Home » Jazz Articles » Album Review » Konstrukt and William Parker: Live At NHKM

Konstrukt and William Parker: Live At NHKM

By Mark Corroto
April 13, 2015
View read count

Konstrukt and William Parker: Live At NHKM

Let me propose the notion that American poet Emily Dickinson was a free jazz fan. Sure, you have to look past the fact that she died in 1886, when Buddy Bolden was but nine years old. But consider her words: "The worthlessness of Earthly things/The Ditty is that Nature Sings -/And then -enforces their delight/Til Synods are inordinate." She wrote about, and lived in a world much like that of a free jazz musician. Stowed away in her little house, her poems bridged a chasm between humanity and God, thought and feeling.

The same can be said of Istanbul-based improvising musicians Korhan Futac?, Umut ?a?lar, ?z��n Usta, and Korhan Arg��denthat, the quartet known as Konstrukt. For most listeners, Turkey is as inaccessible as Amherst, Massachusetts, circa 1869. But just as modern publishing allows one to cross the macrocosm of time and thought, the digital world allows us to traverse geographic divides to connect with like-minded beings.

Thankfully, simpatico musicians like

Peter Brötzmann

woodwinds
1941 - 2023

" data-original-title="" title="">Peter Br?tzmann,

Evan Parker

saxophone, soprano
b.1944

" data-original-title="" title="">Evan Parker,

Marshall Allen

saxophone, alto
b.1924

" data-original-title="" title="">Marshall Allen,

Akira Sakata

saxophone, alto
b.1945

" data-original-title="" title="">Akira Sakata,

Joe McPhee

woodwinds
b.1939

" data-original-title="" title="">Joe McPhee, and as we have here, bassist

William Parker

bass
b.1952

" data-original-title="" title="">William Parker have trekked to Turkey to perform with the quartet.

Recorded in September 2014, at Naz?m Hikmet Kultur Merkezi in Istanbul, these four sides are pressed into a limited edition (200 copies) vinyl release, with pieces and parts, like Emily Dickinson's poems written on envelopes and scraps of paper, surfacing here and there on the internet.

The music, part meditation, part unreserved expression, unfolds on many fronts. "Part I" begins with Parker's bowed bass. His multicolored elocution spreads across the stage, circulating energy and emotion. Futac? takes up a flute, ?a?lar a

Sun Ra

piano
1914 - 1993

" data-original-title="" title="">Sun Ra-inspired Moog, Usta tracks Parker's bass, and Arg��den's drums provide locomotion. The music percolates a bubbling parboil of free dynamism capped by Futac?'s tenor dancing a solo borrowed from

Pharoah Sanders

saxophone, tenor
1940 - 2022

" data-original-title="" title="">Pharoah Sanders circa late-1960's. The music gets even more spacey, a bit more noisy in the later parts, when the double reed instruments come to play. Parker takes up the gralla (Spanish) and ?a?lar a zurna (Turkish). Their acerbic razor-edged sound cuts through the morass of pulsed energy like a hot knife through butter. The music draws from the world music of

Don Cherry

trumpet
1936 - 1995

" data-original-title="" title="">Don Cherry, the electric

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis era, Sun Ra's otherworldliness, and the Coltrane-intonations of

Paul Dunmall

saxophone
b.1953

" data-original-title="" title="">Paul Dunmall.

It is easy to imagine William Parker on stage here, reciting these lines from Dickinson, "One note from One Bird/Is better than a Million Word/A scabbard has -but one sword."

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

LP1: Part I, Part II. LP2: Part III; Part IV.

Personnel

Konstrukt

various

Korhan Futac?: soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, voice, whistle mouthpiece; Umut ?a?lar: guitar, Moog, zurna, bamboo flute, percussion, tape echo; ?z��n Usta: double bass, djembe, bells, percussion; Korhan Arg��den: drums, old K Zildjian cymbals; William Parker: double bass, gralla.

Album information

Title: Live At NHKM | Year Released: 2015 | Record Label: Holidays Records

PREVIOUS / NEXT

Made in Chicago
< Previous

Now's the Time: Part 5-5
Next >

Support All About Jazz

All About Jazz has been a pillar of jazz since 1995, championing it as an art form and, more importantly, supporting the musicians who make it. Our enduring commitment has made "AAJ" one of the most culturally important websites of its kind, read by hundreds of thousands of fans, musicians and industry figures every month.

Go Ad Free!

To maintain our platform while developing new means to foster jazz discovery and connectivity, we need your help. You can become a sustaining member for as little as $20 and in return, we'll immediately hide those pesky ads plus provide access to future articles for a full year. This winning combination vastly improves your AAJ experience and allow us to vigorously build on the pioneering work we first started in 1995. So enjoy an ad-free AAJ experience and help us remain a positive beacon for jazz by making a donation today.