MUSIC

Nameless Sound presents Alvin Fielder/Edward "Kidd" Jordan/William Parker, at 8pm Friday, January 20, at the Eldorado Ballroom.

Featuring:
Alvin Fielder (Jackson, MS) – drums
Edward "Kidd" Jordan (pictured, New Orleans) – tenor saxophone
William Parker (NYC) – bass

Alvin Fielder is a pioneering jazz drummer, an important educator, and one of the founding members of the enormously influential Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians cooperative. Born in Meridian, MS in 1935, Fielder studied pharmacology at Texas Southern University from 1953 to 1956. During his years in Houston, he worked with various jazz and R&B groups including the Pluma-Davis Sextet, the house band at the legendary Eldorado Ballroom. He then moved on to Chicago, where he joined an early version of the Sun Ra Arkestra and played with musicians like Roscoe Mitchell, Fred Anderson and Muhal Richard Abrams, with whom he organized the AACM in 1965 and appeared on its debut LP, Roscoe Mitchell’s “Sound” in 1967. Fielder returned home to Mississippi in 1969, where he ran the family pharmacy, worked to desegregate the schools, and developed the Black Arts Music Society. BAMS brought countless jazz improvisers to Jackson and inspired a new generation of the city’s musicians (including a young Cassandra Wilson). In 1975, Fielder began working regularly with New Orleans saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan. The association breathed new life into his career, and since then he’s appeared on a handful of potent and critically acclaimed releases. Fielder’s performances and clinics here in Houston over the past few years are ample evidence that at age 76, this legendary drummer is still at the height of his creative power.

Fielder will be joined by saxophonist Edward “Kidd” Jordan. Kidd Jordan epitomizes the reason why the word "titan" is associated with the tenor saxophone. He effortlessly employs his considerable skills to traverse "inside" and "outside" playing, reminding listeners that true jazz is both deeply rooted in tradition and continuously moving towards the future. Jordan can be found on over thirty recordings and has recorded or performed with such greats as Cannonball Adderley, Ornette Coleman, Ed Blackwell, Ray Charles, Cecil Taylor, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Archie Shepp, and Sun Ra, to name a few. His unquestionable technical mastery (as well as his work as an educator), made him a local legend in New Orleans decades ago; but Jordan is the quintessential "unsung hero". In the 80's he was discovered by the wider audience for avant-garde jazz. Recognized both for as a performer and educator, in 1985 the French Ministry of Culture bestowed knighthood on Jordan as a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, the French government’s highest artistic award for his work as an educator and performer. In 2008, New York’s Vision Festival recognized Jordan with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Performer, composer, poet, and community leader, William Parker has been called "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time." Though he is known for his transcendent music, Parker’s role as a community leader has been equally profound. William Parker grew up in New York City. From as early as he can remember, he was surrounded by the living legends of American jazz. As a teenager, he became the bassist of choice in New York’s legendary “loft scene,” a vital community of groundbreaking musicians. Though he played in dozens of bands for many years (Parker is on hundreds of albums), he made his name in what may be Cecil Taylor’s greatest ensemble. In the 1990’s, Parker began to be recognized as that era’s most important avant-garde jazz artist. Among bass players in the history of jazz, only Charles Mingus could rival him for his significance as a composer and ensemble leader. In 1995, he founded the Vision Festival, the largest and most important festival in avant-garde jazz.