By Any Means

Live at Crescendo

Label: Ayler Country: Sweden

William Parker's amazing, gutsy jazz trio with Charles Gayle on alto sax and Rashied Ali on drums, live in 2007 at the Club Crescendo, Sweden.

"One

We did record By Any Means first time at the Vision Festival in June 2006 in New York. It was an experience to hear the trio live and I'm sure we were many in the audience who felt the same.

The trio had their listening copies of the recording and after a couple of weeks, Charles contacted me and told me that he was not happy with his own playing at the concert and he therefore didn't want the recording to be released.

This was respected by all involved and we agreed to try at a later occasion instead. When I asked Charles why he wasn't satisfied with his playing, he explained that he felt that he had built his solos in various parts which were separated from each other in different levels and sizes -- the desirable structures were not achieved.

Two

A year later, we managed to bring the trio from France for a two-day stay in the city of Norrköping, Sweden, before they went back to France again.

The club Crescendo used to have their weekly concerts on Wednesdays but now we were forced to play on a Friday and we were worried about what the jazz audience would think of this change of day.

However, a good crowd turned up and due to the fact that this was the only concert in Scandinavia, fans came from far away places. All in the audience stayed to the end of the last set after having heard fantastic music. Many people assured that this was a concert which is placed on their top ten lists for sure.

We haven't been able to "drop" and of the songs -- all the music from both sets is here on the CDs. I hope that Charles is satisfied with his playing on this recording. We all who attended the concert are."-Jan Ström, from the liner notes.