Jeff Parker (solo guitar)

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24

TIME: 5:00-6:00PM

VENUE: AUGUSTANA LUTHERAN CHURCH. 5500 South WOODLAWN AVE.

JEFF PARKER: SUITE FOR MAX BROWN

Jeff Parker is recognized as one of contemporary music’s most versatile and innovative electric guitarists and composers. With a prolific output characterized by musical ideas of angularity and logic, he works in a wide variety of mediums—from pop, rock, and jazz to new music—using ideas informed by innovations and trends in both popular and experimental forms. He creates works that explore and exploit the contrary relationships between tradition and technology, improvisation and composition, and the familiar and the abstract. His sonic palette may employ techniques from sample-based technologies, analog and digital synthesis, and conventional and extended techniques from over 40 years of playing the guitar.

An integral part of what has become known as “The Modern Chicago Sound,” Parker is a long-time member of the influential indie band Tortoise, and is also a founding member of Isotope 217˚ and Chicago Underground. He has worked with artists including Andrew Bird, Meshell Ndegeocello, Joshua Redman, Toumani Diabate, George Lewis, Bennie Maupin, Nicole Mitchell, Peter Erskine, Carmen Lundy, Makaya McCraven, Vijay Iyer, Yo La Tengo, Daniel Lanois, Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Jason Moran, Joey DeFrancesco, Nels Cline, Charles Earland, Ken Vandermark, Dave Douglas, Fred Anderson, Tom Zé, and Clipping, plus countless others. As a film composer, Parker has additionally scored several documentaries and contributed music to feature films and video games.

Called “one of the most formidable solo talents in modern jazz” by London’s Observer, Parker has released several albums as a leader. His latest, a solo album called Suite for Max Brown (2020), debuted at Number 1 on the Billboard Jazz Chart and was included on numerous year-end “Best of” lists, including those from WIRE Magazine, MAGNET Magazine, and The Guardian.