Polyrhythmic Paradise - Maintaining the philosophy that accompanied PIERCING THE VEIL, volume 1, William Parker & Hamid Drake have painted the landscape of the world of music that is beyond the veil. Together and participating in the group ORGANIC GROOVES, the two musicians demonstrate their mastery of the pulse and the driving force that surrounds it. All of the cuts relate one to one to the cuts on PIERCING THE VEIL. All the more reason to hear the CD as part of a evolution out of jazz to creative improvised music to world music to a well-grounded universal arena.

BLACK CHERRY on aumFidelity takes off from the strum of the acoustic bass strings and the very first hand on the drum through a space in which there is mystery, sensuality, longing and a true to form configuration of confidence and downright bravura. The identity of the instruments blends into one sound: it is not necessary at all to talk about technique, style and those other terms associated with writing about music groups. The music has taken over. The music surrounds you, swallows you, sweeps you off your feet, moves you to dance and become a factor in its appreciation. The imagination that went to shaping this recording is inimitable and equals the range of fearless musicianship that dedicated itself to making the CD happen.

The recording incorporates keyboard electronics into the fold. This incorporation not only magnifies the pulse but also creates indistinguishable layer upon layer of sound integral to the whole. Often, peaks of brightness arise with flutes, trumpet and percussive instruments whose timbral influence bends the atmosphere. The webbed texture expands, contracts, rattles, whistles, sings, squeezes. Not one note or group of notes is out of place; not one instrument is played without a valuable intention.

The recording can be confused with the popular "techno" music. Believe me, it is not. It is far more complex, dense, and truthful to instrumentation than "techno" could ever be, because the richness inherent in it is deep within the musicians behind it. The electronics have been chosen as an indispensable part in the entirety, contributing to the repetition, the dynamics, the inescapability of the music.

BLACK CHERRY is succulent, an experience that is without comparison.

Street Date: March 5, 2002