Richard X Bennett - Parker Plays X (2023)

Friends and collaborators Richard X Bennett and Matt Parker heighten their creative relationship with the May 5 release of their album Parker Plays X on BYNK Records (Because You Never Know). The record finds pianist-composer Bennett and saxophonist Parker co-leading a session for the first time as they—along with bassist Adam Armstrong and drummer Julian Edmond—explore a dozen Bennett compositions that range from straight-ahead bebop to avant-garde freakouts to classic jump blues, among other styles.

Both musicians embrace this kind of wide variety, though Bennett is inclined toward music with a groove while Parker prefers free jazz’s boundless experimentation. It was at that confluence of form and freedom that the two came together. “A lot of free players can play wild without actually playing the song,” the pianist recalls of their first meeting. “It was obvious in sixty seconds that Matt had it.”

“It’s a unique experience to take on someone else’s sensibility so intensely,” adds Parker of their musical merger. “I tried internalizing Richard’s melodies and took it from there.”

It’s not just the saxophonist who takes on someone else’s sensibility. The most atonal and challenging pieces on Parker Plays X are not spontaneous free improvisations but premeditated compositions, with Bennett harnessing some of Parker’s “wild” side to his own ends. The explosive “Countertransference” is actually a three-part suite; the frenetic “No Cigarettes No Coffee No Weed No Sleep” is inspired by Parker’s impassioned speech during a late-night phone call to Bennett.

Indisputably, however, Parker also adapts himself to Bennett’s more groove-centered aesthetic. His sonic torrents add momentum to the already rollicking jump blues “Belly First”; his boozy, coarse tenor line gives “Semi Vintage”a dose of appropriately retro swagger; andhis melodic soprano improvisation drives home the high-octane waltz rhythm of “Bus 61.”

The remarkable contributions of Armstrong and Edmond are not to be dismissed. The rhythm players bring crucial shape and dimension to tunes like “Style V Substance” and the cathartic ballad “Two Years Later.” Even so, it’s the piano-and-tenor duet closer, “Sagebrush,” that makes manifest the two-man chemistry at the heart of Parker Plays X.

Richard X Bennett and Matt Parker both made deep connections to jazz in their teenage years. Both made their way to Brooklyn, where they built their careers as wide-ranging improvising musicians. And both are defined by their omnivorous musical appetites and their refusal to be restrained by convention. Their paths to these similar destinations, however, were markedly different.

Arriving in New York in the 1990s, Bennett found himself working with an expansive palette, from blues and jazz to funk and rock. The palette became broader still in the 2000s, when he accompanied his girlfriend (now wife) to India and became entranced by the subcontinent’s raga traditions. He recorded several Indo-jazz albums for Indian record labels.

It wasn’t until 2017 that he released his first jazz album for a U.S. audience: Experiments With Truth, featuring Parker and Armstrong along with baritone saxophonist Lisa Parrott and drummer Alex Wyatt. Five more albums followed, marrying jazz to Indian music and electronica as well as exploring contemporary jazz in itself with his RXB3 trio.

Parker was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where he fell in love with jazz after seeing trumpeter Maynard Ferguson in concert. He was mentored by the legendary South Florida saxophonist Jimmy Cavallo and played professionally as a teenager before moving to New York and studying with Jane Ira Bloom, Barry Harris, and Junior Mance.

Parker was profoundly influenced by avant-garde players along with straight-ahead stalwarts, paying tribute to both on his albums Worlds Put Together (2014) and Present Time (2016). His career has been a wildly eclectic one, with highlights ranging from work with Reggie Workman, Pete Fountain, and the Mingus Big Band to performance with Ariana Grande, membership in the viral ensemble Postmodern Jukebox, and appearances (both musical and on-screen) in the hit action film John Wick.