Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy
is
Jeff Parker
's second album to appear in two months. The first,
Eastside Romp
, was a studio-recorded 2016 trio outing from 2016 on
Rogue Art
. This set was captured live too, during the guitarist's residency at a Los Angeles bar whose name is in reference in
David Foster Wallace
's novel Infinite Jest.
Parker
's quartet includes bassist
Anna Butterss
, drummer
Jay Bellerose
, and saxophonist
Josh Johnson
.
is almost ubiquitous; he has amassed hundreds of credits playing with everyone from
Tortoise
to
Makaya McCraven
in addition to his own albums.
This
Eremite
date includes four long, melodic, groove-based improvisations, titled for the dates they were recorded, between July 2019 and April 2021. They are drawn from more than ten hours of tape and reflect a seamless character in this band's creative process. Constantly evolving, albeit minimally, this is music with no beginning and no end. It could have been sequenced in any way.
The first two sides were captured on July 8, 2019; they total more than 45 minutes. Slow fingerpicking and a delay-pedaled, droning alto introduce it.
Butterss
and
Bellerose
enter with restraint working the two-note vamp.
Johnson
's delay pedals double his horn's sound as
adorns it with muted tom-toms, kick drum, and crash cymbal. The drone eventually opens up and the band starts to breathe, undulating and falling back individually and together. A bit over six minutes in, the vamp shifts.
begins soloing as the rhythm sections locks in. Rather than ratchet the dynamic, they remain loose, circular, and engaging without increasing the force. The second track begins with the rhythm section before
adds a breezy melody and
underscores it with circular arpeggios. The groove pattern emerges as each player explores its nuances in varying tempos. Thirteen minutes in, the rhythm section gets deep and dubwise as
begins circular breathing, using pedals to distort the saxophone's sound.
breaks it up with a measured solo with pedals coloring his lines. This third track was recorded in May 2019. Its sense of drift is initiated by a slow, hypnotic beat from
' droning pattern outlines
's minimal theme. These elements frame
's winding, intricate solo before sax and drums recenter it, transforming its flow; it distantly recalls the early music of
Jon Hassell
. The final section/side recorded in April 2021 is funkier, more fragmental, stranger. Scalar sax patterns meet a slowly cascading downbeat, a punchy, minimal bassline, and
's fingerpicked vamp.
begins extrapolating a repetitive melody, soloing in the breaches.
employs an oscillating wah-wah pedal, effecting a textured ambient middle over skeletal rhythmic accompaniment. When
picks up the pace,
,
, and
join him, establishing a spacy, ethereal funk.
stands apart in
's catalog, it fits his oeuvre aesthetically, but sounds like none of it. This is deeply intuitive, subtly detailed, endlessly grooving, holistic jazz-trance music that was improvised at at an extremely high level. ~ Thom Jurek