California Street Sessions
Flock of Juju Suite

This music is a sonic exploration that crosses cultural boundaries with a freedom that surprises and challenges any attempt to categorize. Both musicians are classically trained, free improvisers who started out as Jazz cats from St. Louis, Missouri. JD has been a presence on the Manhattan music scene since the '70s, while Mark eventually headed west and now haunts the Bay Area with his Bazantar. Always taking an opportunity to make music together, they set up this session in San Francisco in 2011 to capture the unique language they had developed over the years. French Impressionism can be heard morphing, becoming a celestial raga, then hurtling into heavy metal screaming as it stumbles hard into a half-recalled dream version of ""Jazz"" to conclude with only hints of a Senegalese groove merchant. This recording's cultural vastness has coherence and freedom of possibility that is vital to its realization and will surprise your ears.

Mark’s take on working with JD

JD Parran is a fearless free improviser. Intuitive, empathetic, and as open to the moment as anyone I have ever created sounds with. I love the bass clarinet. JD has total command of his axe and his hair-raising extended techniques interlace magically with the language I've been developing on the Bazantar. His pitch, timbre, and tonal range are kaleidoscopic and far beyond the conventional. The passion, intelligence, and history behind those chops inspire me to poetry...

The outcome, a mystery...
as the beginning is unexpressed...
becoming... an act of faith.