The place:
The Village Vanguard , New York City, a rainy Sunday night.

The group:
The Leon Parker Quartet - essentially the Jacky Terrasson Trio

(Terrasson on piano, Ugonno Okegwo on bass, and Parker on drums)
plus soprano saxophone player Sam Newsome (who used to play mainly
tenor with Terence Blanchard's group).

The tunes:
Green Chimneys (Monk)
You Don't Know What Love Is
Caravan (Tizol/Ellington)
Belief (Leon Parker)
unnamed encore

The review:

I've been a big fan of Leon Parker since I first saw him perform with Jacky Terrasson in Pittsburgh several years ago, and I've had the good fortune to see him three times since (with DD Jackson in a phenomenal set in Detroit, with Tom Harrell, and with Steve Wilson), but this was myfirst chance to see him lead his own group. What makes Parker so remarkable is a number of little things (a minimalist drum kit, his own distinctive touch on the ride cymbal, great dynamics, hand drumming, perfect time, telepathy with the other musicians) that add up to one of the most creative, original, and thrilling musicians of his generation.

From the start, this was one of the best nights of music I've ever heard, and I had a huge grin on my face most of the evening. A few highlights: at one point during the very fast and hard-swinging rendition of Monk's"Green Chimneys", Terrasson and Parker were locked into a repeated vamp, raising the volume and tempo almost until the breaking point, grinning wildly at each other, until Parker broke the tension and brought it back down. Later, Parker played a six-minute solo piece on a cymbal suspended like a gong by a piece of string from a cymbal stand, using a mallet, a drum stick, his hands, and his body to build a wonderfully innovative and engrossing piece of percussion music that was never boring or repetitive, although he first established a basic beat that he returned to and built on. "Caravan" was primarily a duet with Newsome, with Parker getting new life out of this over-played warhorse by deft and imaginative hand drumming and use of small shakers. Another untitled solo piece was a collection of various percussion techniques including drum sticks on the side of the drums, brushes on his khakis, shakers, cymbals, bass drum, etc etc etc - and all of these tricks and techniques made beautiful, logical musical sense.

The rest of the band was a mixed bag. Ukegwo is perfect for this type of music - he has a very flexible but insistent, swinging, low-note sound, although he's not much of a soloist. Terrasson, as many of you know, is a fast-playing virtuoso who loves to play with the structure of standards. Newsome, though, is merely ordinary: he has a fairly distinctive sound on soprano, but he's not at all a compelling soloist. My mind wandered when he soloed, and I found myself paying much more attention to the rhythm section than to him. Since this rhythm section has been playing together steadily for at least four years, they are a wonderful, intuitive unit together.

For all Parker's imagination and virtuosity, he always plays music, rather than merely playing the drums. He has the confidence and imagination to do anything and make it work, but he never shows off. He is very witty, with lots of funny musical jokes built into his soloing and accompaniment.He only plays loudly when it is necessary to the drama of the music, which makes his loud moments all the more striking. When accompanying a soloist or playing the head to a composition, he keeps perfect time while varying the sound with perfectly timed accents and musical comments. He swings his head off without ever being a metronome. His style is so original as to be surprising, but so logical and clear and beautiful that it seems inevitable. He has no obvious models, but you can hear the history of jazz drumming in his playing.

He's a genius.

Leon Parker!