Evan Parker at 80
(Cafe Oto. 6 April 2024. First night. Review and drawings by Geoff Winston)

The thing about Evan Parker is that he is constantly moving on. His music never stands still. He pushes himself to the limit, embracing a vast range of musical ventures and directions, collaborating with those who share his intense sense of musical adventure, no matter what their chosen medium.

So, it was most fitting that, on the first night of Cafe Oto’s celebration of Evan’s 80th birthday, there were two sets of contrasting trio formats pulling in musicians with whom he has collaborated significantly over the years.

To set the scene, Jackson Burton, on behalf of Cafe Oto, thanked Parker for his commitment to the venue and to the numerous connections he initiated, noting those with Peter Brötzmann and Anthony Braxton. 

Parker’s first set was with Springheel Jack, the experimental electronics duo of John Coxon and Ashley Wales, who worked with Parker on the momentous recording, Evan Parker with Birds, which launched their ground-breaking Treader label 20 years ago. 

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The second set was with two major figures in jazz and improvisation, double bassist Barry Guy and drummer Paul Lytton, whom Parker first met in the 1960s and with whom he has recorded and performed many times.

The first set was, in essence, a reimagining and expansion of Evan Parker with Birds, a truly immersive experience and the perfect vehicle for Evan’s soprano sax playing with his unstintingly imaginative interaction and dialogue with field recordings of bird calls, echoing in the storm-lashed soundscape created by Coxon and Wales. There was no let up, no relaxation, as Coxon mixed with two turntables, and vast, dark canyons and oceans were evoked through his and Wales’s electronics. Samples of Parker’s playing were discreetly played back within fractions of a second to add further layering to Parker’s breathtaking multiphonics. 

The rush of Parker’s breath and the tapping of the saxophone keys combined to play their part in furnishing the lush reinterpretation of his complex conversation with the avian world, as he sent out his own calls to the virtual birds, amongst the waves breaking on the shore and the tumbleweed being blown around. Not to mention the loud quacks which drew out a wide smile from Parker!

With Barry Guy and Paul Lytton, after the break, no holds were barred. Parker, now standing, launched straight in to full flow on tenor sax, no frills, no pack drill, evoking the spirit of John Coltrane with the phrasing, pace, and power of his deeply trawled melodic sequencing, out at the inspirational edge. 

Guy and Lytton were the perfect partners in this adventure. Guy, drawing on an array of implements set out on his side table, chopped, scraped, plucked, bowed and clattered, treating his upright bass with just the right combination of respect and disrespect to add the brightest of articulation to the trio’s vocabulary. Lytton, likewise, although mainly out of my line of sight, added cracks, snaps, rolls and cymbal rushes to the trio’s rhythmic interplay.

Characteristically highly animated, Guy, towards the end of the set, unnervingly thrust sticks of various lengths through the five strings of his bass, sliding them up and down the fretboard, to gain additional articulation at he tapped the strings with fingers and knuckles, concluding with a heartfelt ‘yaah!’. 

Parker, briefly alone to deliver a carefully gauged, richly coloured solo sequence then restored full power to the final leg of this tinderbox trio’s explosive improvisation and, to rapturous applause, an encore.

LINK: Birthday Greetings to Evan Parker at 80