Jeff Parker and the New Breed ensemble announces new album "Suite for Max Brown"

Jeff Parker and the New Breed ensemble announces the new album “Suite for Max Brown”. Tortoise‘s guitarist Jeff Parker will release his new album on January 24 via a new partnership between the New York-based label Nonesuch Records and the Chicago–based International Anthem. Last year was a great year for International Anthem and they keep doing it in 2020 with some amazing records like this one.

Jeff Parker is a member of the post-rock group Tortoise and was a founding member of Isotope 217 and the Chicago Underground Trio. He is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM) and played with Makaya McCraven, Brian Blade, Joshua Redman, Meshell Ndegeocello, Joey DeFrancesco, and Jason Moran.

Parker announced the album in December with the release of the track “Max Bown”, and its accompanying film. Song and the album title is named after Jeff’s mother.

“2016’s album The New Breed became a kind of tribute to my father who he passed away while I was making the album. It’s named for a clothing store he owned when I was a kid. I thought it would be nice this time to dedicate something to my mom while she’s still here to see it. Maxine Brown is her maiden name and everybody calls her Max. The picture on the cover is her when she was 19 …”

Watch the video for Jeff Parker and the New Breed new single “Max Bown” from the upcoming album “Suite for Max Brown” below:

Jeff Parker recorded the majority of the instruments on the album, which is credited to Jeff Parker and the New Breed including of bassist/mixer/co-producer Paul Bryan, pianist-saxophonist Josh Johnson, piccolo trumpet player Rob Mazurek, cellist Katinka Kleijn, trumpeter Nate Walcott, and drummers Jamire Williams, Makaya McCraven and Jay Bellerose. Parker’s daughter, Ruby Parker, added vocals to the track “Build A Nest.” The album presents nine originals alongside an interpretation of John Coltrane’s “After the Rain” and Joe Henderson’s “Black Narcissus”.

“I used to deejay a lot when I lived in Chicago. I was spinning records one night and for about 10 minutes I was able to perfectly synch up a Nobukazu Takemura record with the first movement of John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and it had this free jazz, abstract jazz thing going on with a sequenced beat underneath. It sounded so good. That’s what I’m trying to do with Suite For Max Brown. It’s got a sequenced beat and there are musicians improvising on top or beneath the sequenced drum pattern. That’s what I was going for. Man vs. machine.”

Listen to Jeff Parker and the New Breed new single “Max Bown” from the upcoming album “Suite for Max Brown” below:

Tracklist:

01 Build a Nest [ft. Ruby Parker]

02 C’mon Now

03 Fusion Swirl

04 After the Rain

05 Metamorphoses

06 Gnarciss

07 Lydian

08 Del Rio

09 3 for L

10 Go Away