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Campbell, Roy / William Parker / Zen Matsuura

Visitation Of Spirits - the Pyramid Trio Live, 1985

Campbell, Roy / William Parker / Zen Matsuura: Visitation Of Spirits - the Pyramid Trio Live, 1985 (NoBusiness)

A superb album of 80's free jazz with a warmly lyrical loft influence and filled with jazz reference, from the trio of late trumpeter Roy Campbell, also performing on flugelhorn & flute, late Japanese/NY drummer Takeshi Zen Matsuura and bassist William Parker, in a never-before issued performance at Boston-area Brandeis University for five expansive conversations.
 

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Product Information:

Personnel:



Roy Campbell, Jr.-trumpet, Flugelhorn, flute

William Parker-bass

Zen Matsuura-drums

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Label: NoBusiness
Catalog ID: NBCD 162
Squidco Product Code: 33914

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2023
Country: Lithuania
Packaging: Jewel Case
Recorded 21 February 1985 at The Joint, Usdan Student Center, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA
Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

Artist Biographies

"Roy Sinclair Campbell Jr. (September 29, 1952 - January 9, 2014) was an American trumpeter frequently linked to free jazz, although he also performed rhythm and blues and funk during his career.

Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1952, Campbell was raised in New York City. At the age of fifteen he began learning to play trumpet and soon studied at the Jazz Mobile program along with Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan and Joe Newman. Throughout the 1960s, still unacquainted with the avant-garde movement, Campbell performed in the big bands of the Manhattan Community College. From the 1970s onwards he performed primarily within the context of free jazz, spending some of this period studying with Yusef Lateef.

In the early 1990s Campbell moved to the Netherlands and performed regularly with Klaas Hekman and Don Cherry. In addition to leading his own groups, he performed with Yo La Tengo, William Parker, Peter Brotzmann, Matthew Shipp, and other improvisors. Upon returning to the United States he began leading his group Other Dimensions In Music and also formed the Pyramid Trio, a pianoless trio formed with William Parker. He performed regularly as part of the Festival of New Trumpet Music, which is held annually in New York City.

He died in January 2014 of hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease at the age of 61."

-Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Campbell_Jr.)
6/10/2026

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/)
6/10/2026

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

Drummer Zen Matsuura, aka Takeshi Zen Matsuura, born in Kobe, Hyogo, Japan, performing in New York City starting in the 1980's. He died September 19th, 2015. He was a member of Billy Bang Sextet, Commitment, Roy Campbell Pyramid Trio, and performed with William Parker.

-Squidco 6/10/2026

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


Track Listing:
Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
NY Downtown & Metropolitan Jazz/Improv
Trio Recordings
Parker, William
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