A ceremony of the ancient future celebrating a 30 year collaboration between multi-instrumental Horn Master JD Parran & Warrior Poet Michael Castro that began with the St. Louis Black Artist Group & The Human Arts Ensemble in the 1970's. Retelling mythic tales of life death & rebirth with voice, tenor sax, indigenous hand crafted instruments and postmodern techniques. A spontaneous bop kabbalah.
Kokopilau collects works resulting from my friendship of more than thirty years with wind magician J.D. Parran, whose work I've always found inspirational & poetic. We met through the interwoven network of artists associated with BAG and The Human Arts Ensemble, with whom we each performed, living in St. Louis in the 1970's. Separated now by 1000 miles of space, we've continued to engage in creative collaborations whenever the opportunity has arisen.
A Poet Who Died Young commemorates our friend Arthur Brown (1948-1982), who J.D. had known from childhood, and who died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 34, less than a year after being named the recipient of the Missouri Biennial Award for Poetry. Phrasings and imagery woven into the poem echo those in Arthur's work -- e.g. as the poem says, "It was nothing but love, nothing but love."
The Man Who Looked Into Coltrane's Horn recounts a true incident I witnessed at one of Trane's last concerts, shortly before his death in 1967. After meditating on the image for twenty-five years I fleshed it out as poem in 1992. We first performed the piece at Tajine's in New York in 2003. It's our tribute to John Coltrane and "his healing horn."
The Creed of the Seed is from a series of "seed poems" written as text for an exhibit of photographs by my wife & muse Adelia Parker. The images & poems documented a project in which first graders at a city elementary school planted, nurtured, & harvested seeds into pumpkins, & learned about the renewing & transforming qualities of life in the process.
The Kokopilau Cycle is based on Native American myths associated with the Hopi & other Pueblo tribes. Its central figure, popularly known as the humped back flute player, Kokopelli, elaborates the album's seed motif, as he scatters them from his humped back to revive the earth and create a new world. We first performed the piece at the Ear Inn in New York in 1982.
--Michael Castro
First of all I’d like to say thank you to Michael Castro who has given so much to everyone in the St. Louis community. His work with the publishing and performances at River Styx alone represent a huge body of work. With the radio broadcasting work on both ends of Double Helix (KDNA 1969-73, KDHX 1989-2003) we have four decades of service filled in by all the various performances, projects and a full-time teaching career.
With Kokopilau, Michael provided me with the inspiration to do performances using all instruments of non-tempered tuning, handmade with no pads and keywork. This was a breakthrough for me, conceptually.
I collected many such instruments starting in the BAG-AACM era that were referred to and listed on programs and recordings as “little instruments”. Made up mostly by wooden flutes, various whistles and noise percussion they expanded the sound pallet of individuals and groups giving the music that “vibe”…..pushing it toward celebration and ceremony but away from dry formality.
Eventually, Douglas Ewart provided me with an arsenal of bamboo flutes and percussion providing an open-throated, non-tempered, multi-instrumental voice appropriate to the earthy spirituality of Kokopilau. I use a few of them here along with a Rich O’Donnell creation that I call “metallic sprinkles”.
--J.D. Parrran
credits
released January 1, 2008
1. A Poet Who Died Young
[Parran: transverse bamboo flute]
2. The Man Who Looked Into Coltrane’s Horn
[Parran: tenor saxophone]
3. The Creed of the Seed
[Parran: seed pods & transverse bamboo flute]
4. The Kokopilau Cycle
[Parran: metallic sprinkles, bamboo
whiffle flutes, kalimba, ocarina
and triple water ocarina both Mexican,
South Asian finger cymbals, woven straw
shaker, bamboo double transverse flute,
terra cotta double flutes
Castro: Mexican clay flute]
The Kokopilau Cycle: Anubis Studio St. Louis November 17, 1991
The Creed of the Seed and A Poet Who Died Young:
KDHX Radio’s “Poetry Beat” program June 25, 2003
The Man Who Looked Into Coltrane’s Horn:
Blue Jade Audio Mastering January 3, 2005
Engineer: Brad Sarno
Project Mastering: Jay Zelenka, 2007
Cover Art: Michael Franklin
Design: Tony Patti
Produced by Jay Zelenka/Freedonia Music
Freedonia Music was born in 2006 to promote Creative Improvised Music.
Offering a
catalog of archival performances and contemporary recordings of New Music from the heart of the heartlands. Music to wake up your ears!
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