg]

3 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Hunh,

Did not see that coming either. Just checked Twitter and there’s no doubt about it though.

Well that completes my trinity of shame. 

[Rabshakeh]

40 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Well that completes my trinity of shame. 

Subbing Wilson for Eno?

[mjazzg]

7 hours ago, Rabshakeh said:

Subbing Wilson for Eno?

Yep.  Wilson, Van and EP.  All artists whose music I hold in very high regard, all apparently have swivel-eyed tendencies.  I'll continue to play their music but there'll be a bad taste. 

I was all set to buy the upcoming EP this morning but actually held back after listening to the Son d'Hiver clip (of which I thought the musical element was great) as I'm not sure I want to put money his way right at the moment.  I'll probably weaken.

Edited February 17, 2021 by mjazzg