The Squid's Ear Magazine


Carter, Daniel / Sabir Mateen / William Parker / Lou Grassi: Keeping It In Context (NoBusiness)

Captured live in the studio in 1996, this powerful quartet brings Daniel Carter on saxophones, flute and trumpet together with Sabir Mateen on saxophones, flute and clarinet, William Parker on bass and Lou Grassi on drums and percussion for three expansive collective improvisations, balancing raw free jazz fire, lyrical exchanges and deep intuition.
 

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Product Information:

Personnel:



Daniel Carter-saxophones, flute, trumpet

Sabir Mateen-saxophones, flute, clarinet

William Parker-bass

Lou Grassi-drums, percussion

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Label: NoBusiness
Catalog ID: NBCD 184
Squidco Product Code: 37458

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2026
Country: Lithuania
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded live at Context Studios on May 20th, 1996, by Alen Had i-Stefanov
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Daniel Carter (born December 28, 1945, in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania) is an American experimental saxophone, flute, clarinet, and trumpet player active mainly in New York City since the early 1970s.

Carter is a prolific performer and has recorded or performed with William Parker, Federico Ughi, DJ Logic, Thurston Moore, Yo La Tengo, Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Sonic Youth, scientist/musician Matthew Putman, Cooper-Moore, Sam Rivers, David S. Ware, Yoko Ono, Living Colour, Medensky Martin and Wood and Jaco Pastorius among others. He is a member of the cooperative free jazz groups TEST and Other Dimensions In Music."

-577 Records (http://www.577records.com/danielcarter/)
6/3/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Sabir Mateen (born April 16, 1951) is a musician and composer from Philadelphia who plays primarily in the avant-garde jazz idiom. He plays tenor and alto saxophone, B♭ and alto clarinet, and flute.

As a young man, Mateen was originally a percussionist, and he started playing flute as a teenager. From there he moved to alto and then tenor saxophone. He started out playing rhythm and blues in the early 1970s which led him to the tenor saxophone chair of the Horace Tapscott Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra. He has performed or recorded with Cecil Taylor, Sunny Murray, William Parker, Alan Silva, Butch and Wilber Morris, Raphe Malik, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Jr., Matthew Shipp, Marc Edwards, Jemeel Moondoc, William Hooker, Henry Grimes, Rashid Bakr, Hamid Drake among others. He also is a member of the band TEST, with Daniel Carter."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabir_Mateen)
6/3/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"William Parker is a bassist, improviser, composer, writer, and educator from New York City, heralded by The Village Voice as, "the most consistently brilliant free jazz bassist of all time."

In addition to recording over 150 albums, he has published six books and taught and mentored hundreds of young musicians and artists.

Parker's current bands include the Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra, In Order to Survive, Raining on the Moon, Stan's Hat Flapping in the Wind, and the Cosmic Mountain Quartet with Hamid Drake, Kidd Jordan, and Cooper-Moore. Throughout his career he has performed with Cecil Taylor, Don Cherry, Milford Graves, and David S. Ware, among others."

-William Parker Website (http://www.williamparker.net/)
6/3/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Lou Grassi is internationally known for his work in both the traditional and the avant-garde jazz worlds. He has literally played from Ragtime to No-Time - he toured with Ragtime pianist Max Morath and is the leader of the Dixie Peppers. He has performed and/or recorded with a wide range of outstanding artists including Marshall Allen, Billy Bang, Borah Bergman, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, The Copascetics, James Garrison, Charles Gayle, Burton Greene, Urbie Green, Gunter Hampel, Johnny Hartman, Fred van Hove, Joseph Jarman, Sheila Jordan, William Parker, Perry Robinson, Roswell Rudd, John Tchicai, and Mark Whitecage. Lou appears on more than 70 recordings including more than 30 as a leader or co-leader.

Lou has toured extensively, performing throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia and Central America. He has been a featured artist at numerous international festivals including The Stork Music Festival, NYC; The Vision Festival, NYC; The Texaco New York Jazz Festival, NYC; The Rochester Jazz Festival, Rochester, NY; Summer's End Music Festival, Middletown, CT; Rive de Gier International Jazz Festival, France; Festas Lisboa, Portugal; CAMP 99, Tubingen, Germany; The Guelph Jazz Festival, Canada, Festival Frei Improvisierter Music, Dresden, Germany, the WIM Festival in Antwerp, Belgium, The Hurta Codell Festival of Improvised Music, Madrid, Spain and Egdefest, Ann Arbor, MI He has also performed at Banlieues Bleues Festival, Paris, France; Luneburg Jazz Nights, Germany; The Bell Atlantic Jazz Festival, NYC and The International Dixieland Festival of Dresden, Germany."

-Lou Grassi Website (http://www.lougrassi.com/LouGrassiShortBio.html)
6/3/2026

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:

In Stock, Not Yet Cataloged
June 2026
Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Collective & Free Improvsation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Quartet Recordings
Parker, William
New in Improvised Music
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The Squid's Ear Magazine

The Squid's Ear Magazine

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