Jason Parker

greg

I discovered Jason by chance when searching new releases on Bandcamp. His latest project is a jazz version of Nick Drake's Five Leaves Left. So far one track is available from Bandcamp - Day is Done - with the remainder due towards the end of March.

Seattle-based trumpet/flugelhorn player and composer Jason Parker has been quietly making a name for himself as a first-call jazz, funk, R&B and rock musician.

It was a visit from Dizzy Gillespie and band to Jason’s elementary school that started him on the path to becoming a musician. 8 year-old Jason worshiped at the feat of Diz for 30 minutes, and immediately asked his parents to buy him a trumpet. He played in jazz and rock bands all throughout high-school and college, but put down the horn after graduation to focus on a career in radio. Starting on the midnight-6am shift at his college radio station in Los Angeles, Jason worked his way through better and better shifts in LA, Eugene and Denver, finally working his way to Program Director of a major adult rock station in Seattle. After winning the prestigious Gavin Award for A3 Major Market Program Director of the Year, Jason walked away from his promising career to turn his attention back to the horn.

Jason has three earlier albums all on Bandcamp and emusic







To find out more about the Nick Drake project go to [url] http://music.oneworkingmusician.com/album/five-leaves-left-a-tribute-to-nick-drake[/url]




Jason also plays with the jazz funk band Water Babies

Water Babies play spontaneously created funk improvisations lovingly designed to have you shakin' your booty. Think Bitches Brew or Headhunters combined with Galactic or The Meters and you'll get an idea....Water Babies is all about the energy and spontaneity of improvised music. We came together as an experiment to see if we could strip away everything we knew about form and chord changes and just ride The Groove. What we have found has exceeded our wildest expectations. All of our songs are one-take improvisations rooted in The Groove which we hope will have you shakin' your thang!

Every one of our shows is full of surprises and unexpected twists and turns. Magical interaction and tight coherence ensues as we develop new musical ideas in every moment. We draw inspiration from each other, from the audience, from the atmosphere of the room, and from our musical forefathers, groups like Herbie Hancock's Headhunters, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew band, Maceo Parker, and Medeski, Martin & Wood.

Above all, we never lose our main focus: To deliver the most distinguished and funky improv grooves we can muster and share the joy that comes from creating magic in each moment.

ScissorMan

Does he actually know the way to blue, or does he just play the song?

jonahpwll

Hey, Jason, saw you're on the site now. When were you out in Denver and what station were you with? Back in the nineties, there seemed to be some good jazz on the radio, or at least good enough that I donated during one of the channel's fund drives.
Heh, now that the memory is starting to return, I don't think I ever got my promised coffee mug as part of my donation, so depending on your work history, you might want to start looking over your kitchen shelves for an appropriate mug to send me, lol.

Jason Parker

@Greg - Wow, my very own thread! Thanks so much for your kind words and support. It really means the world to me every time someone like you takes the time to say nice things about my music. Gives me great hope that indie music is alive and well and there are folks out there willing to support it! And I'm a firm believer in not only streaming full songs, but offering downloads on a pay-what-you-want basis. For too long we've been told what things are worth to us, but how can anyone make that decision for us? I'm much happier to let YOU decide what my music is worth to you. If it's zero, so be it! At least you'll get your money's worth! But if it's more than that, I will always be grateful. As a side note, I've made more money of music sales since going to a PWYW model than I ever did selling them for $10 a pop. MUCH more.

@ScissorMan - I do, in fact, know the Way to Blue...but I ain't tellin'! We all have to find our own way, dontchaknow???

@jonahpwll - You are SO owed a coffee mug! But not by me, sir. I worked at KBCO in Denver/Boulder, which is a rock station. I'm much happier now adays playing music and working at the public jazz station here (http://kplu.org). If you donate I will PERSONALLY ship your mug to you! I also host a podcast called Jazz Now! Seattle (http://jazznowseattle.com) where I play all the great jazz artists in my fair city. Check it out if you get the chance.

Thanks for the warm welcome to the site...I look forward to contributing and getting to know y'all.

Bad Thoughts

And I'm a firm believer in not only streaming full songs, but offering downloads on a pay-what-you-want basis. For too long we've been told what things are worth to us, but how can anyone make that decision for us? I'm much happier to let YOU decide what my music is worth to you. If it's zero, so be it! At least you'll get your money's worth! But if it's more than that, I will always be grateful. As a side note, I've made more money of music sales since going to a PWYW model than I ever did selling them for $10 a pop. MUCH more.

Great to hear that you like PWYW, 'cause when the Nick Drake project is done, I might have to pull a few hundred pennies out of the couch!

Seriously, I'm glad you've shared your thoughts about selling music through Bandcamp. In general thread on Bandcamp offerings, I've ruminated on what artists expect to get from selling their albums thereat. From what I've read on blogs, most people tend to see "name your price" as free. I'm cheap, but no miser. Unless an artist explicitly says they are ok with free, I'll throw a few bucks at them (and even is they're ok, I'll give something).

ScissorMan

Nick Drake is an interesting choice for something like that. When I first saw it, I figured too much would be left out without the lyrics and the voice, and I still sort of feel that way, but even without vocals the songs are still interesting and engaging enough to stand on their own. They sound (on the original albums) like they'd be fairly easy to play too, and indeed it's not too hard to get the chords down, but there's actually some fairly complicated rhythmic stuff going on in there, not to mention the occasional tricky chord-transition... Of course, I also lack talent in general...

I wonder if the Alex Skolnick Trio ever made money off any of their recordings? And apparently there was also a guy named Andy Rehfelt who did this sort of thing too, with commercial rock material, mostly for Youtube I guess (here's his version of Metallica's Enter Sandman, where he went to the trouble of synching his version to a live video of Metallica, presuably for humorous effect).

Oh, and someone should add you to this emusers thread, too!

greg

Yes the Bandcamp model is an interesting one. Because I'm in the UK every time I buy something off Bandcamp priced in $, or Euros for that matter, I have to pay about £2/$3 to use foreign exchange on my credit card, along witrh a poor exchange rate. So if I want to download say a couple of albums by the same artist, I'll get one for free and then bump up my payment for the second one, which takes into account that I've got the earlier one free. It would be so much better if there was a basket where I could pay for several at the same time, because all I am doing is keeping up the profit for my bank. Hence also buying off emusic if the Bandcamp album is available there.

jonahpwll

A tune from Jason's Nick Drake tribute album is being offered as an AAJ free download of the day, here...

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/jazzdownload.php?id=6394

Also, he's been kind enough to offer a cd of his to the site to run as part of the AAJ Contest Give-away series. Not sure exactly when the Parker contest will go up, but I'll update when I find out.

jonahpwll

Wow, crazy the changes a day will make. I have to admit really not liking the Day is Done song when I first heard it. Even on second listen, not so much. The vocals made me recoil a bit; part of that is because I tend not to like vocals in jazz and partly because anything other than Nick Drake's voice is gonna sound strange to me.

Today, it's a rainy day. My Humane Society event got rained out. I've been drinking coffee and sitting in my comfy clothes and listening to music. I'm now officially the AAJ daily download guy as of today and I'm getting caught up on a backlog of work that built up while I was trying to get up and running on the site. I'm creating some AAJ forum threads highlighting free MP3s that I like or like the musicians. I listen to each as I create the thread.

I totally love the Day is Done track. Especially the vocals. Mostly I think it's the rainy day outside my writing room windows and how the weather reminds me of days when Tom Waits tunes perpetually played in my head. This one fit in seamlessly.

I mention this only to celebrate that wonderful quality of music that if you are patient and if the music is truly good, you'll find a way to each other. Pretty cool.

ScissorMan

You're now the guy who sets up the free daily downloads on AAJ? Is that term-based, or do you have that role until you relinquish it? That's a fairly big deal IMO, at least among jazz fans... I'd say congratulations are in order, though I suspect you'll have as many frustrating moments as fun ones. Anyway, good luck with all that!

jonahpwll

Is it a big deal? I hadn't really considered. Mostly I figured it was an additional opportunity to help out on the site as well as provide me with a legit excuse to contact musicians and labels that I enjoy listening to.

I guess I can see how, if I really hustle, how I could put my imprint on things. Huh, I'll have to think about that.

Thanks for the congrats, though. And I think I have the gig indefinitely, just so long as I play well with others (which, I suppose, is an iffy proposition).

Doofy

Very cool, Jonah. I think AAJ's actually a pretty big fish in the relatively small Jazz internet pond. Just remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

jonahpwll

ust remember, with great power comes great responsibility.

I prefer the adage, "With great power comes great power."

I guess I'm on something of a roll. First I become the new Pitchfork and now the AAJ Daily Download Guy.

Tremble, all ye peeps.

greg

Congratulations - I will have to remember to look at the AAJ downloads more often, Jonahpwll! Maybe you could give us a weekly summary, as I know from past expereince they do not dissappear the next day...

jonahpwll

Post moved to different thread.

jonahpwll

Just noticed that Jason Parker has graciously initiated an album give-away contest through AAJ. Contest is open until June 20th, and there'll be five winners.

Here's a link to the AAJ contest page...

http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/news.php?id=81631