Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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PARKER, Leon

(b 21 Aug. '65, White Plains, NY) Drummer, composer, leader. He began drumming at age three, played in a school ensemble, studied classical percussion; he decided to abandon the drum kit and concentrate on one cymbal, learning (as the hereditary musicians in African villages must have learned) how to get the whole range of possible sounds from a single source. He worked in quartet Square Root at the Village Vanguard '91, swinging the whole group that way. With the more conventional kit he also worked with Dewey and Joshua Redman, Kenny Barron and others; he was a member of pianist Jacky Terrasson's trio (Blue Note albums incl. debut Jacky Terrasson and Reach), with the superb bassist Ugonna Okegwo. His own first album Above And Below '94 on Epicure (a short- lived Columbia jazz label) and second Belief '96 on Columbia confirmed the emergence of a musician with his own ideas, playing a stripped-down kit and a battery of exotic percussion instruments, creating an individual and other-worldly soundscape with his own memorable themes, but also (for example, on the second album) 'In A Sentimental Mood' samba- style, and 'Close Your Eyes', featuring Steve Wilson's alto sax. Natalie Cushman plays percussion and contibutes vocals on two tracks; 'Calling Out' can only be described as mesmerizing: this is a village one would not wish to leave. The albums are prod. by Joel Dorn, who avoids clutter; Okegwo plays on most tracks on Belief, and other guests incl. Tom Harrell, trombonist Steve Davis, Lisa Parker on flute. Next was Awakening '98.