Summer Snow is an album by bassist William Parker and drummer Hamid Drake, which was recorded in 2005 and released on the AUM Fidelity label.[1][2] The album is the second volume of duets by the pair following Piercing the Veil (2001).[3]

Summer Snow
Studio album by
ReleasedApril 10, 2007
RecordedSeptember 21, 2005
StudioSystems Two Studio, Brooklyn, New York City
GenreJazz
Length52:43
LabelAUM Fidelity
AUM 041
ProducerSteven Joerg, William Parker, Hamid Drake
William Parker chronology
For Percy Heath
(2005)
Summer Snow
(2007)
Corn Meal Dance
(2007)

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [4]
PopMatters          [5]
The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings    [6]

In his review for AllMusic, Michael G. Nastos said "The album works as a whole and should be listened to all the way through for maximum enjoyment. All of our natural and otherworldly elements are at the duo's command, whether they be ethnic music sources from Asia, Africa, greater Europe, the Middle East, or the heartland of the U.S.A. This is exactly what one should expect from these masters of creative improvised music, and is delivered in spades".[4]

The All About Jazz review noted "Summer Snow incorporates jazz improvisation into myriad ethnic traditions in a satisfyingly organic way. Blending cultures and aesthetics, this is global music in the truest sense, equal parts uncharted future and primordial past".[7]

The JazzTimes review noted "A duo album by a bassist and drummer might not seem like a good idea, unless you consider that William Parker and Hamid Drake aren’t just a bassist and a drummer—they’re master improvisers with a jazz bias, prone to styles that encompass an assortment of folk traditions".[8]

PopMatters stated "What Parker and Drake do together is less a string of classic jazz duets—the kind of thing, say, that Jim Hall and Bill Evans used to do—than an act of collective groove and sound that happens, almost incidentally, to be performed by jazz musicians".[5]

Track listing

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All compositions by William Parker and Hamid Drake

  1. "Awake, Arise" - 0:23
  2. "Sky" - 7:30
  3. "Earth" - 3:03
  4. "Pahos" - 9:22
  5. "Sifting the Dust" - 3:49
  6. "Edge of Everything" - 3:31
  7. "Traces of the Beloved" - 1:38
  8. "Anaya Dancing" - 3:53
  9. "Konte" - 11:33
  10. "Faces" - 7:18
  11. "Hadra" - 0:43

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ Lopez, R., William Parker sessionography, accessed June 6, 2014
  2. ^ AUM Fidelity catalog, accessed June 6, 2014
  3. ^ AUM Fidelity catalog, accessed June 6, 2014
  4. ^ a b Nastos, Michael G.. William Parker & Hamid Drake - Summer Snow: Review at AllMusic. Retrieved June 6, 2014.
  5. ^ a b Layman, W., PopMatters Review, July 26, 2007
  6. ^ Cook, Richard; Morton, Brian (2008). The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings (9th ed.). Penguin. p. 1130. ISBN 978-0-141-03401-0.
  7. ^ Collins, T., All About Jazz Review, April 13, 2007
  8. ^ Kelsey, C., JazzTimes Review, July/August 2007