Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy

Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy is Jeff Parkers second album to appear in two months. The first, Eastside Romp, was a studio-recorded 2016 trio outing from 2016 on Rogue Art. This set was captured live too, during the guitarists residency at a Los Angeles bar whose name is in reference in David Foster Wallaces novel Infinite Jest. Parkers quartet includes bassist Anna Butterss, drummer Jay Bellerose, and saxophonist Josh Johnson. Parker is almost ubiquitous; he has amassed hundreds of credits playing with everyone from Tortoise to Makaya McCraven in addition to his own albums. This Eremite date includes four long, melodic, groove-based improvisations, titled for the dates they were recorded, between July 2019 and April 2021. They are drawn from more than ten hours of tape and reflect a seamless character in this bands creative process. Constantly evolving, albeit minimally, this is music with no beginning and no end. It could have been sequenced in any way. The first two sides were captured on July 8, 2019; they total more than 45 minutes. Slow fingerpicking and a delay-pedaled, droning alto introduce it. Butterss and Bellerose enter with restraint working the two-note vamp. Johnsons delay pedals double his horns sound as Bellerose adorns it with muted tom-toms, kick drum, and crash cymbal. The drone eventually opens up and the band starts to breathe, undulating and falling back individually and together. A bit over six minutes in, the vamp shifts. Parker begins soloing as the rhythm sections locks in. Rather than ratchet the dynamic, they remain loose, circular, and engaging without increasing the force. The second track begins with the rhythm section before Johnson adds a breezy melody and Parker underscores it with circular arpeggios. The groove pattern emerges as each player explores its nuances in varying tempos. Thirteen minutes in, the rhythm section gets deep and dubwise as Johnson begins circular breathing, using pedals to distort the saxophones sound. Parker breaks it up with a measured solo with pedals coloring his lines. This third track was recorded in May 2019. Its sense of drift is initiated by a slow, hypnotic beat from Bellerose. Butterss droning pattern outlines Johnsons minimal theme. These elements frame Parkers winding, intricate solo before sax and drums recenter it, transforming its flow; it distantly recalls the early music of Jon Hassell. The final section/side recorded in April 2021 is funkier, more fragmental, stranger. Scalar sax patterns meet a slowly cascading downbeat, a punchy, minimal bassline, and Parkers fingerpicked vamp. Johnson begins extrapolating a repetitive melody, soloing in the breaches. Parker employs an oscillating wah-wah pedal, effecting a textured ambient middle over skeletal rhythmic accompaniment. When Bellerose picks up the pace, Butterss, Parker, and Johnson join him, establishing a spacy, ethereal funk. Mondays at The Enfield Tennis Academy stands apart in Parkers catalog, it fits his oeuvre aesthetically, but sounds like none of it. This is deeply intuitive, subtly detailed, endlessly grooving, holistic jazz-trance music that was improvised at at an extremely high level. ~ Thom Jurek