PARKER, JEFF - Slight Freedom

"2022 repress. The long awaited repress of Slight Freedom, acclaimed guitarist & composer Jeff Parker's first solo album & a New York Times' best albums of 2016 selection, is here. Pressed on premium 120-gram audiophile-quality vinyl by RTI from lacquers cut at sterling sound by Steve Fallone, presented in a retro flipback jacket. Second edition of 1,399 copies. What we said in 2016:

" Slight Freedom, Jeff Parkers first ever solo record, presents the first opportunity to hear the guitarist in fully self-revealed circumstances. Recorded in 2013 and 2014 in the Hollywood Hills as he relocated from Chicago to Los Angeles, Parker combines the dark tonal palette and percussive attack hes known for with real-time processing elements and field recordings, deftly crafting a unique world of solo guitar music - multi-lingual, mysterious, alive with extraordinary sonic events, with a sturdy intelligence in charge and a raw home-style vibe. Jeff Parker is a longtime member of Tortoise. He creates works that explore the contrary relationships between tradition and technology, and improvisation and composition. Slight Freedom is yet another defining moment for Parker in 2016, a year that already includes a brilliant ensemble album (The New Breed) and Tortoises 25th anniversary tour and record (The Catastrophist). Parkers title composition sets the albums cavernous mood. Terse lines and ricocheting loops morph into a gnarly ambient section that resembles Neil Young droning out over a copy of Discreet Music (1975). Parker creates a different sort of ambient space in his take on Frank Oceans Super Rich Kids", bending the melody around a bossa nova rhythm into a Moodsville tone poem. Parker makes an extraordinary long-form statement out of Chad Taylors "Mainz", a piece he first recorded with Taylor and bassist Chris Lopes on the album Bright Light In Winter (2011). Twice the length of the trio recording, the multi-layered soliloquy finds Parker leaping from the high rung to damn near orchestral heights, pushing his techniques and concepts to their breaking points. Its one of the great solo performances youll hear from a musician this year. To say "Lush Life" comes with formidable baggage is an understatement. Parker achieves instant classic status with a rendition that sounds beamed-in from a decommissioned satellite - burned out, covered in space grit, yet still formally nuanced and beautifully reflective of Strayhorns world-weary lyrics." - Eremite.