CLASH OF THE TITANS
a hero's welcome
wire magazine, 50 records of the year, 1999
wire magazine records of the year 1999, jazz
jazziz magazine critics' picks top ten recordings 1999
coda magazine writers choice top ten recordings 2000
cadence magazine reviewer's choice, top 10 recordings 2000
***(*)
"Two modern giants of the bull fiddle, united in a project of awesome power.
Silva's ambitions to write orchestrally have finally been fulfilled. He used MIDI keyboards & old-fashioned acoustic piano to create a body of sound that occupies a mid-territory between Duke Ellington or Charles Mingus & Edgard Varese. The five relatively brief sections might almost be movements in a romantic symphony, were the language & articulation not so unmistakably American. Parker is by now beyond reproach & beyond categorization: but what is surprising is how thoroughly & how completely Silva still thinks/plays like a bass player, even if nowadays his imagination ranges right across the strings & beyond. The good news is that this is just the first release in a sequence featuring a remarkable modern duo." --cook & morton, penguin guide to jazz on c/d
"Together, Silva & Parker play a music that is stunningly decisive & seamless, gorgeous & dramatic. It grooves like a motherfucker, but it's also highflown, strident & abstract. The multilayered textures immediately reference the classical tradition, suggesting two post-tonal orchestras improvising in real time. The musicians grip each other's lines as intimately & passionately as lovers, but the eloquence remains symphonic... If only swinging the classics - or 'jazz' as some call it - always sounded this succulent." --watson, the wire
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