Mark Deutsch Plays the Bazantar on Duo Album With JD Parran
Mark Deustch and JD Parran have joined forces to release California Street Sessions. The eight-track album, which was recorded in San Francisco back in 2011, is a “sonic exploration” featuring free improvisation with hues of Eric Dolphy and Ravi Shankar.
“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,” a press release explains.
Deutsch and Parran are both classically trained improvisers, with Parran playing the contralto clarinet. Deutsch performs on his Bazantar, a heavily modified version of a double bass. It has six strings with 29 sympathetic strings (similar to a sitar) and four drone strings. This results in a range of over six octaves for the melodic portion and five octaves for the sympathetic range. (Get a quick look at the instrument.)
“JD Parran is a fearless free improviser,” Deustch writes. “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.”
Hear the chemistry on the intense and rumbling track “Counting Coup”:
California Street Sessions is available now via Bandcamp.
California Street Sessions Track List:
- Serpentine
- Flock of Juju
- Lunatic Blossom
- Lazuli
- Counting Coup
- Times Square Jesus
- Entanglement
- Golden Gate Noctourne
